Echoes of Grace: 2004

100 years from now, will it really matter where you lived: in a show-home, or a rented room? Whether you drove a Rolls Royce, or “hitched a ride”? Will it matter what you wore: designer originals, or thrift shop specials? Or what you ate: gourmet cuisine, or a can of beans?

NO, IT WON’T!

But, 100 years from now, will it matter what you believed?

YES, IT WILL!

100 years from now-100 years away from this life we know on earth-100 years into eternity NOTHING will matter but the answer you made to the question: “What think ye of Christ?”

If your answer was, “He is the Christ, the Son of God; He is my Savior, I believe in Him,” you will be with Christ, in the presence of the One who so loved you, in the midst of “joy unspeakable and full of glory,” and an eternity with Him before you. But if you said, “I don’t believe in Him,” where will you be? “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).

“He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

There are only two destinies, and the choice must be made now. Which shall it be?

WHERE WILL YOU BE, 100 YEARS FROM NOW?

A Cat Named Cameo

Cameo was a beautiful Himalayan cat, but she had only one eye. Only perfect animals can be taken to cat shows, so poor Cameo could never be exhibited. There would be no blue ribbons for her-no prizes for a proud owner.

So to the veterinarian Cameo went, and her owner said, “I don’t want this cat; put her to sleep!”

How sad! But isn’t that the way people often are today? If one is pretty or handsome or talented, the world bids high for them. They say, “Make something of yourself!”

But if a person is plain or poor, often no one cares about them. Right? No, wrong! In Psa. 40:17 David says, “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” God cares about us no matter who we are or how bad we have been. What a Savior!

In 1 Sam. 16:7 it also says, “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” No matter how much we “pretty up” our faces, our hearts are still black with sin on the inside. We must come to Jesus to wash our sins away. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son [God’s Son] cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

We too, like Cameo, can have only one eye, or be totally blind, or lame or sick or poor, but if we come to the Savior we will be “accepted in the Beloved.” Cameo was not put to sleep after all; one of the vet’s assistants rescued her and took her home to a comfortable life as the family pet.

Even so Christ Jesus in His love and mercy picks up poor sinners and gives them a home with Him, where there is everlasting joy and happiness. Come to Him NOW, just as you are, for He has promised that “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Alzheimers: A State of Forgetfulness

Port Townsend is a small town in Washington State. Part of the town sits on a bluff, while the other part of the town is on the edge of beautiful Puget Sound. The terrain around Port Townsend is wild and rugged, with heavily timbered hillsides and deep gullies full of rhododendrons that make the early summer lovely with its masses of bloom.

One resident of Port Townsend, Camilla Pryer, suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, a disease that brings forgetfulness of even the most basic knowledge. Today we know it is not a rare disease; you probably know or have heard of someone who has been so sadly stricken. Doctors estimate that over thirty percent of men and women over the age of eighty-five are affected with it.

Camilla awakened sometime during the night, found her purse and wandered out of the house in the darkness. In the morning when her husband discovered she was missing, he called the Port Townsend police. They searched for her for several hours. When she was not found by 11 a.m., the fire department joined the search and eventually launched a full-scale effort with two other fire districts’ search-and-rescue units. An Army National Guard helicopter was also called in to search the nearby waterways. Town residents also volunteered in large numbers and scoured the town for Camilla.

When all these efforts proved fruitless, a pair of search-and-rescue dogs were set on Camilla’s trail near her house at 7 p.m. After a brief search, they found her a hundred feet away in thick underbrush. The searchers concluded that she had stumbled, fallen and crawled into the underbrush which was so thick that searchers had not considered it a possibility. She had spent over eighteen hours cowering in the underbrush before she was rescued.

Alzheimer’s is a crippling disease where those afflicted lose the ability to remember. The whole human race is afflicted with a crippling disease called SIN. Sin is the reason that people don’t want to remember that they have been created by a God who loves them and longs to have fellowship with them.

A Bible verse says, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Rom. 1:28). All the wickedness and sin in this world are proof of the fact that men have forgotten God and chosen to live as though He didn’t exist.

If you have forgotten God and are living without Him, it is not too late to change. He has invited you to return to Him. You may bow your heart this moment and confess that you are a sinner and need the Savior to cleanse you from all your sin.

There was a huge effort to find Camilla and to bring her home again, and God has made every effort to find you and to bring you back to Himself. The Lord is “long-suffering...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). On the cross, the Lord Jesus made the supreme sacrifice to save us; He truly could have done no more.

Don’t remain in the darkness of forgetfulness and unbelief. You may come to Jesus, who said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). However, if you choose to live without God, in “spiritual Alzheimer’s,” be warned that there are bitter consequences. Because you did not desire the knowledge of His ways, you may find yourself overcome by sin and living a life of sorrow and sadness. And an even darker and more serious result is that those who forget God have a real hell waiting for them when they pass through death’s door. God’s Word gives the warning: “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa. 9:17).

Will you go on in forgetfulness of God? Or will you come by faith to the One who loves you and wants you?

"Because He First Loved"

William Tyndale, who printed the first New Testament in the English language, said once, “I used to think that salvation was not for me, since I did not love God, but those precious words, ‘We love Him, because He first loved us’ (1 John 4:19), showed me that God does not love us because we first loved Him. No, no! ‘We love Him, because He first loved us.’ This makes all the difference.”

These wonderful words, he said, “were the pearly gate by which I entered into the kingdom of God.”

How many today, we wonder, are making the same mistake as Tyndale? How many believe they must work up some love for God before they can be assured of His forgiveness and love? This is not God’s way of salvation!

Salvation is by grace through faith, and not by works of law or deeds of love. Grace, free grace, and the boundless love of God are the source of all blessing for poor, perishing sinners.

“God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

God’s love was shown toward us when we had not so much as one thought or movement toward Him, for the Bible again says, “God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)...that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7,4-5).

Black Little Sheep

A Christian, visiting in a hospital in Ottawa, Ontario, was told by one of the nurses that a man lay dying in a room down the hall-a man who seemed to have no relatives nor friends.

She went to his bedside, only to find he had drawn the sheet up over his face. Was she too late? Should she try to speak to him?

After a little prayer, she knelt by the dying man’s bed and softly recited the colloquial version of the old gospel hymn,

“The Ninety and Nine.”

Poor little black sheep that strayed away,

Got lost in the wind and the rain;

And the Shepherd say,

“Oh, Hireling, go

Find my little black sheep again!”

And the hireling frowns,

“Oh, Shepherd,

That sheep is black and bad”;

But the Shepherd,

He smiled like that little black sheep

Is the on liest lamb He had.

And the Shepherd say, “Hireling, hasten!

For the night is dark and cold,

And that little black sheep is lonesome

Out there so far from the fold”;

But the hireling frowned, “Oh, Shepherd,

That sheep is old and gray!”

But the Shepherd,

He smiled like that little black sheep

Was fair as the break of day.

And the Shepherd went out in the darkness,

Where the night was cold and bleak,

And that little black sheep, he find it,

And laid it against His cheek;

And the hireling frowned,

“Oh, Shepherd,

Don’t bring that sheep near me!”

But the Shepherd just smiled, and He held it close,

And that little sheep-was me!

With the last line the dying man slowly pushed the sheet from his face and looking into the Christian’s face whispered, “And that little black sheep was me!”

Have you known what it means to be lost in sin and found again by the Good Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep?

Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep” (John 10:11).

Blind for 18 Years

“Please! Mom said nobody can help me. There’s no use trying. She was blind, and so were my older sister and brother. We’re all the same; it’s hereditary. The doctor told them so.”

“But, Jean, suppose it’s not that at all. Shouldn’t we just check into it?”

“Mr. Baxter! Do you know anything? I’ve been blind for eighteen years now. All my old glasses are useless now. Can’t you understand? We’re all like this in my family.”

So on she went in her firmly held conclusions. Her vision had failed over a period of thirty-nine years, but she knew the whole time that nothing could be done. But she was wrong. She wasn’t just like dear mom. She could have been helped.

Mr. Baxter thought, “Why can’t we look into this?”

He phoned the first doctor: “My blind wife needs an appointment.”

“No, I’m sorry. We can’t help blind people here.”

“Okay, thanks anyway.”

He tried the next number. Same story. Three more times it happened. Finally he changed tactics. “Can I just make an appointment for my dear wife?”

“Why, of course. How about next Tuesday?”

And that’s when Jean learned that her conclusions, opinions and self-efforts were quite wrong. Sadly wrong.

In late 1999, in a hospital in Surrey, England, Mrs. Jean Baxter had both cataracts removed. Later she marveled at her new world. “I can see everything now! The colors are so vivid! I’m fascinated!”

Yes, of course dear old mom said so. Maybe your trusted friend even knows for sure about spiritual matters. But have you ever read the New Testament yourself? Do you know what Jesus actually said?

Did He really say there are two roads, one going to life and the other to destruction? Do you know for sure which road you are on? What did Jesus say?

Do you have a Bible? Find it. Dust it off. Open it up to Matt. 7. Sit down and read carefully verses 13-14.

“Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat; because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth until life, and few there be that find it.”

Not so hard to understand after all, is it? Let it challenge your certain opinions.

Eternity is far too long to be wrong!

Blind Landing

On a dare from his copilot, the pilot of a Russian airliner attempted a blind landing-and crashed.

Two minutes before landing, the pilot ordered the flight engineer to pull blinds over the windshield. He wanted to bring the plane down using only instruments. (Blind landings were allowed only on training flights and required an experienced instructor with full visibility to be in the next seat, but the pilot broke every rule.)

During the plane’s descent, the pilot made several misjudgments. At 0.8 seconds before landing, the blinds were released, which revealed that they were missing the runway. The pilot tried to abort the landing, but it was too late. The plane struck, made a gigantic leap, overturned and caught fire.

The pilot, urged on by the copilot, caused a meaningless loss of life. What a picture this is of many souls today who, urged on by the god of this world (Satan), lower blinds over the eyes of their hearts lest the light from the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into them and they should be converted and saved. The devil would have men attempt “blind landings” into eternity, and he does all he can to keep them in the dark spiritually. He knows that, unless a soul repents and turns to Christ, that soul will spend eternity in hell with him. This is what he wants.

The pilot was one of a handful of survivors of the crash. For his rashness, he was tried and sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

A Russian newspaper’s report of the trial said that the pilot performed the action in an attempt to test his flying abilities. It blamed the crash on his “exaggerated sense of self-assurance.”

