What About Christianity?

On February 24, 2005, a nine-year-old girl was reported missing from her home in Homosassa, Florida. Three weeks later, police discovered
that she had been kidnapped, brutally raped, and then buried alive. Little Jessica Lunsford was found tied up, in a kneeling position, clutching a stuffed toy.

HOW DO YOU REACT?

(more on that later) Read on……..

THE CHOICE

Imagine I offered you a choice of four gifts:

● The original Mona Lisa
● The keys to a brand new Lamborghini
● A million dollars in cash
● A parachute

You can pick only one. Which would you
choose?

Before you decide, here’s some information that will help you to make the wisest
choice: You have to jump 10,000 feet out of an airplane.

Does that help you to connect the dots? It should, because you need the parachute. It’s the only one of the four gifts that will help with your dilemma. The others may have some value, but they are useless when it comes to
facing the law of gravity in a 10,000-foot fall.
The knowledge that you will have to jump should produce a healthy fear in you—and that kind of fear is good because it can save your life. Remember that.

Now think of the four major religions:
● Hinduism
● Buddhism
● Islam
● Christianity

Which one should you choose?

Before you decide, here’s some information that will help you determine which one is the wisest choice: All of humanity stands on the edge of eternity. We are all going to die. We will all have to pass through the door of death. It could happen to us in twenty years, or in six months, . . . or today. For most of humanity,
death is a huge and terrifying plummet into the unknown. So what should we do?

Do you remember how it was your knowledge of the jump that produced that healthy fear, and that fear helped you to make the right choice? You know what the law of gravity can do to you. In the same way, we are going to look at another law, and hopefully your knowledge of what it can do to you will help you
make the right choice, about life’s greatest issue.

So, stay with me—and remember to let fear work for you.

THE LEAP

After we die we have to face what is called “the law of sin and death.”
We know that Law as
“The Ten Commandments.”

So let’s look at that Law and see how you will do when you face it on Judgment Day.

Have you loved God above all else? Is He first in your life? He should be. He’s given you your life and everything that is dear to you. Do you love Him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength? That’s the requirement of the First Commandment.

Or have you broken the Second Commandment by making a god in your mind that you’re comfortable with—where you say, “My God isn’t a God of wrath,
he’s a God of love and mercy”?
That god does not exist; he’s a figment of the imagination.
To create a god in your mind (your own image of
God) is something the Bible calls “idolatry.”
Idolaters will not enter Heaven.

Have you ever used God’s name in vain, as a cuss word to express disgust? That’s called “blasphemy,” and it’s very serious in God’s sight.
This is breaking the Third Commandment, and the Bible says God will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Have you always honored your parents implicitly, and kept the Sabbath holy? If not, you have broken the Fourth and Fifth Commandments.

Have you ever hated someone?
The Bible says, “Whosoever hates his brother is
a murderer.”
The Seventh is “You shall not commit adultery,”
but Jesus said, “Whosoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart”

(the Seventh Commandment includes sex before marriage).

Have you ever looked with lust or had sex outside of marriage? If you have, you’ve violated that Commandment.

Have you ever lied? Ever stolen anything,regardless of value? If you have, then you’re a
lying thief. The Bible tells us, “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord,” because He is a God of truth and holiness. Have you coveted (jealously desired) other people’s things? This is a violation of the Tenth Commandment.
See Revelation 21:8; 1 Corinthians 6:9,10.

LITTLE JESSICA

So that is God’s moral Law that we each will face. We will be without excuse when we stand before God because He gave us our conscience to know right from wrong.

Each time we lie, steal, commit adultery, murder, and so on, we
know that it’s wrong. So here is the crucial question. On Judgment Day, when God judges you, will you be found innocent or guilty of breaking this Law?

Think before you answer.

Will you go to Heaven or Hell? The Bible warns that all murderers, idolaters, liars, thieves, fornicators, and adulterers will end up in Hell.

So where does that leave you?

Perhaps the thought of going to Hell doesn’t scare you, because you don’t believe in it. That’s like standing in the open door of a plane 10,000 feet off the ground and saying, “I don’t believe there will be any consequences if I
jump without a parachute.”
To say that there will be no consequences for breaking God’s Law is to say that God is unjust, that He is evil.

