Every 18 Minutes and 2 Seconds One New Zealander Dies!

The Grim Reaper

It’s true, 10 out of 10 people die!

In New Zealand alone there is one death every 18 minutes and 2 seconds. Source: Statistics New Zealand

No one can escape death.  You may spend a fortune on life extension efforts, but death will get you in the end.  The Grim Reaper is relentless.

But you can escape eternal death.  Yes, you can.  I have the word of a gentleman who never told a lie.  His name is Jesus Christ.  His words have lasted and ring out into our cynical 21st Century with the same clarity as they always have.  “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  John 11: 25-26.  I place total credence on His word.  I most certainly have more faith in His word than yours or mine, or any other person, no matter how famous or apparently well qualified.

I earnestly commend Him to you as the only reliable and trustworthy voice.  If Jesus said it, I believe it.  I think you should to.

You don’t know what a day may bring forth.  Your life is fragile and precarious.  The tiniest aneurysm in the brain -and at best you’re a vegetable, at worst you’re dead.  The truth is, you have no strong hold on life, no matter how intellectually, emotionally or physically superior you may feel yourself to be.  Every time you get in the car you have no control over the actions of the driver in front or behind you.  It’s happened before, some clinically depressed or vengeful person decides to end his own life -and takes innocent people with him.  They had no idea when they got up in the morning that some distraught person was going to end their life.  They had plans.  They had money in the bank.  The mortgage was paid off.  Their retirement was secure.  Yet, it happened.

Job put it this way, a person “springs up like a flower and withers away;like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.” Job 14:2

Yet, that same Job had insight and understanding into the grace of God for salvation.  He also said, “I know that my Redeemer  lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another.  How my heart yearns within me!“  Job 19:25-27

Every follower of Jesus Christ knows exactly what Job knew, and feels the same anticipation.  You can too.  Even though death is certain, yet it is possible to have the assurance of eternal salvation.

The barrier to eternal life is sin.  We are all sinners.  We have all sinned and broken God’s laws by either lying, stealing, blaspheming looking on a member of the opposite sex with lust or any one of God’s laws.  Yet, God, in His great love for each one of us made a way of escape from the just punishment for sin.  By taking our place and being punished in our stead, he made it possible for you and I to be forgiven.  The punishment was passed upon Jesus Christ at the Cross.  That’s why He was bruised and battered and nailed to the cross.  That’s why He finally died -He, God the Son, died on the Cross and was separated from the Father -so that we could be reconciled back into the Father’s presence.  That is how salvation works.  As a result we can receive forgiveness for our sins and no longer have to face the awful prospect of eternal separation from God for ever and ever in Hell. You can read more about this wonderful way of salvation here: The Ten Commandments

Right now, though, you can receive this wonderful gift of Eternal Life from the Father by following these 5 simple steps:

1. Admit you are a sinner -you have sinned (broken His law and fallen short of His standard of right and wrong).
2. Ask Him now to forgive you for your sins and be willing to turn away from living your life according to your own standards of right and wrong and accept His standards depending upon Him to help you to do what is right in His sight from now on.
3. Trust Him to forgive you and accept you as a brand new child of God and rely on Him from now on to help you to live for Him from now on.
4. Develop His friendship by consciously cultivating His fellowship and friendship every day of your life for the rest of your life.  This means learning to talk to Him (we call this praying).
5. Practice being good according to the standards and teachings of His Word the Bible.  Read the Bible and treat it as His personal message to you seeking to understand it and apply it to every aspect of your life.

If you are unable to do it now, don’t wait.  Do it as soon as you can because, as I’ve pointed out in this article, every 18 minutes and 2 seconds a New Zealander passes into eternity, often without any assurance of salvation.  What a truly terrible prospect.  Follow Job’s example, and put your trust and faith in the most reliable and trustworthy person in the universe, Jesus Christ.