When Your Heart Stops

“Get yourselves a new heart.” Ezekiel 18:31When Your Heart Stops ... What a dependable little organ is the human heart! Every day, including Sundays and all holidays, this little engine keeps on pumping nonstop. And it continues even while we sleep. The heart never complains about the weather and never asks for a vacation. It works best when treated well, but continues to serve even when working conditions are stressful. How much we need the heart! If one eye is blind, we can still see with the other. If one ear is deaf, we can hear with the other. If we lose a leg, we can still walk with a crutch. But we only have one heart. While We Live
Our “pumping machine” is about the size of one’s fist and weighs just a little more than half a pound. It beats about 70 times a minute, 4200 times an hour, 100,800 times a day, and 36,792,000 times a year. The heart of a 70-year-old person has beaten over 2.5 billion times. The heart can generate enough energy in 12 hours to lift a 65 ton tank car one foot off the ground. It pumps about 650,000 gallons of blood per year, or enough to fill more than 81 tank cars of 8,000 gallons each. According to one encyclopedia, the heart pumps blood through about 12,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body. That is about the distance from New York City to Hong Kong, China by way of the Panama Canal. Although this organ that keeps our blood constantly circulating can be weakened by disease and abuse, it generally gives excellent, ceaseless service for many years before it finally stops. When that happens we die. When We Die
This brings us to a very personal but very important question: If your heart should stop five minutes from now, would you go to heaven with the redeemed or to hell with the lost? I hope you can say the following with assurance: “Yes, I know that when I die I will go to heaven. I have turned to God in repentance, and received Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I have put my trust in His precious blood shed on Calvary’s cross to atone for my sins. In doing so I have received the gift of God, which is eternal life. So I know I will go to heaven when I die.” But maybe all you can say is this: “No, I do not know where I will go after my heart stops pumping, but I would really like to know for sure.” If this is the case, read on. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). The word “all” includes you and me. In fact, it includes everybody. But the Bible also says that “Christ died for our sins” - yours as well as mine (1 Cor. 15:3).

What We Can Do
To receive God’s free gift of salvation, the Bible says we must trust Jesus Christ as our personal Savior: “As many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (Jn. 1:12). Here’s how to receive Jesus as your Savior: Ask Him to come into your life, to take away your sins, and to help you live for Him? Do this now, and should your heart stop in five minutes, you will know where you will spend eternity. By Fred CowellThe above message is available from us in tract form.