Won’t you let these familiar verses, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), and, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), abolish your sense of self-assurance as far as making it into heaven by your abilities is concerned?

At Calvary’s cross the Lord Jesus died for sinners. The blood that He shed there is sufficient to wash away the sins of every member of the human race, if only they will trust in Him. Very many, because of “an exaggerated sense of self-assurance,” will refuse to see their need of salvation. They, when they die, will make a “blind landing” into eternity and end up crashing into hell.

For real assurance, “blessed assurance,” you must come as a lost sinner to the Lord Jesus and have your sins covered by His precious blood. Only those who trust in Him are entitled to have that assurance of sins forgiven and a home in heaven.

Don’t try a “blind landing”!

Choose Now

“Someday,” you say, “I will seek the Lord;

Someday I will make my choice;

Someday—someday—I will heed His Word

And answer the Spirit’s choice.”

God’s time is now, for the days fly fast,

And swiftly the seasons roll;

Today is yours, it may be your last;

Choose life for your precious soul!

Choose now, just now; there’s a soul at stake!

Oh, what will your answer be?

It’s life or death, and the choice you make

Is made for eternity.

Choose now, just now, for the Lord is here,

And angels your answer wait;

Just now, just now, while the call is clear—

Tomorrow may be too late!

Christ Jesus Lived!

Christ Jesus really lived! That is one thing that all agree upon-that this Person who claimed to be the Son of God really lived here on earth among men.

We know when He lived: from about 3 B.C. until about 30 A.D.

We know where He was born: in Bethlehem of Judea, a real town and not a mythological one.

We know where He lived for most of the years of His life: in Nazareth, in northern Galilee.

We know many of the leaders of His time. Their names appear in other historical writings besides the Bible: Herod the Great, his grandson Herod Agrippa, Pontius Pilate, Tiberius Cæsar, Gamaliel, Felix and Festus.

Every history of the ancient world and every encyclopedia records the fact that Jesus lived during the first century of our era.

All dates of history in our calendar are now designated by the letters B.C. and A.D.-both of which refer to the time of the birth of Christ-not Plato, not Julius Cæsar, not Mohammed.

Christ has done more to lift and empower the ethical standards of men than all the philosophers of Greece and Rome combined. He is above all.

And surpassing all that, millions in each generation have had their lives changed by the firm belief that Jesus Christ has given to the world the perfect revelation of God, the only gospel that does deliver from the power of sin, the only assurance of the forgiveness of sins, and the only positive hope of life to come.

JESUS CHRIST LIVED!

And Jesus Christ lives! He ever lives to make intercession for those who believe on Him.

“Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25).

Danger! Keep Out!

Chuck and Walt were making their way cautiously down a steep mountain trail near Pike’s Peak. As they rounded a curve they came upon an entrance to a cave. It was boarded up, and over it was a large sign: “DANGER! KEEP OUT!” Chuck stopped to peer between the boards into the darkness, exclaiming, “I’d sure like to explore this cave! Will you go in with me?”

“Most certainly not! No way!” answered Walt, and he begged him not to try it, but Chuck was determined.

At the foot of the trail Chuck obtained a lantern, said good-bye to his friend, and returned to the cave. Lighting his lantern and pushing aside the barriers, he entered the deep, dark cavern. At first his light seemed barely to penetrate the dense darkness, but as his eyes became more accustomed, he could see jagged rocks and walls and a path, down which he cautiously moved.

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man: but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). So Chuck found it. All seemed to go well for him for a time, but suddenly he stepped off into space and fell down a steep slope. He lay there unconscious for a while.

How many there are who grope by the flickering light of reason and at death take a “leap in the dark.” “He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.”

When Chuck came to himself, he was in thick darkness, his lantern in pieces at his side, and he was bruised and sore. In his pocket he found a few matches which he struck, one by one, only to have them flicker and go out. Their light had shown him the slope down which he had fallen and that it was impossible to climb back up the same way.

Shaking with cold and terror, he hardly dared move for fear of falling again. Carefully he crept along on hands and knees until his trousers were worn through and his knees bleeding.

As if being buried alive, he felt sure he must die. In his despair, his past life came before him, and he cried to God for mercy-not for rescue, for that seemed impossible-but for the salvation of his never-dying soul. Bible verses which he had often heard but paid little attention to came flooding back into his memory. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).

These wonderful truths, like warm sunshine, shone into his dark, cold heart-and he accepted the Savior who had died for his sins.

Still his circumstances were unchanged, and he decided to keep moving as long as his strength lasted. He had no idea of the passage of time, as he painfully and hopelessly dragged himself over rocks and stones.

Thinking of his mother, he found a piece of paper and a pencil in his pocket and scribbled a note to her as best he could. He told her not to mourn for him but to rejoice, because this dreadful experience had been the means of bringing him to the Savior who loved him and had given Himself for him, and he was happy in the thought of soon being with Him. He wrote his mother’s address and asked that his body be sent to her when it was found.

Still crawling wearily on, he touched a rope. With breathless hope he followed it until something was it fresh air?-touched his face. On he went; then a pale glimmer of light appeared. It gradually increased until he could dimly see in the distance an opening. At last he reached it and stumbled out into the light! The sun was shining brightly; he had entered the cave at four in the afternoon, and it was now noon of the next day.

When picked up by a search party, he was a pathetic sight-ragged, bleeding, dirty and weak. From all this he soon recovered, but his spiritual change could never be erased from his soul, for he was turned “from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:18).

How typical Chuck is of many in the world today. Many, many people are still choosing “the way that seemeth right,” still choosing “darkness rather than light,” even though God has plainly posted the danger sign: “The wages of sin is death,” and “after this the judgment” (Rom. 6:23; Heb. 9:27).

“O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” (Deuteronomy 32:29).

“I have set before you life and death...therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19).

Deadly Directions

Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain in Great Britain. It is often referred to as the “gateway to the Scottish Highlands.” In Gaelic, the name probably means “venomous,” which would well describe its rough terrain, twisting trails and sheer cliffs. The mountain’s rugged beauty draws hikers to it like iron to a magnet.

Recently, a British magazine, “Hiking,” featured an article about Ben Nevis in which they gave specific directions on how to descend from its summit. As the directions were originally written, they were more than capable of guiding hikers safely down the mountain. They would have been particularly valuable to someone struggling in foul weather.

However, to make room in the magazine for advertising, critical parts of the directions were edited out to save space. The directions as printed were deadly in error. Instead of leading unsuspecting hikers to safety, anyone following them would be guided to step off a cliff and fall thousands of feet to certain death.

Mountains demand our respect. If you are going hiking in the mountains, you want directions that are dependable, because one error can cost your life.

The Bible is God’s great text of directions for mankind. In its inspired pages we can find all we need to set us on the path that will lead to eternal life. We can safely depend on all of it. “Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him” (Prov. 30:5).

But a very real danger is that men set themselves up to be judges of what really belongs in God’s Word. Instead of submitting to it the way God wants them to, they often decide what parts of it are worthwhile and ignore the rest.

Miracles, the deity of Christ, and redemption through blood are all parts of it that many people have, as it were, deleted from the Bible. But each of these truths is so critically important that the way of salvation is utterly lost without them.

Miracles are supernatural occurrences that do not follow the normal course of events. The grand miracle of the Bible is the resurrection of Christ. In the normal course of events, when a man died he stayed that way. But when the Lord Jesus died He remained dead in the grave for three days before He rose again by the power of God. His resurrection means everything to the believer, as it says in Romans, “Jesus our Lord...was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:24-25).

What is the living proof that believers are justified and cleared from all their guilt? It is the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead. God now sees every believer in Him, and in some future moment all those who died in faith will rise out of their graves in like manner to meet their Savior. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God [has] raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

Another great truth many would like to strike from the pages of the Bible is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Many today would like to believe that He was nothing more than a great teacher. And here they are dead wrong. He was a man, and a great teacher, but He will always be more than that. He is the eternal God. As the second person of the triune God, He is co-existent and co-equal to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. This second person of the trinity left the glories of heaven to be born in a manger as an infant. In the wonder of the incarnation, the Son of God became a man. The One who in a past eternity spoke a word and the world leapt into existence came to earth and spoke God’s word to multitudes of hungry souls. To make a way that all men might be saved, He let Himself be led to the cross where He died for sinners. Because He is the Son of God, His death on the cross has infinite power to cancel the guilt of all those who believe on Him.

Yet another great truth some would like to remove from the Bible is the idea of redemption by blood. Make no mistake about it. The Bible is clear and plain. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22).

In another place it says, “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). For those who are so bold as to try to erase this precious truth from the sacred text there will never be any atonement or remission of sin. They may ask forgiveness of the men they have wronged, but that won’t bring about the remission of sins in God’s sight. They may realize the error of their ways and try to change for the better, but that won’t redeem their souls from death and judgment. The sins they have committed may fade in their memories, but “God requireth that which is past” (Eccl. 3:15).

God knows all things perfectly, and in His mind they remain as fresh as the moment they happen. The sinner must come in faith to Jesus Christ to have sins washed away. “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Be wise and bow your heart to all the truth in God’s Word. Don’t be your own worst enemy by setting yourself up as a judge of God’s Word! Instead, let it judge you and be your guide. You have the privilege of going to its very Author in prayer and asking for help. If you are not saved yet but want to be, it really is very simple. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Don’t delay!

Deaf Ears

The old man in the doctor’s office obviously had ears, but that hand cuffed around his ear told its own tale. He had ears, but he could not hear.

Anxiously he leaned forward, his hand still cupping his ear, hoping to catch what the specialist was saying. Would he prescribe a hearing aid? Could he be helped to hear again? After years of deafness, he had little hope.

The surgeon’s light shone into the patient’s ear; his delicate instruments probed gently as he gazed intently into the ear. Suddenly the light flashed on the shining steel of his forceps. Carefully the doctor removed a waxy plug almost an inch long-and the old man could hear!

Sixty years earlier a doctor had treated him for an ear infection and had put a cotton plug in his ear. Forgotten, it had stayed in place all those years gathering dirt and wax until his ear was completely blocked.

The old man got into his car and started the motor to go home. What a roar! Startled, he switched the engine off and then realized that there was nothing wrong with the car. It was just that now he could hear! Grinning broadly, he turned the switch again and started homeward.

Yes, he had had ears—good ears—but he could not hear. There are other ears that do not hear, ears that are “stopped,” ears that refuse to hear when the Spirit of God says, “If any man have an ear, let him hear” (Rev. 13:9).

What should he hear? He should hear the Word of God.

