What If No One Warned You?

What If No One Warned You?

Imagine that you’re driving along a highway and pass a man walking toward you on the side of the road. He waves and smiles; you wave back. But as you round the bend just beyond him you suddenly realize that the bridge across a deep canyon is out!

How would you feel about someone who knew the bridge was out but didn’t tell you? Wouldn’t you expect that a person with such crucial information would do whatever was necessary to warnyou of danger ahead?

A greater danger 

Most people are heading down the highway of life hoping to be good enough and to do enough good things to someday arrive in heaven. Many were baptized as infants. They attend religious services. They’re trying to follow their pastors, priests, spiritual advisors, or consciences. They provide for their families and even contribute to charities. They depend on these things to be their bridge to heaven and eternal safety. They believe that religious traditions, the decrees of spiritual leaders, or the interpretations of popes or denominations are enough to serve as their bridge.

But listen to what Jesus said to religious leaders in His day: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! Thus you nullify [invalidate] the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down” (Mark 7:8,13).

A Bible author—John—who knew Jesus well when He was here on earth, wrote this about the only way to God: “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13). Not “hope” or “think,” but know that Jesus is the only way to eternal life. That simple first-century message is still true in the 21st century!

The ultimate risk

Jesus warned that “wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.” (Matthew 7:13). Those people are choosing the road with the bridge that’s out—it will never get them to heaven! You’re taking the ultimate risk if you have doubts about the religious bridge you’re planning to take to cross over into God’s heaven—the consequences of your choice are eternal.

Jesus urged his hearers to “enter through the narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13). The person who truly believes that Jesus alone is “the way” (John 14:6) has this assurance in Jesus’ own words: “Whoever hears My word and believes Him [God the Father] who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life” (John 5:24). The true believer has Jesus’ word on it—the bridge is there, and it crosses over to heaven!

Jesus, God’s sinless Son, chose to come to earth to pay the “eternal death penalty” for the sins of humanity. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). Jesus became the bridge to God by exchanging his righteous life for the lives of all sinners who ever lived—to die “for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2).  “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then Christ’s resurrection proved that His payment for our sins had been accepted by God the Father.

No place for doubt 

Those who accept God’s offer of eternal life, by wholeheartedly trusting in what Christ has alreadydone for them, are the ones who will stand accepted by God. The instant they place their confidence in Christ alone for the forgiveness of their sins, they are right with God now and forever.

Traditions may teach it, but nowhere in the Bible does it say that we can be right with God through good works, baptism, church membership or good intentions. It comes only by trusting in Jesus as our perfect “substitute,” believing that His death accomplished the complete payment for our sins—once and for all. Eternal life is God’s gift, “not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Though the spiritual “narrow road” is not the one most people are taking to eternity, it’s the onlyone the Bible says goes to heaven. If you were that person on the highway with the bridge that’s out, I think you’d warn me, so I hope you’ll understand my concern for your eternal safety. I want you to know that you’re taking the road that will ensure that you arrive in heaven, not hell when this life is over.

If you choose Christ’s way, you can express your decision to God in a prayer like this: Dear God, I admit that I have been trying to get to heaven my own way. Now I’m convinced that Jesus is the only way to heaven. I believe that he died in my place and took the judgment that I deserved for my sins. I accept your offer of forgiveness. I want the eternal life Jesus promises to those who believe in Him. Thank you for helping me find the sure way to heaven!

Text: Doug Salser • Copyright © Literature Ministries International, 2008
Bible quotes: New International Version

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IF WE NEVER MEET AGAIN…

It’s very possible that our paths may never cross again…

I’m glad we had the opportunity to meet, but I realize that in this fast-paced world we may never see each other again. Still, I’m eager to share a discovery with you that has made a lasting difference in my life. What you have here in your hands sums it up.

Discovering our purpose for being here

Life was intended to be much more than just working to stay ahead of bills, living for weekends, and marking time between birth and death. Life was meant to be a very satisfying experience, not just an existence.

In fact, according to a very special book called the Bible, the purpose of life originally included friendship with God Himself in a perfect world of love and trust. It was possible because “God created [mankind] in His own image.”¹ He shared with them qualities like His own–intelligence, conscience, personality, speech, the ability to choose. The things that still give our lives meaning today.

