John 5:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

So tomorrow is New Year’s Day. I’ve said before that I really believe the fuss that’s made over the man-made transition of years is really so much nonsense. However, it seems much of the rest of the world doesn’t share my opinion, so that many changes seem to happen at this time of year. Here in America, the income tax counter gets reset, new laws take effect (an estimated 40,000 in 2014!) and many other changes occur.
There is a change the takes place between December 31st and January 1st that even I can’t deny. We step from one day to another. And we cannot step back. James talks about that transition:

Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. (James 4:13-15)

In the last week Myra and I have heard of two deaths. A lady that we knew, a little, died in a sad — but perhaps expected — way. A little girl that we did not know, but who was connected to people we love, was carried off with shocking suddenness by a vicious form of pneumonia. We can say, with some confidence, that we know where each of them is now. The lady was a mature Christian. The infant, we can be assured, was one of the elect

(Al Mohler and Daniel Akin have masterfully addressed this topic. If you would like to read their article it may be found at: http://www.essentialchristianity.com/pages.asp?pageid=31701)

Both of them are in Heaven. Sadly there are many others, friends and family, whose destination — if they passed between one day and the next — is not nearly so certain. There is a transition waiting for all of us — from physical life to physical death and to our eternal destination. We have no control over much to do with the physical transition. We don’t know the how, the where or the when. But strangely we don’t have to be so helpless when it comes to the eternal transition — which is what “passed” in John 5:24 suggests. We can transition, as that older woman did, from a prospect of eternal death to a certainty of eternal life. If we hear Jesus’s word, believe and (which is implied in “hear”) receive it, condemnation passes away and hope steps in.
I said a day or two ago that I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions. I’m going to make an exception. This year I resolve to have another try with some of those friends and family members and see if I can’t say something that makes a difference. How about you.