The Lord Jesus tells us that “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” (John 5:24).

And the Apostle Paul says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

How it all fits together! We hear; we believe; we receive! But we must both hear and believe God’s Word.

Furthermore, we must not endanger our eternal future by delaying, for it is also written, “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7). Today-this day-right now!-is all the time we can be sure of.

“Hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa. 55:3).

Does It Matter Anymore?

The old church building was almost one hundred years old. My father wanted to visit it again and see the place where he had a spiritual awakening fifty-five years earlier. He found quite a market in progress inside the church building. Tartans from many parts of Scotland and many other things were being sold. He looked around.

On the wall, in the hallway off to the side of the main auditorium, was the picture of an old preacher. “Yes, that is the man who was visiting the church that month.” His thoughts went back over the years: “He’s the one who read the Bible and then preached from it.”

He looked at all the faces around him. Was there anyone still here who might remember those meetings? He asked a man who looked old enough to remember. “Oh, no,” he said, “I wasn’t here then, but I’ve heard that there were many who were converted at that time. That lady over there would know more.”

“Do you remember the meetings in the church back then?” he asked as he explained further. “I’m one of the ones who was converted or saved. I gave my life to the Lord Jesus then.”

She threw him a look of dismay. “Ah, really! That was then. Now we don’t hear that kind of preaching. You know, we’ve gotten over that saved stuff, and conversions.” She pulled at the label of her collar. “Look at this.”

The gold medallion with the number “50” on her lapel shone brightly. “Imagine that,” she said. “I’ve been here for over fifty years. That’s all a person needs. This is my special award!”

“But were you ever saved? Did you ever get to know God?” he asked carefully.

“Hey, we’re busy here. And that doesn’t matter anymore at all. I gotta go.”

Can I ask you, Does a church medallion make you ready for the next world? Is that old stuff about being saved or converted out of style now? Some seem to think so, but didn’t Jesus preach it? He said, “I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).

Even Peter preached it: “We must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Does the word “must” mean “optional” or does it mean “necessary”? And Paul preached it! “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Being saved is important! Don’t trust in gleaming awards. They won’t impress God. He has expressly stated that “by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

Earthquakes

A loud-mouthed fellow-traveler was boasting of having survived two severe earthquakes in a western state. He said that in the first and most serious one his hotel had swayed back and forth. He had been thrown violently from his bed onto a chest of drawers that had fallen flat on the floor. It and the other furniture had knocked him about pretty badly.

The fright and excitement had brought on an acute heart attack, from which he still suffered. He added that that day the number of guests in the dining room of the hotel fell from about two hundred and fifty to less than ten. At least fifteen thousand tourists had immediately fled from the city.

Some years later he had gone through another but much less severe earthquake. In it comparatively few were killed, and damage was not so widespread. Yet it, like the first, was a scary experience.

I asked, “How would it have been with your soul if, instead of your falling on top of that chest, it had fallen on you and caused your death?”

“Oh,” said he, “I hope I would have been all right! I’ve been a good, moral man all my life, and I do much charitable work in my hometown. Besides, I try to be useful wherever I am.”

I asked him, “Did you ever read the account of the earthquake at Philippi? It roused the jailer out of his sleep and freed the prisoners from their bonds. The jailer was so frightened he cried out to Paul and Silas, whom he had so brutally beaten earlier that night: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’

“The answer came: ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house’ (Acts 16:31).

“He believed in God, with all his house, and they were saved.”

“I do remember,” said the traveler, “but that was a long time ago, wasn’t it?”

“True,” I answered, “but notice two things: The earthquake had the effect God desired, and one earthquake was enough to arouse the man to his need of being saved. Evidently, sir, you will require more than two earthquakes to accomplish the same blessing for your soul.”

He looked very serious as he responded: “No doubt you are right. I do get the feeling sometimes that God is speaking to me. I am on my way now to consult a heart specialist.”

“Why not come to the Great Physician?” I asked. “He can heal your immortal soul and ease the burden of sin from your heart. With Him as your Savior and Lord and cleansed from all guilt by His own precious blood, you would be able to face and endure the ‘earthquakes’ of this life and all its uncertainties. Won’t you receive Him now?”

We had stopped, the doors were opened, and in the scramble to gather up luggage and personal effects I had only time to give him one more bit of Scripture: “Hear Him pleading, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ (Matt. 11:28),” and then others pushed between us. The result must be left for God’s great reckoning to disclose.

How is it with you? Is your never-dying soul saved through believing on Him “who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification” (Rom. 4:25)? Or are you waiting till God must send a special earthquake to make you realize your need of Him?

“God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” (Job 33:14).

“He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Prov. 29:1).

Everybody's Doing It

The story is told of a shepherd and his flock who were moving slowly along a country road. Just as they reached a bridge which spanned a river running deep in a rocky ravine, something alarmed the flock.

It may have been nothing more frightening than a piece of paper, blown by the wind, but for a moment the flock stood still in panic. Then a leader of the flock, bolder than the rest (or more “spooked” than they) took a big jump, cleared the bridge railing and disappeared.

In a flash, another had done the same thing. Then another, and another, and another, and another. The shepherd did all he could to stop them, but it was too late. Each sheep seemed to be suddenly possessed with the idea that it must be a right thing to do since everybody was doing it.

Only a very few were restrained, and in a matter of seconds the rocks below were covered with dead and dying sheep.

Are human beings so very different? Would we follow the crowd just because “everybody’s going that way”? To be “in” with the crowd you must live as though you had no soul to be lost or saved, no sins to account for, and no eternity to spend. As the prophet Isaiah said, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” But let us remember that the biggest crowds cannot make the wrong thing right.

If you ignore your soul and its needs, you personally are wrong. If you shut God out of your life, you are wrong. If you regard the Lord Jesus Christ as a mere historic Person of no particular interest to you, you are wrong. If you just live for your own pleasure, thrusting your sins into some dark corner of forgetfulness, you are wrong. And it is not a valid excuse to say, “Oh, but everybody’s doing it!”

“Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat...and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).

Fifty Million in the Dark

On August 14, 2003, a major power outage struck the Northeastern United States and Eastern Canada. It was the largest power outage in history and affected an area of close to 9,300 square miles of some of the most populated areas in North America. People became trapped in elevators, traffic lights didn’t function at rush hour, and vendors watched helplessly as food perished from lack of refrigeration.

At night cities whose lights usually shone so brightly that they were visible from hundreds of miles away in outer space were blacked out by the loss of power. For city dwellers, many activities became extremely difficult or even impossible as they tried to manage in the dark.

For fifty million people, that night in the darkness was a time they can never forget.

Fifty million people were in physical darkness due to the power outage, but millions upon millions of souls are in spiritual darkness because either they have not heard the truth of the gospel or they have heard it and declined to receive its gracious offer of life. Refusing the good news of the gospel, they have refused the only message that could ever bring light into their lives. “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

It is only through the light that is in the Lord Jesus that we are able to see ourselves as we truly are before God. By it we can see ourselves as sinners under the just condemnation of a righteous God. Because we are sinners unable to help ourselves, we can see for the first time that we are in dire need of a Savior.

Also, in the light of the Lord Jesus, we can see clearly the wonderful grace of God. His grace led Him to send His Son into this world where He would eventually be nailed to the cross and die in the sinner’s place. In ancient times, when a king or a ruler showed one of his subjects favor and gave them a gift, it was considered “an act of grace.” At the cross, the supreme Ruler of the universe opened His heart to you and me and gave the greatest gift He could possibly give. He gave His Son. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

In contrast to the death we deserve for our sins, God made a way that we might have eternal life. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). God gives eternal life as a gift to everyone who believes on His Son. “He that hath the Son hath life.” Nothing in heaven or earth can ever dispossess them of that gift.

Has the light of the glorious gospel of God’s grace shone in your heart? Have you seen yourself as God sees you, and because of that sight sought refuge in the Savior? Until you do, you will be wandering about in spiritual darkness, for the Lord Jesus is the “light of the world,” and apart from Him there is nothing but darkness.

When the power grid in Northeastern America failed, it was a painful experience for millions of people. However, far worse is the calamity of a single soul that never comes to the Lord Jesus Christ. When this lifetime is over, that soul will have to spend eternity in the blackness of darkness forever.

How long is eternity? Make no mistake about it. Eternity is forever! According to Jude, lost souls are like “wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 13). Oh, what a future awaits those who never come to Christ! The saddest fact by far is that no one needs to perish. “The Lord...is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Lights and power supplies built by man may fail and leave us in the dark, but the light that shines in the Lord Jesus will never go out. He shines true for every sinner who wants to trust Him for salvation. His light illuminates everyone as they go about their lives in a world that rejected Him. His light will chase away the gloom when it comes time to die, so every believer can die full of hope and anticipation of soon seeing their Lord. And after they die they can enter the heavenly city where there is no need of the sun, for the Lord Jesus will be the light of the place. Lights and power supplies, stars and suns all may fail, but the light that is in Jesus will never go out.

Hasn’t the time you have spent in your life wandering in sin’s darkness been long enough to prove the dissatisfaction and emptiness of a life apart from God? Oh, won’t you come to Him who said, “I am the light of the world,” so that you might glory in His light for time and eternity?

Fire Alarm

One cold January day listeners to a bulletin relayed by CBS news from the British Broadcasting Corporation were dumbfounded by one item of news.

It seems that someone saw smoke rising from a house and turned in an alarm. Firemen responded promptly. When they burst into the home, they found smoke spreading through the house and fire raging in the living room.

As they usually do, they first checked to make sure no one was trapped in the house. To their amazement they found four people sitting in one room watching television. The two adults and two children were coughing from the smoke and their eyes were watering, but still they sat glued to the TV. The firemen couldn’t believe their eyes.

“Don’t you know the house is on fire? Get out at once!”

But the people refused to move. “Can’t you just put out the fire while we watch the end of the film?” they asked. “After all, it’s your job!”

The broadcaster who reported the story sounded incredulous as he reported the facts, and the listeners also found it hard to believe. How could anyone be so foolish as to risk death for the sake of a few minutes of television viewing?

But perhaps you are doing something just as foolish. I know you are not watching TV or playing games while your house burns around you, but are you carrying on your business, your schoolwork or your pleasures with no thought for the future? The Bible warns us that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” and that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 3:23; 6:23). We are also told to “flee from the wrath to come” (Matt. 3:7).

