HAVE YOU EVER BEEN FOOLED?
Think about that question for a moment or two. No one likes to admit it, but if we are honest, I think we would all have to confess that we have had the wool pulled over our eyes, at least a time or two. I know I have. Some folks will tell you almost anything if they think it might be to their advantage, and sometimes people will tell you a lie just because they can. I think that is how a lot of rumors get started. Have you ever believed a rumor and found out later that it wasn’t true at all? Sure – we all have.
With that in mind, let me ask you another question. Do you think that it might just be possible that through the years, quite a few rumors, or lies, have been told about God? I don’t know about you, but I know I have heard more than a few.
Do you believe God is good and that He loves you? That is what God’s Word tells us, but if you believe much of what our popular culture teaches today, you might think that God is so evil that we have to get Him out of our schools and out of our cities and towns.
Do you believe that sin is a bad thing that Jesus came to free us from, or do you think there really is no such thing as right or wrong? Many so-called experts today tell us there are no absolute standards – that we decide for ourselves what is right or wrong.
How about heaven and hell? Do you believe in an afterlife, or have you been persuaded that these too only exist in the minds of unenlightened and ignorant religious folks?
Of course, we are all free to believe as we wish, but the problem is, if you are believing the lies that have been told about God instead of believing what He Himself has said in His Word, it will be too late after you are dead to be saved from the consequences of your unbelief.
TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES
The Bible says that God commands “all people everywhere” to turn from their sins and put their trust in Him alone because He has set a day when He will judge the world by the man He has appointed, and He has given proof of this to all the world by raising Him from the dead – Acts 17:30,31. And that man’s name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The truth is, a large segment of the world is deceived right now and they don’t even know it. That is why God has commissioned and sent forth His people into all the world to tell them the truth that SIN IS NOT GOOD! It is a virus and a cancer that will destroy your life and send your soul to a place of terrible torment and pain. But you can be freed and rescued from this fate if you will only LISTEN and HEAR the good news of salvation today, while there is still time.
God loves you so much that He was willing to become a man and live a sinless life, and then die a horrible death on a wooden cross, so that your sins, and mine, could be paid for by His blood. But the problem is that God has an enemy who has deceived much of mankind into believing that sin really is a good thing. This enemy, the devil, has all kinds of ways to make sinful behavior look attractive and appealing and tempting. God’s Word, the Bible, exposes this very clearly when it proclaims, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” who has “blinded the minds of those who don’t believe in God so that they cannot see the light (the truth) of the glory of the good news that tells us what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.” (I John 5:19 and II Corinthians 4:4)
There is another major problem that needs to be addressed, and that is that many Christians today are not helping the world to see the destructive nature of sin because they are sitting right beside their friends, neighbors and family members, enjoying many of the same things that those who have no faith in Christ and God are indulging in. If we, as God’s people, and followers of Jesus Christ, do not separate ourselves from the evil and ungodly activities of this world, how can we ever expect our family and friends to see and understand what is sinful and what is not? We can love our neighbors without doing all the same things that he does, can’t we? We do not have to watch and listen to the same filth that this world watches and listens to, do we? Somehow, God’s people will have to truly begin living the holy lives that their Savior and Lord has called them to live if this world is ever going to see that they need a Savior too!
As a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want to ask all of my non-believing friends, neighbors and family members to please forgive those believers who may not have set a good example for you to follow – including myself. Today, as your friend, I invite you to BELIEVE and RECEIVE the good news that Jesus has come to set us ALL free from our sins so that we may enter into His glorious and eternal Kingdom.
