What Should Be on Everyone’s Bucket
List
By Jared
West
***Adapted
from the series “The Bucket List” by Dr. James Merritt.***
Do you have a “Bucket List”? Chances are, you have a list of
things you’d like to do before you die as research suggests 69% of people have
a “list of life’s things to do”.
Research does not indicate the percentage of referees that
would want to officiate a College Football Championship game or Super Bowl, but
I would imagine it would be 100%! But if you removed football officiating from
your bucket list, what else would be on it? Traveling to an exotic location?
Meeting a famous entertainer or sport personality?
So, with your bucket list on your mind, let me ask you a question…Does
your bucket list contain things you would like to do before you die or does it
contain things you need to do before you die? There is a big difference between
the two.
Jesus offered a list of things everyone needs to do before
he or she dies, and the setting for providing this list is a short span of time
(about 6 hours) while he hung from a Roman cross bearing the weight of sin for
all mankind. Jesus made 7 statements while He was crucified, and all 7 were
thing he specifically did or caused to happen.
Indeed, it is the best bucket list of all time, and one that
every human being should accomplish before death. Think of this as the ultimate
bucket list of things that we need to do before we die.
And now, on to the list…
1. We must die with a clean slate by forgiving others who have wronged
us. (Luke 23:34)
2. We must take care of our family before we die. (John 19:25-26)
3. We must accept Jesus’s sacrifice on our behalf. (Matthew 27:45)
4. We must learn to suffer well. (John 19:28)
5. We must accomplish the mission God has set for our life. (John
19:30)
6. We must ensure that we die in the hands of God. (Luke 23:46)
7. We must see ourselves as sinners and make the right choice to accept
Jesus. (Luke 23:42)
The Bible tells us Jesus hung on the cross with criminals on
either side of Him. Jesus hung on the center cross and died for sin. The man to
the right of Jesus was a criminal who deserved death, and yet He accepted Jesus
as savior right before he died. This man died to sin. On the left of Jesus hung
another criminal who refused to recognize Jesus as Lord. Sadly, this man died
in sin.
Three men. Three crosses. Three deaths. However,
we, as humans, are left with only 2 choices in response to these crucifixions.
We can either die in sin or we can die to sin. You have a choice to make. The
criminal who died to sin made the right choice, and this single choice wiped
out once and for all the countless bad choices he had ever made.