Lovingly, the Lord Jesus is inviting you to come to Himself and be saved. He suffered on the cross of Calvary and bore the penalty for the sins of all who will trust in Him. He shed His blood and died for you and me so that He could offer a free salvation to each one of us. Won’t you take the salvation He is offering you? “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

Galya of Siberia

The sun splashed warm light over the sleepy village in northern Siberia. Galya looked through the dirty window across the yard. It was a quiet Sunday morning, but her mind was far from quiet.

“Is there a God? Can He make Himself known?”

She reflected on her work as the administrator of a school: Is this all there is? What is the purpose of life? A prayer, forged on the anvil of skepticism and trial, rose once again from her heart: O God, if You exist, please make Yourself known to me.

Her tangled thoughts limped back over the weary roads of years past. Her husband had gone, leaving her alone to raise their daughter. Her trembling heart spoke: If there is a God, then I must know You today. She grappled with the decision that struggled in her mind: If there is no proof of God by the end of today, I will end my life.

Outside, a couple of strangers walked in the cool streets. To one home and then to another they gave the treasure they had brought. As people looked at it, they remembered, Not long ago it was a crime to hold just a page of this Bible. Some faces broke into smiles as they looked up and said, “Thank you.”

One of the strangers passed a woman in the yard outside the old, beaten-up apartment building. Galya was hanging up some clothes to dry. He was about to walk past; “I think she already got one.” He stopped: “Maybe I’d better check.”

He went toward her. The routine job of hanging clothes would never be the same again; Galya was about to hear the voice of God in the pages of a Book.

She looked over the clothesline at him. He smiled. She wondered, Where is he from?

He spoke in simple Russian with an accent: “Here is a gift.”

Her mind raced. A gift? in Russia? from a stranger who can actually smile in this bleak land? What is this?

She looked at the book. The words, “The Holy Bible,” seemed to strike from the page into her mind. Warm tears washed her eyes. Her lips trembled. She looked at him and tried to speak, but realized, He doesn’t seem to understand. She gestured with suddenly weak hands, “Come to my house.”

Together with the interpreter they spoke about the words of Jesus. He said, Enter in by the narrow gate, for the gate and the road are wide that lead to disaster, and many people are going that way. The gateway to real life is narrow and only a few ever find it (Matt. 7).

She knew where she stood. “I am on the wide road. I want to know how I can have my sins forgiven.”

“Galya, do you know why Jesus came to our world? We were bankrupt with disobedience, apathy and sin. He came to take the blame for our sin. That’s why He died. It wasn’t an accident. He commands us to repent and receive His words.”

They spoke together about this urgent business. She could hardly believe such news. She realized God had been watching her; He had heard her prayer. As she trusted the Savior she said, “This is the first time I have heard that sins could be forgiven. My burden is gone!”

I met her many months later in the dark and bitter cold Siberian winter. Her radiant face told that she was still enjoying real life and peace with God. She could smile, even in Siberia!

Grandma's Faith

She wasn’t always a grandmother! Her story went way back before that, back to her birth in a little cabin in Russia-back to her marriage to the man who was going to be “Grandpa,” back to her long journey alone across the ocean to the United States after Grandpa, who came first and then sent money for her passage.

Life for new immigrants can be hard; Grandma found it so. There was little enough money for the two of them, but soon the first baby arrived, and another, and another-seven in all. Grandma took in boarders to help support their growing family.

Living in the “inner city” as they did, there was little play space, but her children were not allowed to play on the streets. No, every day that she was able, Grandma took them to a little park nearby where they could play under her watchful eye.

One day in the park she heard singing-Russian singing! Intensely interested, she went closer to hear better. A group of people, who were standing together, were singing and speaking in her own Russian language. They were talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and the way of salvation, telling it as Grandma had never heard it before.

She listened intently. It was so simple, sweet, so satisfying to a heart-hunger she had scarcely known she had. Again and again she came to hear the preaching in the park and learned that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Grandma did believe in Him; she received the Lord Jesus as her own Savior and found it true that “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psa. 107:9).

Soon she was praying that all her family would find the wonderful Savior too. When she found a little Russian group whose simple meetings gave her food for her soul, she began to go regularly. She took her children with her: on the street car, off the street car, on the street car, off the street car-two street cars going, and two more street car rides home. This she did alone; Grandpa just would not be interested.

She had never had the chance to go to school in the old country, and she could not read. Now that she was a Christian, she wanted so much to learn to read the Bible. Studying the Russian alphabet, little by little she taught herself to read her Bible. What a joy it was to her to read and to pray-always, always to pray.

Her prayers were answered. All her children were saved. They grew up and established Christian homes and taught their children about the Lord Jesus. Many of these grandchildren are now saved, and some of the great-grandchildren have also confessed the Lord Jesus as their Savior.

Only one prayer seemed unanswered: Grandpa said, “No!” Still she prayed on through the years. At last, the old man listened-and understood-and in tears accepted the Lord Jesus for himself. Grandpa was saved!

Over the years many more of her relatives came to know the Lord: brothers, sister, cousins, each one in faith confessing the Lord Jesus as Savior and receiving “the gift of God...eternal life.”

Someone may have been praying for you. Perhaps a mother, a father, a grandparent, even a great-grandparent or a long-forgotten great aunt—perhaps only someone who knew you as a child and prayed for you that you might come to the Savior. What joy there would be in heaven if their prayers could be answered today!

If you feel that there is no one who ever prayed for you, no one who ever cared for your soul, then know that the Lord Jesus cares, and just say “Yes” to Him as He invites you to “come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

That promise is for you.

Hide-and-Seek

When I was a child and got together with a group of friends my own age, my favorite game was hide-and-seek.

You probably remember how it went. You chose a base. Someone was chosen to be “It.” That person hid their eyes and counted to a certain number-50 or 100-while the others ran and hid. Then “It” would yell, “Ready or not, here I come!” and would start to try to find the others. If “It” spotted someone, he would run to the base and yell, “1-2-3-on so-and-so!” If someone that was hidden saw a chance, they would run to the base before “It” could catch them. Then they would yell, “SAFE!”

If you are still hiding in sin, you need to run to the Lord Jesus Christ and accept Him as your own personal Savior and then you can yell, “SAFE!” and you will be safe for all eternity. Isa. 55:6 says, “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near.”

Luke 19:10 tells us, “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” The Lord Jesus Christ is seeking for you, and so is the devil. The devil wants to ruin your life and cause you to spend eternity in hell. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

It is no longer just the game of life. We’re talking about FOREVER. Are you going to be forever SAVED or forever LOST? It is up to you. Are you willing to exchange a few years enjoying the pleasures of sin for an eternity of “weeping and gnashing of teeth” in hell? Or do you want peace now and an eternity of peace and joy in heaven with the Lord?

I remember that many times while playing hide-and-seek someone would find a particularly good place to hide. Sometimes we would finally give up trying to find them and go off to do something else. Sometimes it would take so long that the person who was hiding would go to sleep. Don’t you be like that and wait too long before you come out of hiding and seek the Lord!

There is coming a time when it will be too late. The “game” will be over! The Lord is coming back someday very soon to take His own to be with Himself in glory. Will you be SAFE, or sorry?

Prov. 1:28, 24-26 says, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at naught [disregarded] all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh....Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find Me.” Then it will be too late to seek the Lord. Seek Him now while there is yet time.

How Do You Clean House?

Some of the ancient cliff-dwellers of Arizona had an interesting way of cleaning house. The smoke of their fires filled their old stone dwellings and covered their walls with a black layer of soot. When this became intolerable, they did not wash or scrape it off, but calmly went to work and plastered over it a fresh white coat of a kind of mortar, one coat above the other-as many as eleven layers of mortar eleven housecleaning days, no one knows how many years apart.

We smile, but those who live in precisely such houses should not throw stones.

I do not mean to say that we clean house in just this way (though it is possible to find houses where there may be four or five layers of wallpaper, one over the other). What I do refer to is the way many of us clean house in our own souls.

How we shrink from facing the dirt-the sin within us! So the whitewash is made up, a smooth blend of morality and respectability and self-righteousness, and it leaves the soul outwardly a fine bright white. But scratch it anywhere and-ugh! the black underneath!

Someday, in the white light of the holiness of God, all this whitewash will peel off and such soul-rooms will be seen to be pitch black-nothing but black and black forever.

When God says, “Wash you, make you clean” (Isa. 1:16), He does not mean a little cleaning up of outward appearances nor a little more socially-acceptable behavior. God desires “truth in the inward parts,” but “who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?” (Prov. 20:9).

David, the writer of the Psalms, knew the only way to be cleansed from his sins. He prayed, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy loving-kindness: according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin....Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow....Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psa. 51:7,10,1-2).

Cleansed from sin-whiter than snow-a clean heart-no whitewash there! How can it be?

There is only one way: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

It is only through faith in His blood that was shed on Calvary’s cross that we can be washed and clean and fit for the presence of God. No effort of our own can make us so, but believing and receiving His cleansing makes us “clean every whit.”

“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isa. 1:18

I Can See

The weathered old Ukrainian village snuggled in alongside the rugged mountain range. On the muddy streets two Canadian visitors walked toward the general store. They were there to bring humanitarian relief and Bibles to rural areas in the winter of 2002.

Inside the little store the dried fish, a few canned goods, bread and fresh, local apples sat on the worn shelves. An ancient abacus sat patiently, ready to calculate the little grocery bills.

The villagers were here, waiting for the two visitors. Some needed clothes or a little money for medications. “I’ve even brought glasses. After we read a verse from the Bible, we’ll go to the truck and get them.”

Little children pushed at each other as they held onto mom or dad. Old grandmothers peered out from wrinkled features at the strangers who spoke through an interpreter. They listened attentively.

“In this beautiful verse in John chapter three we learn about God’s love for us. And the proof of His love was this. He sent His Son Jesus into our world to visit us. He didn’t come to condemn us. He didn’t have to. The Bible says we are condemned and guilty already. God’s courtroom has already closed the case. We are all sinners. But here’s what God did. He came Himself into our world to lay down His life for our sins.”

Some eyes filled with tears. They had not read these verses before. Some had always thought that Jesus was merely a good example for us to follow. Now they were understanding. He was a Savior the Savior.

“I guess we really do need to be saved, don’t we!” a man exclaimed. Afterward, they surrounded the little truck. Old tired eyes tried on glasses. First this pair and then the next. Finally one pair seemed to help just a little.

The grim-looking seventy-year-old lady picked up a pair. A smile broke over her face and she spoke excitedly.

“What is she saying?” the visitor asked the interpreter.

“Oh, she says now she can see the mountaintops!”

