What if?

What if?

‘AWord From the Pastor’ By Clayton Adams

Over the years, I have conducted hundreds of funerals, many for dear friends and many for folks I never knew. Celebrating and honoring an individual's life is a great challenge and a humbling honor and I hope brings a certain measure of peace, hope and love to each family.

As I have celebrated and honored people in this setting, the thought, “What if…” has entered my mind while thinking about each life. “What if” has spurred many people on to great discoveries and thrills in life for what is life but to dream and be?

Unfortunately, “what if” has kept many more people from living wonderful, exciting and fulfilling lives. I have often wondered if another choice could have been better, perhaps even changed a persons legacy – perhaps you have questioned this too.

What if we had no curiosity, no desire to accomplish, no desire to explore, test, verify, experiment, what if no one ever challenged the status quo?

What if, as John Lennon sang, “there was no heaven, no hell and nothing to live or die for.” What if this song is correct? While I understand the sentiment and appreciate Rolling Stone magazine describing “Imagine” as Lennon's “greatest musical gift to the world.” What if the song is wrong?

What if, as it is recorded in God's Word that He did “create” people and that He does “know” us before we were conceived in our mother's womb? (Psalm 139:13 and Jeremiah 1:5) What if, as it says in Ephesians chapter two that God “prepared good works” for us to perform long before the earth was ever formed? (Ephesians 2:10) What if God is a living Spirit, active in the affairs of His creation? What if the Bible is right when it says, “And in as much as it is appointed for men to die once, after this comes judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27) What if life after death is very real and how we choose to live our lives in this physical world determines where we spend eternity in the spiritual world — with or without God? What if, you choose not to ask Christ to forgive your sin? What if you ask for forgiveness but continue to live as you have always lived?

What if you knew and believed that the choices you make always influence others? Our choices always affect others — always.

What if you knew your life matters — every life matters, regardless of color, because we are inextricably linked together. God said in Genesis 1:26, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” Your life matters because God created you, He knows you, He has a purpose, plan and an eternal future for each one of us!

What if the Bible as it states in Romans 10:9-10 that for any and all people to have eternal life with God all one has to do is ask Christ to forgive ones sins and believe that God raised Christ from the dead? What if we do this?

What if we don't do this?

What if…?

Clayton Adams is pastor at Earle First Assembly of God. You can e- mail him at cpalaa@ yahoo. com, or find Earle First Assembly on Facebook.