Know Where You Are Going

by Dewayne Griffin

As most everyone at Mt. Juliet knows, our mission team that recently completed a trip to Ukraine had a horrible experience with their luggage. In fact, most of the VBS materials, along with their personal items took about 11 days to finally arrive. If I have the story correct, there was a problem getting the luggage compartment open when the plane arrived in Athens, Greece. The passengers got off, but the plane returned to the US, carrying the luggage. Even though the team had done all the preliminary work and had completed their packing lists, the luggage still did not arrive at the intended destination, at least at the desired time. During the same time frame as the mission trip, my wife and I made a trip to California. On the flight from Nashville to Los Angeles, my wife shared the story of our mission team's luggage with a lady who was sitting next to her. The lady was an Army Nurse who had traveled all over the world and told us that her luggage was constantly getting lost. We told her that we had been married for 40 years and had traveled extensively, but had never lost any luggage. You know the next line---when the baggage carousel for our flight stopped, one of our bags was missing. We could hardly believe it, after all, we were on a direct flight and all our other bags arrived without a problem. I quickly walked over to the Customer Service office to report my missing bag. The agent took one look at my claim slips and said, "Here's your problem, this bag went to Chicago." You see, I had not checked my claim slips before I left Nashville, I assumed the agent there knew what she was doing and I accepted her work. Never again will I allow my bags to leave my sight until I am sure they are headed for the correct destination.

I think the stories above have a spiritual connection. Our souls are much more important than our luggage. It should thrill us to read from God's Word that Christ came to earth so that we might be saved. Joseph was told that Mary would bring forth a son, and He would be called Jesus, for He would save His people from their sins; Matthew 1:20-21. Jesus, while talking to His disciples in Matthew 18:11 told them He had come to save that which was lost. In John 3:17, the scripture states that God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. The Bible has many other references about our salvation and reassures us that we can know we are saved. The scripture also warns us that we will not be saved if we live contrary to God's Word and His Will.

The apostle Paul told the Philippians in chapter 2, verse 12 to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. We cannot entrust our salvation to the words of others; ministers, elders, parents, or friends. If we truly want to know where we are going we must use God's Word as our guidebook and roadmap, follow His plan and live by His statutes. Lost luggage is a temporary inconvenience. If you lose your soul it is lost for eternity.

• Plan of Salvation - Many aren't Consistent -Jan 25, 2004
• Salvation -Mar 12, 2000