The beautiful leaves had painted the mountains around the village in natural splendor. She drank it in, looking in every direction and repeating, “I can see the mountains. Beautiful!”

Meanwhile, other faces were glowing as they used their new reading glasses to see the new Bibles they had just received. They were looking at the splendor of God’s words. They were also seeing things they had not known before. Do you know what it means: “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17)?

Take off your glasses. Close your eyes. Now think about it. What do these words mean to you? Are you saved?

If I Die Tonight

If-I-die-tonight! Is it possible that at some moment I must die? That time will still roll on, the sun and stars still shine, others be born to work and play, but I shall not be here? And if I die tonight, where will I spend eternity?

A voice from the Word of God answers: “And these shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46).

Everlasting punishment for me? Is it possible that I have lived here all these years, intensely busy with the cares, debts, money-making and pleasures surrounding me, and have left God out? Oh, how blind I have been!

I have given my life, my talents, my thoughts and my ambitions for things that are only passing, and I have neglected the most important thing of all-my soul’s salvation! But if I had taken the time to find God, to love and serve Him—what then?

“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” (John 5:24).

And I have neither listened nor believed! Oh, what a fool I am! If I were to die tonight, I would spend my eternity in hell!

Oh, if only I had lived for God! Wasted youth, fruitless years—I wish I could recall them now. Is there no escape for me? Must I be lost forever? Amos 1 too late to find God?

My friend, come to Jesus. He is waiting, His loving arms outstretched, His heart overflowing in love and pity—waiting, knocking, patiently standing at the door of your heart. Open to Him before He departs forever!

Won’t you pause for just one brief moment, close your eyes, and quietly surrender right where you are standing? God grant you will-for you may pass into eternity tonight.

The Lord Jesus, God’s Son, says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup [have fellowship] with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

In the Depths of the Sea

I will cast in the depths of the fathomless sea

All your sins and transgressions, whatever they be;

Though they mount up to heaven, though they reach

down to hell,

They shall sink in the depths, and above them shall swell

All the waves of forgiveness, so mighty and free;

I will cast all your sins in the depths of the sea.

In the deep, silent depths far away from the shore,

Where they never shall rise up to trouble you more,

Where no far-reaching tide with its pitiless sweep

Can stir the dark waves of forgetfulness deep-

I have buried them there, where no mortal can see;

I have cast all your sins in the depths of the sea!

Just an Ordinary Day

Sometime some ordinary day will come,

A busy day like this-filled to the brim

With ordinary tasks-perhaps so full

That we have little thought or care for Him.

And there will be no hint from silent skies,

No sign, no clash of cymbals, roll of drum,

And yet that ordinary day will be

The very day in which our Lord will come.

Leonardo and the King of France

Leonardo da Vinci was perhaps the greatest artist of the period in history known as the Renaissance. He was born in Italy, where he lived and worked most of his life. When he was an old man, the king of France invited him to live in his country. King Francis I promised that he would provide for all his needs. Da Vinci accepted this generous offer, and with three paintings, a few belongings and one apprentice he left for his new home. The king gave him living quarters in a castle not far from Paris.

King Francis I did not require much work of his renowned guest. Once Leonardo staged a great reception with lots of artwork in honor of a royal family member, but for the most part his last years were quiet ones. Toward the end of Leonardo’s life, King Francis I made it a habit to pay the painter visits. The king of France enjoyed talking with da Vinci like a friend on many subjects.

A legend has it that one day King Francis came to visit his friend and discovered Leonardo was dying. Leonardo had lain in bed all day, unable to move, but in honor of his royal guest he tried to sit up! The king looked on the struggling Leonardo with pity and then sat down on the side of the bed. He put his arm tenderly around Leonardo to support him. While the king held him, Leonardo confessed to wasting much of his life and his talent. Then he died in the arms of the king.

The story may be only a legend, but it is based on the fact that the king of France was very fond of the great painter and paid him frequent visits. Like Leonardo, we too will have to pass out of this scene. “Prepare to meet thy God,” the prophet Amos cried, and it would be wise if we obeyed his admonition. We need to get ready for our final departure from this world.

We may not die in the arms of a king of a great country, but each one of us, by God’s grace, when we die can enter with joy into the presence of the great King of the universe.

Who is the King of the universe? He is the Lord Jesus Christ, “who is the blessed and only Potentate [Monarch], the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15).

King Francis might have been a ruler over millions of people and able to command armies to do his will, but he was just as powerless as the poorest beggar in his kingdom when it came to forgiving sins committed against God. Forgiveness can be obtained only through the Lord Jesus. The Bible says of all those who believe in Him, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

The sin which would have barred forever our entrance into heaven’s glories can be washed away by the Savior’s blood. The wonderful truth for everyone who believes on God’s Son is that they are saved for time and eternity. They receive the gift of forgiveness of sins not for any good qualities they might possess, but because they have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross. And being saved, when they pass out of this world, they will enter into the presence of their Lord who loved them and gave Himself for them.

The sad truth for all those who never come to repentance and faith in Christ is that they will be lost for all eternity. Sin is a terrible thing because it has the power to sink people into hell. It is not the harmless plaything many people would like to believe that it is. There is no such thing as “little” sins; all sin is really an affront to the majesty of God. It is really saying to Him, “You are not the Supreme Being in the universe! I am just as competent to know right and wrong as You, and therefore I can choose to do whatever I want.” Sin brings about a state of separation from God, and its final end for those who continue in it is to be separated from Him forever in a place of eternal punishment.

What a bleak future awaits those who never see their need of salvation! A criminal might receive a prison sentence for a number of years and stagger under the weight of his punishment. But what will it be for you if you never come to the Lord Jesus, when you pass out of this world and you stand before the great Judge, and you hear Him say, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41). How will you feel at that moment when you realize your sentence isn’t in terms of years or even lifetimes, but of a never-ending eternity?

No one needs to perish. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

At the cross the Lord Jesus made the supreme sacrifice that we might be forgiven-“Christ died for our sins”! Don’t trifle with sin, but repent of it and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to have those sins washed away.

According to the legend, Leonardo died in the arms of a great king. Not long ago we heard of a young man who suffered a fatal fall while rock-climbing. Known as a sincere believer, it was said of him, “He fell from the rocks-into the arms of the Lord Jesus!” It was not a sad ending to his story, but a glorious new beginning. Won’t you accept the Lord Jesus as your Savior so that if death takes you, you will enter into His wonderful presence? It is no legend, but truth-that Jesus Christ died, rose again and now waits to receive all those who believe in Him in this life to heaven above. What a moment that will be for every believer! Sorrow and death will flee away, and they will enter with joy into the presence of their Lord and Savior, never to part from Him again. Don’t miss it for anything in this world! Place your trust in Him now, even before you lay down this little booklet. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

Living With Danger

In the year 62 A.D. two small towns in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius were severely damaged by an earthquake. For sixteen years the citizens of the two towns worked to rebuild their towns bigger and better than ever. They were still building in 79 A.D., when Vesuvius erupted again and buried both towns. Of the estimated 20,000 people living in Pompeii, at least 2000 died, and the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum were totally destroyed.

Coming nearer to our time, in 1631 Vesuvius erupted again and killed 4000 people.

Closer still, in 1980 an earthquake struck Naples, in the shadow of Vesuvius, and claimed 3000 lives.

Asked about the possibility of a really gigantic upheaval in that unstable area, a great scientist answered, “We prefer to forget about that prospect!”

Where there were only 20,000 in 79 A.D., the area may contain 2,000,000 today-2,000,000 souls living in the shadow of total catastrophe! Of course, they “prefer to forget”—but can they?

Every tremor of the earth (one town has counted one hundred tremors in a single day), every rumble from Vesuvius is a warning. Would you like to live “on the edge” like that?

It may be that you are living in even more deadly danger every day of your life. You may stand on firm ground; you may never have experienced an earthquake nor even seen a volcano, but you still have no guarantee of safety even one hour ahead.

We read in God’s Word-the Bible-that “now is the accepted time...now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Nowhere does God say to you, “You can put it off today; there will always be tomorrow.”

No, never! He says instead, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:1).

Oh, please don’t say, “I prefer to forget about that prospect!”

The people who live in the “Fiery Fields” near Vesuvius may feel that they must stay there: They were born there, perhaps their families are there and all that they have is there. They may not think that they have any choice. But you have a choice. Your immortal soul is in danger, was born in danger, but you may still “flee from the wrath to come.”

You only need to turn to the Lord Jesus and receive the salvation He freely offers you, and you can know that you are safe, forever safe, on the Rock that can never be moved or shaken. “Who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?” (Psa. 18:31).

The choice is yours! “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (Deut. 30:19).

Lost in a Sea of Negatives

It would seem that when it comes down to the bedrock, things that really count, things of sin and the soul and the Savior, a great many people suddenly become very positive about their negatives, and very negative about those positives which are clearly, definitely marked out in the living Word of God.

Ask them about the welfare of the soul, and there will be the innocent look and the injured line: “Why, I don’t do this and I don’t go there!” As if heaven could be gained by the pious accumulation of nothings. And it is tragic to note their negative attitude and expression when one seeks to bring home the positives of the Word of God: “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3), and, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7). An old man belligerently asked me if forty years of church membership was to “go overboard.” Another was disappointed when I was not impressed by his graphic recital of personal philanthropies. But for all of that, it is tragically true that many who are church-filled are Christless, and they will find plenty of company in the woe of “blackness of darkness forever” (Jude 13).

The “do’s and don’ts” of the Christless become the peril of the soul which, in the midst of its negatives, has neglected to spend a clear, honest moment in facing facts according to the perfect Word of God.

“The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (2 Cor. 4:4). A chemist will follow the formula; a builder, the blueprint; a driver, the road map. They consider it important to follow directions. But how sad the soul which is allowed to carry on without the help and guidance of the living Word of the Lord!

And remember, all such negatives come from the devil to keep the soul from light and salvation. Nothing, on the other hand, is more positive than this: “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

And: “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7)!

This is primary. This is pertinent. And this is pressingly positive!

New Life - A Must

About the year 33 A.D. there lived in the city of Jerusalem a man named Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jewish nation and a member of a respectable group called the Pharisees, a people extremely careful of keeping the law and meticulous in observing all its fasts, feasts and ceremonies.

During Passover week, when a great number of strangers from all over the civilized world were in the city, there was much excitement about one Jesus of Nazareth who was at that time in Jerusalem. He had been healing sick people and feeding the multitudes who followed Him. Now it was reported that He had cast out of the temple a number of men who had been making a market of it. This caused a sensation among the people, especially among the group to which Nicodemus belonged.

