Scripture passage:
He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars–their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” –Revelation 21:-6-8

God proclaims that he has completed his new creation… “It is done”. The name of God… “The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” His name emphasize his absolute authority and control over the cosmos, his creation.

Salvation is beautifully depicted by the image of drinking at the spring of life. God invites those who sense their need and are drawn toward him to come. Nothing is required except to come and drink.

Those who respond to this invitation and remain loyal to Christ as over-comers will inherit all the new things of the city of God. They will be God’s children, and he will be their Father. This is the essence of salvation– unending, intimate relationship with God himself.

A choice confronts us. This choice must be made because there are two cities: the city of God and the city of Babylon, each with its inhabitants and its destiny. Those who drink from salvation’s springs supplied by God himself are true followers of Christ. The “cowardly” are those who fear persecution arising from faith in Christ. Not having steadfast endurance, they are devoid of faith. Thus they are linked by John to the “unbelieving” and “vile.” They are called “murderers” because they are guilty of the death of the saints. The sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars are those associated with idolatrous practices. By their own choice, Babylon is their eternal home.

Eternal punishment awaits all who do not believe and obey. God is love. Love is his very nature. But this love cannot supersede his righteous judgment. He will judge everyone according to truth and justice. We can be so taken up with the love and compassion of God that we overlook his implacable opposition to all evil. The wrath of God is not a popular subject today, but it looms large in biblical teaching. We overlook this wrath only at our peril. Heaven is the goodness of God. Hell is the severity of God. No ungodly person can bribe the holy, the just and the righteous God out of his or her punishment in the eternal fire. Eternity is a long time to make the wrong choice.

The rich man found himself in a fiery place of torment. Lazarus found himself in the bosom of Abraham. There were ten maidens waiting for the arrival of the Bridegroom. Only five of them could not enter the Wedding Feast. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when the Day of Judgment will come. It will be as in the days of Noah.

Revelation 2:10
“Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”

Be firm, hold fast the faith, confess Christ to the last, and at all hazards, and you will have a crown of life. You will be crowned with life and have an eternal happy existence, though he may suffer and die a temporal death.

It is said of Polycarp that when he was commanded to reject and blaspheme Christ, he firmly answered, “Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me wrong, how then can I blaspheme my king who hath saved me?” He was burnt alive. He suffered cheerfully and died for Christ his Lord and Master.

“If there is a God…”

The existence of God is questioned by some people based on all sorts of trials and suffering across the world. But these things are nothing else but what we philosophically call “life.” Something is wrong with the world. One don’t have to be a great Bible scholar or highly educated or a great thinker to understand that something is wrong with the world. Look around you, the answer may be nearer to you than you thought. The world is ravaged by problems and suffering of all sorts. These are not confined to mankind alone but even nature. Nature is indeed is beautiful but not free from the contamination of sin. The calm rivers can become devastating floods. A volcano can suddenly erupt and destroy whole towns with everyone living in them. Cyclones can ransack towns, farms, and kill both man and animals.

The big question “Why?”

The most common questions often asked to debunk the existence of God are…

“If there is a God, why is he not doing anything about all the human suffering in the world?”

“How can we say there is a loving God when he allows killing, murder, and let innocent little children die in wars or disease or hunger?”

The cause behind the effects

Our worldly problems, trials and difficulties do not mean there is no God. A person becomes ill because something is making him or her sick. Something is terribly wrong with the world. Think logically, there must be a cause behind the effects.

Action and reaction go hand in hand. Through the disobedience of Adam, sin entered man and our relation with God was severed. This is the original sin. Besides this we have a tendency to commit sins. This are personal sins, which is in fact the influence of the original sin.

We are sinners living in a fallen world. Hunger and poverty, personal and social problems, wars and strife, natural disasters and calamities, sickness and death, will always be there with us until the second coming of Christ.

Physical and spiritual death

Sin is our greatest problem. It has corrupted the entire universe. Physical death is inevitable. It will come sooner or later. From distance we were made and to dust we return. Worse than physical death is spiritual death, which is separation from God.

The assurance of faith

In conclusion, faith is the key. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins. And by grace through faith in him we can have eternal life…. reconciled and united with God.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Hebrews 13:14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Romans 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

Faith gives us convictions about creation. Belief in the existence of the world is not faith, nor is it faith when people hold that the world was made out of some preexisting “stuff.” But when we understand that it was the Word of God that produced all things, that is faith.

The visible universe is not sufficient to account for itself. But it is faith, not something material, that assures us that it originated with God. This world is God’s world, and faith assures us that God originated it. Further, nothing is permanent in this troubled and chaotic world. Everything in this world is temporary. We don’t have an enduring home in this world. But it is faith that enables us to see a glimpse of heaven. By faith we are assured of our invisible, permanent, and eternal home. Therein lies our joy, our hope of living in the presence of God for eternity.

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