Escape Plan

My heart is heavy.  There is so much pain in this world, so much violence, so much hopelessness.  It touches every person walking on the face of this planet.  It may be a different situation for different people, but it is always there; pain, violence, hopelessness.  People are hurting.  People are scared.  People are angry.  I see it every time I pick up the newspaper or read the news on my phone app.  I see it when I talk with friends.  I even see it on Facebook.  No one escapes its grasp, no one.  Not in this life anyway.

What we need is an Escape Plan.  We need an Escape Plan that will free us from all of the ugliness of this world and release us into a place full of unending peace, love, and joy; a safe place where everyone lives together in harmony.  When I see and hear of all the violence, I long for that safe place.  I think most people would agree with me on that.

As I was doing my daily Bible reading this morning, God reminded me that there is an Escape Plan.  He has put a marvelous Escape Plan into place for us.  That Escape Plan is two-fold:  an Escape Plan for us here in this world and an Escape Plan for us in the afterlife.

The Escape Plan for this earth does not include a physical removal from the pain and violence but it does include an Escape Plan from the hopelessness.  When we understand God’s Escape Plan for the afterlife, all hopelessness falls away and is replaced by Hope…..Hope for love, peace and joy to fill us on the inside in this life and Hope for love, peace and joy in eternity. 

Galatians 5:16, 22-23 says, “So I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control.”  The Escape Plan in this life fills us with all the good things in life that God wants to bless us with on the inside.

 

The Escape Plan for eternity guarantees us that we will spend eternity in the presence of our Lord.  I Thessalonians 5:9-10 tell us, “For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.” 

And then in I Thessalonians 5:13-17 God gives us a description of what the Escape Plan will look like; “Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.  According to the Lord’s own Word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with the Lord forever.”

Revelation 21 & 22 gives us a description of what life will look like for those who accept the Free gift of eternal life and use the Escape Plan; “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men and He will live with them.  They will be His people and God Himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new.’  I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.  The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.  The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it.  On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there.  The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it.  Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”  Revelation 21:1-5, Revelation 21:22-27

The Lamb’s Book of Life is our Escape Plan.  It is the Escape Plan for all who “confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead”.  Romans 10:9 promises us that our name will be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and we will be saved from the destruction of this evil world if we make this confession.

“BEHOLD, I AM COMING SOON!”

“So be strong and let your heart be courageous, all you who put

your hope in the Lord!”

Psalm 31:24, Revelation 22:12

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