The Hot Zone

Contrary to what you are thinking we’re not talking about Fiji or Guinea. Although, come the winter equinox things could certainly change southward. What we are referring to is that part deep in your skull that tells you not to put your hand on a hot stove top because the intense pain will result in a very high pitched scream emanating from your vocal cords to stop what you’re doing immediately! In short, if you can’t stand the pain, refrain!

People like to say that they can’t understand the Bible because they just can’t absorb all that information and most of it doesn’t apply to them anyway. That’s amusing because all manner of people from migrant day workers to neurosurgeons have read, understood, and applied the Bible to their everyday lives and the results show that they are calmer, focused, and hopeful as they contemplate the certainty of death.

“I tell you the truth; whosoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.” John 5:24

Jesus himself spoke these words to whosoever takes the trouble to listen.

“Eternal life”—living forever with God—starts when you accept Jesus Christ as Savior. At that moment, new life begins in you.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 It is a completed transaction. You will face physical death, but when Christ returns again, which he will, your body will be resurrected to live forever.

Please read 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Here’s a little mystery that the Lord let’s you in on:

“I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” 1 Corinthians 15:50-52

All believers will go to Christ—we will not have to die but will be transformed immediately. Death will have been swallowed up. No “Hot Zone” for Christian believers.

Medical science has come light years and it would behoove us to listen up. The Temporal Lobe contains the hearing center. The auditory Cortex is responsible for the processing of auditory information. The Corpus Callosum is responsible for communications between the different hemispheres of the brain. The Frontal Lobe controls planning, judgment, and conceptualization. Finally, the Cerebellum helps with cognitive functions. Put it all together and it means that when you hear the plan of salvation from someone, you just might want to give a listen and learn. There’s really ‘no other way’ to be a safe distance from the “Hot Zone”! Speaking of ‘no other way’; there’s a gentle reminder in the old hymn “Trust and Obey” written in 1887 by John Sammis which he conveys:

When we walk with the Lord, In the light of his word, What a glory he sheds on our way!

While we do his good will, He abides with us still, And with all who will trust and obey. Refrain: Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.