You live in the shortest part of eternity right now, so decide where you will spend the rest of it. It’s possible to live your life aiming for what seems like a perfect shot at the wrong target: Heaven or Hell.

A perfect shot at the wrong target still misses what matters most.

And That is a powerful picture of life.

A person can work hard, succeed, build a name, help others, and appear to hit every goal.

But when you aim your heart away from God and build your life around self, you still aim at the wrong target.

The wrong target leads to separation from God.

God is love, and making a perfect shot at the right target determines whether you find heaven or hell.

Hell is the absence of His love, His goodness, His peace, and all that flows from His presence.

The right target leads to life with Him forever.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

Heaven is not reached through perfect performance: don’t make the mistake of aiming for a perfect shot at the wrong target for heaven or hell depends on your choices.

It is received through faith in Christ.

Aim your life at the right target.

Choose Jesus.

It is about truth.

Choose heaven with God forever.

Daily Hope every day

The post A Perfect Shot at the Wrong Target: Hell without God or Heaven with God Forever appeared first on God's Hope.

Tim Keller once shared the story of Alice, a woman who endured severe abuse throughout much of her life. Yet despite everything she suffered, she remained loving, joyful, and filled with hope—a hope beyond this life.

When Tim asked how she could still live with such peace, she explained that Jesus would one day make all things right. She believed the broken things of this world would not stay broken forever.

Near the end of her life, Alice fell into a coma and was placed on a respirator. Tim visited her and read John 14:1-3 aloud:

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. I go to prepare a place for you… so you may be with Me where I am.”

As he read, her expression changed. The sadness in her face lifted and became peaceful.

Tim later said:
“What makes heaven heaven is — I’ll be there.”

That is the hope of Christ.
Not the absence of pain in life.
But the presence of Jesus forever.

The post Hope Beyond This Life appeared first on God's Hope.

He Wrapped Himself Around Us

There are moments in life when a story from the world around us becomes a window into the heart of God. Years ago, a skydiving instructor and his student jumped from a plane together. Something went terribly wrong. The parachute failed. In those final seconds, the instructor wrapped himself around his student, taking the full force of the fall so the young man could live.

The student survived.
The instructor gave his life.

When I first read that story, my heart went straight to Jesus. Because this is exactly what He did for us.

We were falling—fast.
Falling through our own sin, our own choices, our own brokenness.
Falling with no parachute, no way to save ourselves, no hope of slowing the descent.

And Jesus didn’t shout instructions from a distance.
He didn’t wait for us to fix ourselves.
He didn’t tell us to try harder or be better.

He wrapped Himself around us.

He stepped into our freefall, took our place, absorbed the impact of everything that should have crushed us. The weight of sin. The judgment we deserved. The separation we could never bridge on our own.

He took it all so we could live.

Just like that instructor, Jesus made a choice:
“I will take the fall so you don’t have to.”

But unlike that brave man, Jesus didn’t stay in the grave.
He rose again so we could rise with Him—into forgiveness, into freedom, into a life we could never earn.

And now, when fear whispers,
when shame tries to pull us down,
when we feel like we’re falling again,
He reminds us:

“I’ve already taken the impact. You are safe in Me.”

This is the Gospel.
This is grace.
This is the love that holds us even when everything else gives way.

The post Skydiving Tragedy and Heroic Sacrifice appeared first on God's Hope.