This is why.

Little Jessica Lunsford.

Remember her?

Do you think that God is indifferent to such acts of evil?

HOW DO YOU REACT?

How do you feel toward the man who murdered that helpless little girl in such an unspeakably cruel way? Are you angered? I hope so. I hope you are outraged. If you were completely indifferent to her fate, it would reveal something horrible about your character.
Do you think that God is indifferent to such acts of evil?

He is not.
He is outraged by them.

If He wasn’t angered, He wouldn’t be good. We cannot separate God’s goodness from His anger. Again, if God is good by nature, He must be unspeakably angry at wickedness.
But His goodness is so great that His anger isn’t confined to the evils of rape and
murder. Nothing is hidden from His pure and holy eyes. He is outraged by
torture, terrorism, abortion, theft, lying, adultery, fornication, pedophilia, homosexuality, and blasphemy. He also sees our thought-life, and He will judge us for the hidden sins of the heart: for lust, hatred, rebellion, greed, unclean
imaginations, ingratitude, selfishness, jealousy, pride, envy, deceit, etc.

Sinning against God comes naturally to us—and we naturally earn His anger by our sins.

God
is not a benevolent Father-figure, who is happily smiling upon sinful humanity.
In the midst of these frightening thoughts, remember to let fear work for you.

The fear of God is the healthiest fear you can have. The Bible calls it “the beginning of wisdom.”

Again, your knowledge of God’s Law should help you to see that you have a life-threatening dilemma: a huge problem of God’s wrath (His justifiable
anger) against your personal sins.

Like the rest of us, you’ve no doubt broken all these laws, countless times each. What kind of anger do you think a judge is justified in
having toward a criminal guilty of breaking the law thousands of times?

LET’ S SEE

Let’s now look at those four major religions to see if they can help you with your predicament.

Hinduism
The religion of Hinduism says that if you’ve been bad, you may come back as a rat or some other animal.

If you’ve been good, you might come back as a prince. But that’s like someone
saying, “When you jump out of the plane, you’ll get sucked back in as another passenger. If you’ve been bad, you go down to the Economy
Class; if you’ve been good, you go up to First Class.”

It’s an interesting concept, but it doesn’t deal with your real problem of having
sinned against God and the reality of Hell.

Buddhism
Amazingly, the religion of Buddhism denies that God even exists. It teaches that life and death are sort of an illusion.

That’s like standing at the door of the plane and saying, “I’m not really
here, and there’s no such thing as the law of gravity, and no ground that I’m going to hit.”
That may temporarily help you deal with your fears, but it doesn’t square with reality. And it doesn’t deal with your real problem of having sinned against God and the reality of Hell.

Islam
Interestingly, Islam acknowledges the reality of sin and Hell, and the justice of God, but the hope it offers is that sinners can escape God’s
justice if they do religious works. God will see these, and because of them, hopefully He will show mercy—but they won’t know for sure.

Each person’s works will be weighed on the Day of Judgment and it will then be decided who is saved and who is not—based on whether they followed Islam, were sincere in repentance, and performed enough righteous deeds to outweigh
their bad ones.

So Islam believes you can earn God’s mercy by your own efforts. That’s like jumping out of the plane, and believing that flapping your arms
is going to counter the law of gravity and save you from a 10,000-foot drop.
And there’s something else to consider.
The Law of God shows us that the best of us is nothing but a wicked criminal, standing guilty and condemned before the throne of a perfect
and holy Judge. When that is understood, then our “righteous deeds” are actually seen as an attempt to bribe the Judge of the Universe.


The Bible says that because of our guilt, anything we offer God for our justification (our acquittal from His courtroom) is an abomination to Him,and only adds to our crimes.

Islam, like the other religions, doesn’t solve your problem of having sinned against God and the reality of Hell.


So then there is
Christianity
So why is Christianity different? Aren’t all religions the same? Let’s see.

In Christianity, God Himself provided a “parachute” for us, and His Word says regarding the Savior, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Just as a parachute solved your dilemma with the law of gravity and its
consequences, so the Savior perfectly solves your dilemma with the Law of God and its consequences!