Nicodemus was troubled in his mind. He would not be led by public opinion, but determined to go and hear for himself. So after dark one night he set off alone to have an interview with Jesus.

Before Nicodemus had been long in the company of Jesus he was told, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

This startled Nicodemus; it was something entirely new to him. He believed in being religious and keeping the ordinances, but of being “born again” he knew nothing.

He had not long to puzzle over the new doctrine before Jesus told him something even more startling still: “Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

Not only wicked men like murderers and thieves need to be born again, but YOU-your own self.

This cuts at the root of all human religion. It doesn’t matter how “good” people are or “what church” they belong to; Jesus says they must be born again or they can never enter God’s kingdom. They may “say their prayers,” “read their Bibles,” and “do the best they can,” yet if they are not born again they “cannot see the kingdom of God.” It is a “must,” you see.

It is not because you are worse than your neighbors or because you sometimes lose your temper. It is not even if you are a very wicked person, but because you are a child of Adam-a sinner by birth and with a sinner’s nature. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one” (Job 14:4). Can the leopard change his spots? No.

So with man. He cannot be reformed and please God; he cannot be improved so as to gain heaven. He needs to be made a “new creature.” It is not a little counseling that he needs to make him all right; it is a new life. And this life must come from somewhere outside himself. He cannot find it within himself; he cannot earn it by his good works. He must be born again.

Now, if any man could have gone to heaven by virtue of his respectability, that man was Nicodemus. And yet to him the Savior said, “Ye must be born again.”

And, judging by Nicodemus’ later actions as recorded by the Bible, we may be assured that he believed the Lord Jesus and did indeed receive that new life.

“Marvel not that I said unto THEE, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

Niagara Falls

What a dangerous stunt! Should the man be admired for his courage or despised for his foolishness?

On October 11, 2003, Kirk Jones became the first man known to have plunged over Niagara Falls without assistance of any kind and live. Others did the feat enclosed in barrels and other containers, and in 1960 a boy survived a boating accident, going over the Falls wearing a life jacket, but this man was to do it with only the clothes on his body.

When sightseers at the stations above the Falls saw him enter the water and float over the waterfall, they thought it was a case of a man committing suicide. It wasn’t a suicide attempt. It was a man carrying out a stunt that he had contemplated for years. Headfirst over the Falls he rushed along with over 150,000 gallons of water a second. Down 180 feet he fell to the water and rocks beneath. Incredibly, Kirk Jones survived with only minor injuries.

So should such a stunt be admired or condemned? Most people without hesitation would despise it as madness. They would never consider committing such a rash act themselves. But there is another plunge that every man and woman will have to take, and it is pure madness to take it without the Savior. The plunge I am speaking of is the great passage from this life into eternity. It happens at death.

Like being carried over a great waterfall with irresistible force, those who die without faith in Christ will be plunged into the depths of a lost eternity. They will spend that eternity in the dark, miserable regions of hell. Christless they remained in this life, and Christless they will remain forever. Oh, they will see Him on the great white throne of judgment when all the wicked dead who ever lived are gathered together, but it will only be to hear Him announce their final sentence before they are sent away to the lake of fire.

It is madness and foolishness of the worst kind to live without Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners, because it is only through Him that any of us can ever hope to be saved. Many who reject the gospel message look on their rejection of God’s grace as an act of courage. They feel they aren’t afraid of death; they feel they can face what happens at death, and thereafter, bravely.

Such courage is not a virtue-it is madness!

Christ rose from the grave! He was seen of many after His resurrection! He did miracles through the Holy Spirit that should confirm the truth of His message to every rational soul. He spoke as no other man ever did. He said all those who would believe on Him would be saved, while all those who reject the gospel message would be lost. It is not courage that flies in the face of all this and rejects His message. It is madness.

Before you fall from the height of this foolishness into the abyss of hell, stop, and get out of the current that is pulling you over the brink. Stop, and take Christ as your Savior. Bend your heart and knee to Him in this life. He is supremely worthy of your trust as well as the trust of every other human being. He even now waits to see what you will do with this invitation. He will save you the moment you trust in Him, and He will take you out of all danger. The blood that was shed at Calvary’s cross has the power to wash the vilest sinner clean and make him fit for heaven. “The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Only Kirk Jones survived the unprotected plunge over the Falls. No one who ever passes out of this world without the Savior will escape hell.

It is not courage to live without a saving faith in Jesus Christ. End such rashness at once, and come to the Savior. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Trust the Savior at once, and you will be glad you’ve had that horrible burden of sin washed away. And your gladness will increase a thousand fold when in a future moment you get to heaven and see face to face the One who loved you so much that He gave His life for you.

No Time for God?

No time for God?

What fools we are to clutter up

Our lives with common things,

And leave without heart’s gate

The Lord of life—and Life itself—Our God.

No time for God?

As soon to say, no time

To eat or sleep or love or die!

Take time for God,

Or you shall dwarf your soul;

And when the angel death

Comes knocking at your door,

A poor misshapen thing you’ll be

To step into Eternity.

No time for God?

That day when sickness comes

Or trouble finds you out

And you cry out for God-

Will He have time for you?

No time for God?

Someday you’ll lay aside

This mortal self, and make your way

To worlds unknown;

And when you meet Him face to face,

Will He—should He—

Have time for you?

Over the Edge

The storm had been raging for two days, and already close to twenty-four inches of rain had flooded the Caribbean island. Roads were blocked, streets flooded, houses tilted on their foundations and ruin was everywhere.

As his car crept slowly along through the downpour, Mr. Gonzalez peered anxiously at the road ahead. He was following the taillights of the car in front, and he assumed that as long as that car got through, he could too. Suddenly, as the car in front started across a bridge, the taillights disappeared. He braked quickly and got out to investigate. To his horror, he found that the middle span of the bridge had washed away and that the car ahead of him had plunged into thirty feet of muddy water.

Quickly turning his car sideways to block the road, he got out and stood by the car waving his arms and shouting as he saw another car approaching. To his dismay, the oncoming car refused to stop. Apparently fearing an ambush, the driver gunned his motor, swerved around the barricade and plunged into the river.

Mr. Gonzales could hardly believe his eyes, but more headlights were approaching. Once more he tried to avert disaster. Flailing his arms wildly and yelling, “Stop!” at the top of his voice, he had to watch in agony as, once more, the oncoming vehicle swerved around the barricade and catapulted into the river.

Time after time it happened. The warning was given and the warning was ignored. Before the authorities could erect a suitable barricade and totally blockade the bridge, twenty-nine people had swerved around the blockade and plunged to their deaths.

What a disaster! Why wouldn’t they stop? Perhaps they were in a hurry. Perhaps they were afraid. Whatever the reason, they ignored the warning and died as a result.

Are you doing the same thing? God has been speaking to you and warning you of judgment to come. He tells you that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23) and that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). Have you stopped and recognized that warning and acknowledged the danger you are in? Or are you swerving around the barricade and heading toward certain judgment?

Again God warns you: “Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee” (Job 36:18). Have you stopped at that barricade?

The consequences of ignoring God’s warnings are tremendous. If you refuse to pay attention to His warnings, your destiny will be far worse than death by drowning in a flood-swollen river. Your soul will end up for eternity enduring the wrath of God in the lake of fire.

Don’t refuse to listen to God’s warnings. He loves you so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for you. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Won’t you pay attention to the warnings and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior now?

Reality Sinks in

“You need to have heart surgery.” The doctor looked the patient right in the eyes. I can just imagine how my dad felt when he heard these words. He looked into the kind but serious face of the heart specialist.

Likely a dozen thoughts ran through his mind in a moment or two: “Maybe it’s a mistake. Check the results again. Maybe there’s another way. I’ll lose some weight. I’ll take more vitamins. I’ll do something different. There’s got to be another way.”

The doctor’s voice was firm. “You need surgery; there’s no other way. Otherwise, you’ll die.”

This reminds me of the words of the Lord Jesus to the religious man in the third chapter of John in the Bible: You “must be born again.”

Over the years people have responded in different ways: “I’m different. I’ll just try to do a little better from now on.” Sorry. You “must be born again.”

Imagine the foolishness of my father if he had said, “I’ll just get a haircut. I’ll dress up a bit more. That’ll be enough. I think that’s all I need.” Imagine the frustration of the doctor at hearing such nonsense!

But in spiritual ways we can also be just as foolish. Here’s a common thought: “But maybe I could just help a few people, you know, love my neighbor just a little more. Maybe cut the grass for him, if it’s not too hot.” Sorry, you “must be born again.”

No, there’s no other way. It’s not a mistake; Jesus really did say that. He does know best. You “must be born again.”

Someone else may say, “I’ll go to church more often. I’ll be baptized again. I’ll be more sincere.” Sorry. Jesus said, You “must be born again.”

I would suggest to you that this business is worth looking into. My opinion and your opinion are not worth anything if they contradict what Jesus has said. We ought to pay attention to Him. He is like the specialist doctor; He knows what you need. He is the Savior.

What will you do about it? Make excuses? Face the facts?

My Dad had the heart surgery, and the surgeon saved his life. But you need a Savior who can save you from your sin and eternal judgment. Don’t wait! This is urgent business.

Ruby's Dream

Ruby Williams had a dream-a dream she held in her heart through years of farm and field work, cropping cotton and picking peaches. She kept that dream through the long years of share cropping, domestic work and the care of fourteen children to feed and clothe.

After eighty-four years, free at last to pursue her dream, what did she long for? An easier life? A better home? Comfort?

No, thank you! The dream of her life was to learn to read. And her dream came true, thanks to a literacy program where she lived. What did she want to read? Thrilling fiction-mysteries-lurid tabloid tales? No!

“I want to read my Bible,” she said.

She added, “Sometimes I pick up my Bible and read and read and read. I sure do! Glory hallelujah! Thank God!”

Wise Ruby Williams! Nothing in the whole world can give her the joy and satisfaction that she finds reading that wonderful Book and learning more and more of the Lord Jesus Christ, her Savior. She can read of His life on earth, His death and resurrection, His coming again to take all who are His to that home He has prepared in the Father’s house, and she can know that it is all hers to enjoy forever. Glory hallelujah indeed!

Salvation's Day

Straying far on sin’s dark mountain

Like a sheep that’s gone astray,

Every moment takes you farther

From the straight and narrow way.

