My “Honey- Do-List” grows longer every day. In fact the list is now so long that I need to write it down on something but I’ll have to put that on the list as well. I’m not sure when the list was born, maybe sometime in the late 1980s, I think but I’ll have to check my list. At present I am anticipating the list will end in an apocalyptic crescendo.
Now there are all sorts of lists: Colleges have a Dean’s list, There are grocery lists, all children want to be on the right column of Santa’s list, there are lists of questions as well as answers, lists of suggestions, bucket lists, suspect lists, reading lists and in fact so many lists that I’m having trouble listing them all. If you can think of it then you can list it.
You can find lists everywhere, too. Originally, when they were first invented by Adam’s wife Eve, they were pressed into soft tablets of clay where they could be modified with additions and subtractions as needed. When paper and pencils came onto the scene lists started popping up everywhere. Soon pop up notes or stickies, carelessly scribbled on pieces of scratch paper, and were multiplying faster than the plague. Now my phone digitally stores my lists electronically, and reminds me every day that an apocalypse is on the horizon.
Disasters too have several lists which list missing persons, the dead as well as survivors. There are even some lists that have been etched into granite monuments in order to withstand the test of time. These sacred monuments list the names of massacred victims or fallen soldiers who died while fighting for freedom.
Bakers need lists of ingredients, police need lists of suspects, bankers need lists of assets, baseball coaches need batting lists, astronauts need check lists and even the President of the United States needs lists…on second thought maybe we better truncate and scratch him off the list.
Even almighty God made a list once. He made a list of Ten Commandments that would help all mankind to live peacefully with each other in the safety of their communities. This list was inscribed by the finger of God, on tablets of stone, and given to Moses to take to the children of Israel. Unfortunately, upon his return, Moses broke that list when He discovered the children of Israel had made a golden calf and were worshipping it. However, let us not be too hard on Moses as we too have all broken at least one of those listed commandments. Be careful, what your next thought is, because if you think you have not transgressed then God says you’re a lair too.
There is one list of names that is paramount to be listed on. It’s not a list where one is waiting for a table or honored for some achievement. This list was not written down using quill and ink on fragile paper or chiseled into a solid granite block. This list is not digitally rendered but exists outside of our own physical realm beyond the destructive reach of moth and rust.
This list is eternal. It is a heavenly list that records the names of people who, while are still in the land of the living, made their own freewill choice to trust in the Lamb of God. They asked to receive this free gift of forgiveness from God. It’s through the power of His Son’s blood that saves us from long lists of evil, destructive things that we have done while here on earth.
You can’t be willed in, grandfathered in or bought into getting on this list. It’s really just a list of names who have been invited to a heavenly wedding, one that will have no wedding crashers. Of all the lists ever created in this world, things to buy or things to get, this is a list that you will want to be on when your days on this world are complete.
The Lamb’s Book of Life is the list of all lists. It is sealed, limited, and exclusive and was not written with human hands but with the blood of God’s own Son, Christ Jesus. By the way, you cannot earn your way onto this list; you cannot work hard enough, strive or pay to be on this list and forget about cheating to get on that just is not going to happen.
Bob Dylan once wrote “People get ready there is a train that’s coming. You don’t need no ticket, you just get on board.” While many churches are striving to live lives of purity, thinking that that will save them, they are deadly wrong! Salvation is a gift from God and not of works so that men will not boast.