It is the missing puzzle-piece that you need.

How did God solve our dilemma? He satisfied His wrath by becoming a human being and taking our punishment upon Himself. The Scriptures tell us that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Christianity provides the only parachute to save us from the consequences of the Law we have transgressed.

BACK TO THE PLANE

To illustrate this more clearly, let’s go back to that plane for a moment.

You are standing on the edge of a 10,000-foot drop. You have to jump.
Your heart is thumping in your chest. Why?

Because of fear. You know that the law of gravity will kill you when you jump.

Someone offers you the original Mona Lisa.
You push it aside.
Another person passes you the keys to a brand new Lamborghini. You let them drop to the floor.

Someone else tries to put a million dollars into your hands. You push the person’s hand away, and stand there in horror at your impending fate.
Suddenly, you hear a voice say, “Here’s a parachute!”

Which one of those four people is going to hold
the most credibility in your eyes?

It’s the one who held up the parachute! Again, it is your fear of
the jump that turns you toward the good news of the parachute.

In the same way, knowledge of what God’s Law will do to you produces a fear that makes the news of a Savior unspeakably good news!

Jesus of Nazareth died an excruciating death on the cross, taking your punishment (the death penalty) upon Himself. The demands of eternal
justice were satisfied the moment He cried, “It is finished!”

The lightning of God’s wrath was stopped and the thunder of His indignation was silenced at Calvary’s cross:
He became a man to pay our penalty in His life’s blood.
Then He rose from the dead, defeating death.

That means that God can now forgive every sin you have ever committed and commute your death sentence.

God Himself can “justify” you. He can cleanse you, and give you the “righteousness” of Christ. He can make you pure in heart by washing
away your sins. He can shelter you from His fierce wrath, in the Rock of Ages that He has cleft for you.

Only Jesus can save you from death and Hell, something that you could never earn or deserve.

“For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).

DO IT TODAY

To receive the gift of eternal life, you must repent
of your sins (turn from them), and put on the Lord Jesus Christ as you would put on a parachute—trusting in Him alone for your salvation.
That means you forsake your own good works as a means of trying to please God (trying to bribe Him), and trust only in what Jesus has done for you. Simply throw yourself on the mercy of the Judge. The Bible says that He’s rich in mercy to all who call upon Him, so call upon Him right now. He will hear you if you approach Him with a humble and sorrowful heart.
Do it right now because you don’t know when you will take that leap through the door of death. Confess your sins to God, put your trust in Jesus to save you, and you will pass from death to life. You have God’s promise on it.

For the scripture saiths, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:12,13).


Pray something like this:
“Dear God, today I turn away from all
of my sins [name them] and I put my
trust in Jesus Christ alone as my Lord
and Savior. Please forgive me, change
my heart, and grant me Your gift of
everlasting life. In Jesus’ name I pray.
Amen.”


Now have faith in God. He is absolutely trustworthy. Never doubt His promises. He is not a man that He should lie.
The sincerity of your prayer will be evidenced by your obedience to God’s will, so read His Word (the Bible) daily and obey what you read.

“He that hath my commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loves me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).

—there’s nothing more important than where they will spend eternity.

Thank you for reading this.



Adapted & Edited from a tract by Ray Comfort,
P.O. Box 1172, Bellflower, CA 90706
visit www.livingwaters.com

Which way today (sad to say)

Backward Christian Soldiers


Backward Christian soldiers, fleeing from the fight
With the cross of Jesus nearly out of sight.
Christ, our rightful master, stands against the foe
But forward into battle, we are loathe to go.


Like a mighty tortoise moves the Church of God
Brothers we are treading where we've always trod.
We are much divided, many bodies we
Having many doctrines, not much charity.


Crowns and thorns may perish, kingdoms rise and wane,
But the Church of Jesus hidden does remain.
Gates of hell should never 'gainst the Church prevail
We have Christ's own promise, but think that it will fail.


Sit here then ye people, join our useless throng
Blend with ours your voices in a feeble song.
Blessings, ease and comfort, ask from Christ the King
With our modern thinking, we don't do a thing.