As a silly sheep, not knowing

Where the path you tread will lead,

Straying further into darkness-

None but Christ can meet your need.

Listen to the wondrous story:

Jesus came the lost to save;

Gave His life, His blood on Calvary,

Rose victorious from the grave.

Lives in glory to receive you:

None are ever turned away,

While the door of mercy’s open,

While it’s called Salvation’s Day.

Now to me He calls in mercy,

Calls to you, to all oppressed;

Yes, to you the word is written,

“Come, and I will give you rest.”

Saved in the Pit and From the Pit

I was brought up in a home where there was a Bible, but it was seldom opened. I was sent to Sunday school, however, where I received my only religious training. When I began to work and to earn my own money, I refused to go anymore. I had no desire for and no interest in eternal things.

I went in for everything my income would afford, trying the “broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” I was totally careless about my soul’s eternal welfare.

I worked with some who said they were saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and had eternal life. I thought I believed in Jesus too, but I had no such assurance. I know now that I only believed about the Lord Jesus, just as I believed about Napoleon or any other great man. Believing about the Lord Jesus never saved anyone, while believing on the Lord Jesus Christ has saved millions. Thank God!

Later I worked in a small coal mine in Cumberland County. I was put on shift work in the Pit, and a real Christian was working next to me. At mealtimes he used to tell me of the work of Christ on Calvary’s cross, of conversions of people he had known, and of the realities of eternity. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15;1 “began to be in want.” I had a desire for something better than I had.

I did not let him nor anyone else know I was troubled. I used to slip an old Bible I had up to my bedroom. I had not looked at it for years and wouldn’t have let anyone see me with it for anything.

One night I opened my Bible at Rev. 20 and read of a “great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away....And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened...and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works.”

I felt uncomfortable in view of this scene; every backward glance at my life only brought sins to my memory. Then the words of God pressed upon me: “Judged...according to their works,” not according to someone else’s, but one’s own, and “God [requires] that which is past” of each one of us.

One morning while eating our lunch in the Pit, the old brother quoted that verse in Rom. 10:8-9: “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

How I drank in that life-giving word! There and then I was saved. Yes, saved. Yes, in the Pit of the coal mine I was saved from the pit of everlasting destruction.

Down in the dark coal mine, where the light of the sun never shines, the light of the glorious gospel of Christ Jesus shone into my dark heart and I passed “from death unto life,” “from the power of Satan unto God.” Many years have run their course, and still I can sing:

Now I can call the Savior mine,

Though all unworthy still;

I’m sheltered by His precious blood

Beyond the reach of ill.

Sunrise

Even in America! Even where we believed, “It can’t happen here,” the old sense of peace and security is disappearing rapidly. We look at the daily news: “Schools add metal detectors.” “State troopers to patrol crime-ridden city.” “Tight security to slow down airport traffic.” And we wonder—and worry.

There is a flash—a crash—a great airliner is down in the sea. The first automatic question in every mind: “Was it a bomb?”

It was a terrible, terrible tragedy, but out of all the grief and pain there came one shining statement. One father, losing his daughter and son-in-law, could still say that his comfort was in knowing that they were in heaven. He said, “We woke up to a sunrise, but they woke up to a sunrise many times more glorious. We know where they are, and we will see them again.”

What a comfort to that family! Could those who love you say the same? Should you fall victim to the senseless destruction that has claimed too many lives, would your family be able to say with certainty, “We will see them again”?

And would you be sure, if your life on earth ended suddenly, without warning, that there is a better life ahead? Do you know that if you are “absent from the body” you will be “present with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8)? “In Thy presence is fullness of joy” (Psa. 16:11), and you can be sure that you will be there. He has promised absolutely that “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” And just as positively: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom. 10:9).

The terror on earth will not stop until the Lord Jesus returns, but there is a shelter for you personally and for all who will accept the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn’t that wonderful?

“Safety is of the Lord” (Prov. 21:31).

Thanksgiving

To whom should we offer thanksgiving?

“Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him” (Col. 3:17).

For what should thanksgiving be offered?

“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15).

How often should thanksgiving be offered?

“By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:15).

“Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20).

The Book

It has been said that out of every thousand books written, six hundred do not pay the cost of printing and only live a year, while only fifty last seven years. However, the Bible, which is centuries old in its complete form, and probably over five thousand years old in its earliest portions, is still easily the “best seller.”

It is printed in hundreds of languages and dialects, and millions of copies of the whole or part are circulated every year. Yet no book has ever been so persecuted.

Persecution has raged since the days of Jehoikim, king of Israel, who “cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire” (about 606 B.C.). Antiochus Epiphanes (168 B.C.) destroyed all the copies he could find. Diocletian (303 A.D.) did the same, and many in later years made bonfires of the earliest printed New Testaments.

It has had to stand the attacks made upon it, first by atheists and then by modernists, but it is still what a former prime minister of England called “the impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture.”

Other books die a natural death, but this Book is possessed of indestructible vitality.

“THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURETH FOREVER” (1 Peter 1:25)!

The Gamblers

A sudden thunderstorm sent a flash flood rushing through the streets and into the buildings and gambling casinos of Las Vegas, Nevada. As the Colorado River rose, downtown streets were closed off and buildings sandbagged, but in the casinos it was “business as usual” to the patrons determined to carry on.

The manager of one place said, “Water was dripping on the slot machines and stools, but the people kept pulling the handles. We finally had to ask them to move. It didn’t seem to bother them at all. You hear stories like this. It’s hard to believe until you see it. They are oblivious! They couldn’t care less!”

Oblivious—not caring—while the thunderstorm raged and the floodwaters swirled higher. It was a perfect picture of many, many people in the world today. We are living in a time of wars and rumors, a time when nations are being swept by storms of revolution and change, a time when the greatest storm of all-the storm of God’s judgment on the world could break over a careless world at any moment, but still men and women go on, oblivious to all the warnings.

They are gambling, not dollars and cents, but their lives and their souls-their everlasting souls. Intent only on the object before them, they are risking their eternal future for a temporary gain now. They don’t care that the Lord Jesus said, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). They willingly run that risk every day, gambling that tomorrow will find them still alive and with one more chance to be saved. But the end will come. Sooner or later, the end of physical life will come, the game will be ended and the gamble lost. What will be left? Only bitter, bitter regret and everlasting sorrow.

Oh, don’t take any more chances! Stop gambling with your soul. Believe now. Receive Christ Jesus now. Tomorrow may be too late.

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

The Gold Miner

It was a tragedy-a bitter, unnecessary tragedy. Roy Madson had twenty-seven years of mining experience; he knew all the dangers; he had all the necessary safety equipment, but he was brought out of a gas-filled gold mine-dead.

What could have happened?

He was wearing the required safety belt. The safety lines were all in place. But-he hadn’t bothered to attach the lines to his belt. When he ventured into a new section of the mine and encountered poisonous gas, he was overcome. Not being attached to the safety lines, he could not be pulled at once to fresh air, and he fell to his death in the depths of the mine.

The mine owner said later, “He had the proper belt, and the safety lines were there, but for some reason he didn’t attach them to himself...he evidently felt secure in what he was doing; it wasn’t attached, and they couldn’t pull him out.”

Do you recognize any parallel between the story of this miner and your own life? Are you busily mining “gold” in the polluted and sin-poisoned air of this world? Have you made sure that the safety line is attached?

There is one, you know. God has provided a way of escape for all who will take it. We have only to “attach it to ourselves,” to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our one and only Savior, believing in Him and His work for us, and we will be able to say as David in the Psalms: “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God” (Psa. 40:2-3).

But what if you, like the gold miner, fail to attach the safety line? What if you do not receive the salvation God is offering to you?

Then, when that last day comes for you, you will sink down into the pit of darkness and despair because you never bothered to be sure of the safety of your never-dying soul.

What a tragedy that would be! What a heart-breaking, unnecessary tragedy!

Attach the safety line today. Accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior NOW, before it is too late.

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

The Greatest Need

The man had been sick for thirty-eight years, yet still he lay hopefully beside the Pool of Bethesda. Others had plunged into the water and were healed, but he had no friend to put him into the water and lay helpless while others rushed by him to be “first” into the healing water.

Can you imagine his despair as he saw others come from the pool cured, while he must continue to lie there alone, friendless and disabled.

Then Jesus came. He said, “Wilt thou be made whole?”

The poor, helpless man answered, “Sir, I have no man...to put me into the pool.”

Jesus replied, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”

“And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked.” (You can read the whole story in the Bible in John 5:2-15.)

The Lord Jesus is no longer on earth going about healing as He did then, but He is always waiting to take care of a need that is greater than curing a sick or crippled body. In fact, it is the greatest need of all.

We, sinners, cannot go to heaven unless our sins are forgiven. We are just as helpless as the poor man by the pool.

Have you felt your load of sins and your need of a Savior? Jesus is able, He is willing and He is ready to save you. He is the Savior for those who cannot save themselves-and that disability includes everyone on earth.

He promises, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

“When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5:6).

The Life Jacket

Just imagine for a minute that you are a cement finisher standing on a narrow scaffolding. You are working on one of the trestles leading up to the main span of the Sunshine Skyway that towers far above your head. Below you is only the blue-green water of the Gulf of Mexico.

Suddenly you drop your concrete bucket and it falls into the water ten feet below. What do you do?

It once happened just like that. A construction worker on the bridge dropped his concrete bucket into the water, and what do you suppose he did?

Why, he threw off his life jacket and jumped into the swirling water below. He came to the surface, and co-workers threw him a rope, but it fell out of his reach. He sank below the surface again and did not reappear.

Soon the company boats and the U. S. Coast Guard were searching the waters, but when at last a diver found the body it was just that-a body. Life had gone.

Now you think that you wouldn’t have thrown the life jacket away. Have you disregarded the “life jacket” God has provided for us? That young worker lost his life because he trusted in his own strength. Are you trusting in something you can do for your own salvation?

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Proverbs 28:26). But he also says, “Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe” (Prov. 29:25).

We must “trust in the Lord.” There is no other way of safety either here or hereafter. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The Long, Black Memorial

Lawrence Hammond-Bruce Lawson-James McAndrew...the names glint in the Washington sunshine, names etched in the polished black granite of the Vietnam Memorial, names of those who died. Their living loved ones come to stand and search for that one special name-to reach up to touch this one last tie-to whisper, “We remember-we will never forget-we love you.”

Long after the last mourner has gone, when there is no one left able to say, “I knew him; I cared for him,” the names will still be there: Nathaniel Lee Marvin Lindsey-Dennis Pitsenbarger...it will be a voice ever saying: They lived, and they are dead.