Despite a great start, there came a time when the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, chose to go against one of God’s instructions to them. The consequences were immediate. Their disobedience–what the Bible calls sin–broke their once-close relationship with Him.² Even worse, sin’s eventual result was physical death. Death opened the door to sin’s final outcome, eternaldeath–separation forever from God.

From their day to ours human history can be summed up this way: “Although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God….The wages of sin is death.”³

We have all followed in the footsteps of our forefathers. Disobedience. Deceit. Lies. Using others. Loving money. No time for God in our lives. No wonder our lives offend God…we offend our friends, even though they’re sinners like us!

Restoring a broken relationship

As hopeless as it sounds, when mankind ruined things God had a solution. His plan: Have someone who had never done wrong take the place of everyone who had done wrong–that’s all of us! An innocent substitute for guilty wrongdoers.

Two thousand years ago the plan went into action. Jesus Christ, God’s Son, became one of us. In His 33-year lifetime as the unique God-Man, He fulfilled every requirement and expectation God ever had for us. He never once sinned against His Father or those around Him. In other words, Jesus qualified as the perfect substitute for all the rest of us.

His death on a cross was not the tragic end of the world’s greatest teacher; it only appeared to be “just” another cruel Roman execution. Actually, in dying Jesus carried through with His desire to take the eternal death penalty for us all.

The Bible puts it this way: “God shows His love for us in that while we were all sinners, Christ died for us….that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Christ…suffered once for [our] sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God”⁴

Because He is the one and only God-Man, Jesus’ suffering equaled the eternal judgment in hell that we all would otherwise experience. That’s how much He wanted to restore God’s original purpose for us.

Jesus’ resurrection from the dead three days after His burial⁵ proved that, in paying the death penalty for us, He had also conquered death, not only for Himself, but for all those who believe in Him. That means those who trust God to forgive their sins will also share in Jesus’ resurrection life forever in Heaven.⁶

There’s more. Those who admit that their sins caused Jesus’ death and trust God to save them from sin’s judgment receive eternal, spiritual life the moment they believe. Jesus put it this way, “I have come that they [who trust in Me] may have life, and have it abundantly.”⁷That’s the restoration of the lost original relationship and more!

Making a personal choice

Those are the basic facts of my most important discovery. Even if we never see each other again, I still want you to experience God’s purpose for you. God offers you forgiveness and eternal life, but it’s your decision. What will you choose–to prepare for eternity your own way or by taking God’s way?

If you want to accept God’s offer of eternal life, you can put your choice into words like these:

Dear God, I admit I have sinned against you many times in my life. I’m convinced that Jesus died in my place and took the judgment that I deserved for my sins. I accept your offer of forgiveness. I want the new life Jesus promises to those who believe in Him. Thank you for letting me find out how to know You!

Quotations from the Bible: ¹Genesis 1:27, ²Genesis 3, ³Romans 1:21,3:23,6:23, ⁴Romans 5:8, John 3:16-17, I Peter 3:18, ⁵1 Corinthians 15:1-8, ⁶John 14:1-3, ⁷John 10:10.

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“A Servant by Choice” — Harvest Daily Devotion for 10/20/2016

Thursday, October 20, 2016

A Servant by Choice

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

—1 Corinthians 6:19

The apostle Paul often referred to himself as a bondslave or a doulos—a voluntary servant. Doulos is a Greek word often used in the New Testament for a slave or servant. It describes a unique class of servant, someone who was not made that way by constraint or by force. A doulos was someone who had been freed, but chose to serve his or her master out of love. Thus, this servant would be called a doulos—a bondservant, a servant by choice.

As Christians, that is what we are. Christ has paid an incredible debt for us. He has pardoned us. He has forgiven us. And now we should become His voluntary servants, serving Him not because we have to but because we want to. We serve Him because we love Him, recognizing that He has instilled certain gifts, certain talents, and certain resources in our lives that we are to use for His glory.

The Bible says, “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

Jesus said, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:33). The words forsake all mean surrender your claim to and say goodbye to. This doesn’t mean taking a vow of poverty; it simply means recognizing that it all belongs to God.

Our lives belong to God. Everything is the Lord’s. We as Christians will stand before God one day and give an account for what we have done with all that He has given to us.

Harvest Ministries with Greg Laurie
P.O. Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514-4000 Phone: 1-800-821-3300