(Anonymous)

The Subject and Sum of Scripture

'CHRIST in All the Book"

I see my LORD in the Bible
Whenever I chance to look.
HE is the theme of the Bible,
The center and heart of the Book.

HE is in the Book's beginning,
HE gave the earth it's form.
HE is the Ark of Safety
To bear the brunt of the storm.

HE's the burning Bush in the desert,
Then the budding of Aaron's rod.
Whenever I open the Bible
I see the Son of GOD!

HE is the Rose of Sharon,
HE is the Lily Fair.
Whenever I open the Bible
The LORD of the Bible is there!

HE's the Lamb upon Mt. Moriah
HE's the Ladder from earth to sky.
HE's the Scarlet Cord in the window
And the Serpent lifted high.

HE's the Smitten Rock of the desert
The Shepherd with staff and crook
It's whenever I open the Bible,
I see my LORD in the Book!

HE is the Seed of the woman
And the Saviour, virgin born.
HE is the Son of David,
Whom men rejected with scorn.

HE's the LORD of Eternal Glory,
Whom John the Apostle saw.
The Light of the Celestial City,
The Lamb without spot or flaw.

HE's the Bridegroom coming at Midnight!
For Whom HIS people look.
Yes, thank GOD, whenever I open the Bible,
I see my LORD in the Book!

Huh?

A QUESTION OF RESPONSIBILITY



A few years back, a news report came out of Orlando, Florida about a new craze for local teenagers: garage jumping. Thrill seekers were jumping from one parking garage roof to another, with some roofs as high as six stories or 80 feet. As expected with such lunacy, some fell and were injured.

The family of one boy who fell and fractured his shoulder, filed a lawsuit against the city and parking garage for not having a fence to keep jumpers from jumping. The city has since erected some length of fence, but a jumper can still get around the fence and jump. The suing family stated that the garage should “take responsibility” before another jumper jumps. Huhhh?

How about this for a solution: put up a sign that says “Don’t Jump, Idiot,” but then that would be too common sense of an approach. Plus, it may offend idiots.

If anyone is crazy enough to take such a risk, that individual will go find an unfenced building somewhere else and jump anyway. Where does responsibility begin? It begins with the individual. Where does the placing of blame stop? Should we place fences on streets and highways to keep people from walking in front of moving vehicles? If not, can local or state governments be sued for not restricting walkers who may get struck by automobiles? When the door to lunacy is opened, when do you shut it?

Remember the individual who sued McDonalds over the hot coffee? After placing a hot cup of coffee between the legs while driving, this person received burns from splashed coffee. McDonalds then began placing on each cup, warning signs of “Hot Coffee” (which is tantamount to “Cold Ice”) when they should have spent a few cents more and also printed “Don’t Place Between Legs or Knees While Driving, Genius” on each cup. By the way, isn't coffee supposed to be hot, otherwise, it is called cappuccino?

The shirking of responsibility is nothing new. In the book of Genesis, Adam and Eve both did their share of placing blame. Eve told God the serpent gave her the fruit to eat, so it was his fault. Adam placed a double blame with one stroke and told God the problem was the woman He (God) gave to Adam. When Aaron, the brother of Moses, was asked where he got the golden calf, his answer was, “Well we put our gold in this fire, and out came this calf,” like the calf made itself. And last but not least, King Ahab called Elijah the one who “troubleth Israel,” yet Israel’s real problem was Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel, for it was their wickedness that demanded the judgment of Jehovah.

When people refuse to take responsibility for their actions, then everyone else is fair game to blame. Couples divorce with a no fault divorce. If it was not the fault of either involved, then how did it happen? A young person robs a store, but it’s not his fault. His defense attorney later claims society has failed all youth. The list could go on and on. There are sometimes external circumstances that contribute to, or influence individuals to make certain decisions, but ultimately each individual has to be held accountable for his or her own actions. Accountability, followed by acknowledgment and confession of wrong doing, reduces problems and paves the way for making right decisions in the future.

Acceptance of personal sin is necessary for salvation.

Joseph Harris