He Will Not Be Seeing You

 

 How would you like to go to the amusement park and not be allowed to ride the latest and greatest ride? How would you feel if you went to the Louvre and they told you that you can’t go in a see the Mona Lisa? What if you went to the theater to see the new blockbuster and they said you won’t be allowed in? Not that the ride was under repair or the section was closed but YOU personally couldn’t go in.  That seems unfair. You would probably demand to know why?  What did I do?

 As we think about that scenario, let’s read Hebrews 12:14: “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”  Here two aspects are commanded to follow, peace with men and sanctification. One might say peace and purity. But notice the important addition, without which no one will see the Lord.

 Now let go back to our setup. If the answer was, “Well you said you were going to try to damage the painting”, or “You violated the park rule and now you are excluded”, it might not seem so unfair. You would be reaping the consequences of your bad behavior.

 The same is true for eternity. If we want to see God, what we do before we get there will make that happen or not. How we treat others (love our neighbor) and maintain our holiness (love God) are major factors in how that will happen. What we do will keep us in or out.

  Anybody would hate to miss the big ride or big movie but that pales in comparison to missing out on heaven.  Let’s make sure our lives are led in a way that does keep put us on the list of people God does not want to see.