The Lord replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.” ~ Exodus 32:33
“Everything’s set! Friday evening, 7pm,” I told her. It had been a long while since my wife and I last had an evening to ourselves. And this evening was going to be special! A new restaurant had opened up across town a few weeks earlier and was getting rave reviews. But it wasn’t just any restaurant… this place was magnificent. I know this because I stopped by there earlier in the week to make reservations for this special evening. No, I wasn’t going to trust a phone reservation, for it was far too important. Better to show up in person to avoid any mistakes or confusion.
Although my wife didn’t know where I was taking her for dinner, I had talked the place up throughout the week. “You’re gonna love this place,” I told her. “You’ll see!”
So Friday evening rolled around and we made our way through the dozens of people waiting to get in and be seated. I walked up to the hostess at her station and gave her my name and the designated time of our reservation. She looked in the book and suddenly had a puzzling look on her face. “Are you sure you made the reservation for this evening?” she politely asked. “Perhaps you gave a different name?” I confidently replied, “Nope. It’s in there. I watched the young gal put my name down there earlier in the week when I stopped by.” She scanned the page in the book again, then flipped to the next page. “Hold on a sec,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” She then took the book with her and walked away.
A couple minutes passed before she returned with her manager. I knew immediately that something was wrong. “Sir, I regret to inform you that your reservation is for tomorrow night, not tonight. We have no openings available tonight, but we will look forward to seeing you tomorrow evening.” I was completely dumbfounded. “How can this be?” I asked. “I came in during the week and made this appointment in-person just to make sure that I was on the list for tonight, not tomorrow evening!” She apologized for the inconvenience, but once again informed me that I didn’t have a reservation and that they couldn’t accept us.
I had been looking forward to this all week. I had even gotten my wife’s hopes up about how great an evening this was going to be for the both of us. I left there incredibly disappointed and disheartened. And upset. I was so angry that I didn’t bother with letting them know that I wouldn’t be returning the following day.
But as disheartening as this evening was all those years ago, I shudder when contemplating the enormous despair that will be felt on the Day of Judgment for those believing they have reservations in Heaven, but whose names aren’t reserved in the Book of Life.
“There must be some mistake! Are you sure that you’re not confusing me with another John Smith? Can you go get your manager please? This cannot be right! Is there no record of all the kind things I did? All of the people I have helped? All of the money I have donated to good causes, not to mention Your church? Are you serious? You can’t be! Surely, you are joking!”
But Jesus gets the last word. “Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” (Matthew 7:23)
The Bible plainly tells us about what we need to do to inherit eternal life and have our names reserved in the Book of Life. John 3:16 reminds us that “whosoever believes in Him (Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior) will not perish, but have eternal life.”
If you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior today, I encourage you to pray to Him today. Confess your sins to Him, beg for His forgiveness, and affirm to Him that you have accepted Him into your heart and that you need to be saved.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” ~ Matthew 7:13-14
Will you be one of many, or one of only a few?
Former Blackout Artist 