One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
In the summer of 1985, my brother Joe and I led a 6 week sports-evangelism trip to Bolivia, South America. We traveled all over the country seeking to draw crowds to basketball games and then using these events to share our faith and to distribute evangelical literature produced by local churches.
Bolivia is one of the most underdeveloped nations in the world and travel was sometimes quite difficult and conditions somewhat arduous. During one stretch of the trip we traveled into the area known as the “altiplano” – or “high plains” – in the remote western frontier of Bolivia. The region is about 9,000 feet above sea level and extremely desolate. Over a stretch of 32 hours we played 3 games in three small cities on about 4 hours of sleep. We had no clean water to drink and relied on bottled soft drinks. The only meal we had was made up of a few scraps of bread, some fried eggs and some dangerous looking sausage. We had no showers, no change of clothes and slept on the trains that took us from town to town each night.
As we boarded the train for the last all night ride, we were tired, hungry, smelly and had spectacularly bad attitudes! It was cold enough on the train that night that the next morning the inside of the windows were coated with ice. My brother and I got into a seat together, covered ourselves in our sleeping bags like a great human cocoon – and tried to sleep. In the middle of the night, while in a fitful state of semi-consciousness, I became aware of a pitiful whimpering sound. As I came to my senses I realized that the sound was coming from my brother – one of the toughest and most fearless men I have ever known – who was crying in his sleep. While I’ve never let him forget that moment of weakness – it was indeed an uncomfortable train ride!
We pulled into a town called Oruru at about 3:30 in the morning. We dragged all our gear off the train and tried to flag down enough taxis to take our team to what we were absolutely sure would be another cockroach-infested third world hotel with no food, no heat, no showers and mattresses stuffed with straw. In fact, Joe and I were so sure of this that we let all the other guys go on ahead of us because it really didn’t make much difference if we were cold, tired and hungry at the train station – or cold, tired and hungry at the hotel!
So imagine our shock and disbelief when our taxi finally pulled up in front of a five-story, state-of-the-art modern hotel! I’m talking Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Hyatt Regency! The glowing neon sign said, “Hotel Terminal” – we couldn’t believe our eyes! Within minutes we were standing under steaming hot showers and within an hour were dining on steaks for breakfast! It was like going from hell to heaven in a 5 minute cab ride!
In the more than 25 years since that trip – I have thought about and told the story dozens and dozens of times. And I have often wondered what the trip would have been like if I had known Hotel Terminal was waiting for us? I think it would have made a profound difference in my experience of the lousy food, long train rides, and bone chilling cold. I think my brother and I would have been telling our team every day – “Hey guys, hang on – Hotel Terminal is waiting for us – it will all be worth it then – trust us!”
In a sense that’s what Jesus tells the dying thief.
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
And that’s what he tells us! Yes, today we may suffer. Yes, someday we are going to die. But, hang on, Hotel Terminal is coming! Heaven is greater joy, greater peace, greater pleasure, greater love than we can imagine. Heaven is real. And Jesus himself is preparing a place for you even now. This is our hope. And even though this hope is anchored in the future that we cannot see – because this hope is certain, it rushed back into our present and our present troubles – and fills us with strength, endurance and anticipation.
May this hope be yours today!
Brian Coffey
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
In the summer of 1985, my brother Joe and I led a 6 week sports-evangelism trip to Bolivia, South America. We traveled all over the country seeking to draw crowds to basketball games and then using these events to share our faith and to distribute evangelical literature produced by local churches.
Bolivia is one of the most underdeveloped nations in the world and travel was sometimes quite difficult and conditions somewhat arduous. During one stretch of the trip we traveled into the area known as the “altiplano” – or “high plains” – in the remote western frontier of Bolivia. The region is about 9,000 feet above sea level and extremely desolate. Over a stretch of 32 hours we played 3 games in three small cities on about 4 hours of sleep. We had no clean water to drink and relied on bottled soft drinks. The only meal we had was made up of a few scraps of bread, some fried eggs and some dangerous looking sausage. We had no showers, no change of clothes and slept on the trains that took us from town to town each night.
As we boarded the train for the last all night ride, we were tired, hungry, smelly and had spectacularly bad attitudes! It was cold enough on the train that night that the next morning the inside of the windows were coated with ice. My brother and I got into a seat together, covered ourselves in our sleeping bags like a great human cocoon – and tried to sleep. In the middle of the night, while in a fitful state of semi-consciousness, I became aware of a pitiful whimpering sound. As I came to my senses I realized that the sound was coming from my brother – one of the toughest and most fearless men I have ever known – who was crying in his sleep. While I’ve never let him forget that moment of weakness – it was indeed an uncomfortable train ride!
We pulled into a town called Oruru at about 3:30 in the morning. We dragged all our gear off the train and tried to flag down enough taxis to take our team to what we were absolutely sure would be another cockroach-infested third world hotel with no food, no heat, no showers and mattresses stuffed with straw. In fact, Joe and I were so sure of this that we let all the other guys go on ahead of us because it really didn’t make much difference if we were cold, tired and hungry at the train station – or cold, tired and hungry at the hotel!
So imagine our shock and disbelief when our taxi finally pulled up in front of a five-story, state-of-the-art modern hotel! I’m talking Holiday Inn, Comfort Inn, Hyatt Regency! The glowing neon sign said, “Hotel Terminal” – we couldn’t believe our eyes! Within minutes we were standing under steaming hot showers and within an hour were dining on steaks for breakfast! It was like going from hell to heaven in a 5 minute cab ride!
In the more than 25 years since that trip – I have thought about and told the story dozens and dozens of times. And I have often wondered what the trip would have been like if I had known Hotel Terminal was waiting for us? I think it would have made a profound difference in my experience of the lousy food, long train rides, and bone chilling cold. I think my brother and I would have been telling our team every day – “Hey guys, hang on – Hotel Terminal is waiting for us – it will all be worth it then – trust us!”
In a sense that’s what Jesus tells the dying thief.
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
And that’s what he tells us! Yes, today we may suffer. Yes, someday we are going to die. But, hang on, Hotel Terminal is coming! Heaven is greater joy, greater peace, greater pleasure, greater love than we can imagine. Heaven is real. And Jesus himself is preparing a place for you even now. This is our hope. And even though this hope is anchored in the future that we cannot see – because this hope is certain, it rushed back into our present and our present troubles – and fills us with strength, endurance and anticipation.
May this hope be yours today!
Brian Coffey
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1 comment:
Praise the Lord for making a way for hopeless sinners like us to be able to, someday, go to our very own "Hotel Terminal!" Hang on! It's coming!
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