...make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

How high are the stakes? What would you do if you were trapped under a rock in the desert? Would you amputate your own arm like in "127 hours?" How much would you pay for a medication to save your life after a terminal diagnosis? I'm going to assume, most of us would invest a great deal of ourselves in hopes of preserving this human body just a little longer. We have little hesitation in spending $1,500 a month on health insurance or tens of thousands of dollars on a surgery, but hesitate before giving a few hundred dollars to our local church or missionaries. In a life or death situation we'll fight with every ounce of our being to survive, but won't spend the tiny bit of energy it takes to pick up our Bibles each day. And don't hear any judgement in those words because I'm too often living the same way! But I'm trying to change my perspective, to remind myself that eternity is so much more important than however many days I spend on Earth. The stakes are so much higher than I make it seem. As someone who works in the medical field, I can help heal someone for a few decades at best, but a pastor (through the work of the Spirit) can help heal someone forever. One should be much more valuable to the Christian, but is it? As this video highlights, we only have two options that ultimately matter - Heaven or Hell. I want to live like I understand the stakes.

-- Josh Bintz