Yes, every name on those stones is a memorial to death. Paul McNaly-Gary Tracy-Frank Wilson...they are remembered, they were loved, but those reaching hands, those longing hearts, can never really touch them. It is a roster of the dead.

There is another place where names are written names that will endure for all eternity. It is spoken of in the Bible, in Rev. 21:27, where we read of those people whose names are written in “the Lamb’s book of life.”

These are names that will last forever, names of the living: Jennifer, Steve, Carole, Bryan, whosoever...! Is your name written there?

Jesus said, “He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

The names etched in granite are not there by choice. To die in the mud and blood and suffering of war was a terrible thing. Far, far worse will it be to die without making sure that your name is written in the book of life. That choice is yours!

After the “dead, small and great, stand before God,” whosoever is not found written in that book will be “cast into the lake of fire.” That means eternal separation from God in blackness of darkness forever, in a state too horrible to contemplate.

Again, you do have a choice! By believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, by receiving Him as your own Savior, by confessing Him as Lord, you will insure that your name is in that book.

What does the Lord Jesus say to you then? “Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20)!

Rejoice! Isn’t that wonderful?

The Lost Sheep Found

On the battlefield lay the wounded soldier. Around him were the dead, and he, weak with the loss of blood, felt his end was near.

“I am dying-dying! And I am not ready,” he cried.

He realized he was not fit to meet God. What could he do? Who could help him?

Then before his mind came the days of his childhood and the gospel preaching he used to go to with his mother. He remembered the Bible story about the good Shepherd seeking the one lost sheep among the wild and barren mountains.

And here the scene changed and he was in his childhood home, reciting the poem he learned as a little boy:

Jesus, tender Shepherd, hear me!

Bless Thy little lamb tonight;

In the darkness be Thou near me,

Keep me safe till morning light.

Lying on that lonely field, he began to repeat the words again. He also thought of the past years of forgetfulness of God and how sinful his life had been.

The cry burst from his lips: “I am not His little lamb! I’m a great big black sheep-a vile black sheep!”

In his repentance he was helpless. Who could help him in his great need?

Turning to the Savior, he prayed, “Oh, Shepherd, come-come and find and save this great big black sheep!”

God, who always hears a repentant cry, gave him peace. Slipping into unconsciousness, he awoke to find himself safe in a hospital. In a few weeks he was sent home to his mother. How they rejoiced together as he told her how he, the lost sheep, had been “found” by the Savior!

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).

The Plastic Mouse

The little plastic mouse was on a fine thread. It climbed up out of a cup and ran up the man’s sleeve. As a young boy, I watched wide-eyed. The seller sang its praises as the crowd also watched the amazing feats.

It was highly commended—and worth every penny! I stepped forward, put my two dollars down, and picked up the amazing mouse. In a few more minutes I realized I didn’t have the man’s touch!

The little fellow didn’t run so smoothly now, and he seemed to have forgotten all his tricks. I realized I’d been tricked, or I needed a lot of practice.

God commends His love to us. No tricks here. The closer you look, the better it is. Peel back the surface and find more of the same. This is real love, and He demonstrated it when He gave His Son.

This is what the Bible says: “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

That verse talks about three things. First, it speaks of God’s love. God commends it. He introduces us to it and proves it. This isn’t love on a string doing tricks and delivering empty promises.

Second, it speaks of our sin. Amazing! God presents His love to sinners. He doesn’t wait until we’ve cleaned up our act. That would be never! He loves us now.

Ever meet a sinner? He’s always the other person. But we don’t progress spiritually until we bow before God and admit, “I am a sinner and need a Savior.” Look in the mirror.

Third, it speaks of Christ’s death. Here is the grand proof of that love. People ask, “How can the death of a man 2000 years ago affect me today?” First, realize this Man was no mere man!

Jesus was the Son of God! He was more than just a carpenter, more than just a “shining example.” In laying down His sinless life, He took the curse and judgment sin brought upon mankind. In receiving Him, the pardon His death purchases is ours.

The verse is simple, the words plain. But the message is powerful and life-changing. Stop and think about it for a few minutes. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

He is no trickster; He’s the Savior. Have you ever trusted Him?

The Pygmy Rattlesnake

The twenty-four first-grade children were tired and restless. When time came for physical education their teacher joined with them for the few minutes’ break out-of-doors. It was a happy and peaceful time, until someone noticed a little intruder-a small, very small, snake.

The little snake didn’t look dangerous-not the least little bit. This was no great white shark out in the ocean, no fifteen-foot alligator with gaping jaws hiding in a swamp. This was only a tiny snake wriggling in the grass on the schoolyard.

But the teacher needed only one look to hurriedly try to form the children into a line and get them inside the school. “Don’t touch the snake,” she kept saying. “Don’t touch it!”

Six-year-old R.J. couldn’t resist. The snake was pretty, and it coiled up so neatly and made such a little buzzing sound-no, he just had to touch it. Pain, sudden and sharp, shot through the little boy’s right index finger. Soon, screaming with pain, R.J. was rushed to a hospital and into intensive care, where doctors and nurses could battle to save his rapidly swelling hand-or perhaps even his life.

The little snake was only six to eight inches long, but the poison it carried is more potent than that of the diamondback rattlesnake which can grow to as much as eight feet long. No one would think of touching him! The little pygmy didn’t look as dangerous as his big cousin, but both rattlesnakes share the same nature-and equally deadly poison.

It is the same with sin: Large or small, sin is SIN. Almost everyone would agree that murder and stealing are sins, but so-called “little sins”? Yes, they are sins too; they are all part of the whole. And the big, unforgivable sin is the rejection of His Son, Jesus Christ. “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” God’s good news has been offered to humanity for hundreds-no, thousands of years-and yet people still are saying in effect, “We will not have this Man to rule over us.”

And there is something thought of as a “little sin,” but, like the pygmy rattler, it is just as deadly. One can say, “Yes, I believe-it’s all true-someday I will accept Christ-but not just yet!”

It is not open rejection; it is only a little “putting off,” a little neglect, but the result can be the same. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).

Oh, don’t be a rejecter-don’t be a neglecter. The results will be fatal in either case!

The Lord Jesus has invited every sinner to “come”; it will not be His fault if we fail to accept the great offer and lose our everlasting souls.

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

The Sand Fort

The six-foot pile of sand on the vacant lot made an enticing playground for the neighborhood children. Older children with all-terrain vehicles, go-carts and dirt bikes used it as a jump pad for their races.

To the younger children it seemed more like a fort. Busily digging, they had tunneled more than eight feet into the pile. Now ten-year-old Erik was starting a new tunnel out from the center. No one noticed that the sand, which had been wet when they began, was drying out in the hot Florida sunshine.

Erik worked contentedly in the cool shade of the tunnel. His work was going well; soon they would have a three-way tunnel with three entrances. He could see the sunshine at the end of the tunnel, and the sounds of the other children playing came to him.

“Then,” his friend Anthony said, “all of a sudden—BOOM—dirt started falling, and Erik started screaming.”

All the boys began frantically digging to reach Erik. Anthony said, “We were using everything we could find—our hands, even our shoes.”

One boy ran for his father, a police officer, and two other neighbors joined in the furious digging. One man, lacking a shovel, said, “I was just digging doggie-fashion, right between my legs!” At last a bit of brown hair appeared in the sand, and they were able to lift the little boy’s head enough to start mouth-to-mouth. He seemed to be dead; it looked hopeless, but as soon as he was fully uncovered they could give him CPR until the Fire Rescue Team arrived. Erik was lifted by helicopter to the children’s hospital and intensive care. Soon the message came back to the frightened boys: Erik’s condition was “stable.”

It is so easy to dig ourselves into sand forts! It is so easy to be comfortable in our cool and shady little niches and convince ourselves that everything is all right—we’re really progressing very well with our plans and projects. But the dry little whisper of falling sand is increasing; the voices of warning are louder and more insistent. There is a little feeling that anything could happen suddenly—BOOM! The tunnel falls. There is a feeling of insecurity vague, indefinite—but nonetheless real.

What can we do about it? We can try to shore up our own little tunnels, but there is no safety there; sand is sand, unstable, shifting, impossible to depend on. We need a strong—a very strong—tower, and God has provided just such a tower. Oh, not like the “Twin Towers,” which fell on that terrible day in September. This tower stands strong and secure for all eternity, absolutely impervious to whatever disasters may come.

It is this: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Prov. 18:10).

How does one become one of those righteous ones? Well, it is certainly “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

Then—how? John 1:11-12 answers that: “He [the Lord Jesus] came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

“Believing” and “receiving.” It is as simple as that!

The Shadow on the World

There’s a shadow on the world, and it deepens;

The hearts of men begin to fail for fear;

Beneath apparent confidence and boasting,

Perplexity is growing year by year.

There’s a shadow on the world; it betokens

The long-suffering of God is nearly o’er;

The blest atoning work of Christ the Savior

Shall be held out to sinful men no more.

“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” Heb. 2:3

The Sinking of the New Carissa

When the cargo ship New Carissa was wrecked in a gale off the coast of Oregon, there was no loss of life. The twenty-three members of the crew were lifted to safety by helicopter. There was still one terrible problem: The ship carried 400,000 gallons of fuel oil. If that oil escaped and washed up on shore, it would leave a black film of oil over a hundred miles of Oregon’s coast-a major disaster.

Deeply concerned about the possible oil spill, experts on shore considered all their options. One solution they considered was to build a road across the sand dunes and from there a pipeline out to the ship to pump the oil off. However, oil was already escaping her tanks. The experts involved decided on a speedier solution: They would burn the oil. Every bit of oil that they could burn would be oil that would never reach the shore.

Naval explosive experts set the charges they hoped would ignite the oil. They had to work in a hurry because a storm packing sixty-five-mile-an-hour winds and twenty-five foot swells was approaching. When the plunger was pushed, the explosives ignited, but they failed to penetrate the thick steel of the oil tanks. At this first attempt the oil did not catch fire.

Stronger explosives were flown to the site, and the naval experts tried once more. This time the explosives ripped into the tanks and the oil was set ablaze. The ship became a towering inferno of flames and black smoke. The ship burned for three days, sending up flames as high as three hundred feet and at last breaking in two.

When the flames burned out, inspectors found 135,000 gallons of fuel left in the bow section. The fire had burned over 200,000 gallons of oil, but what was left still threatened to spoil the shore.

The failure to get rid of the oil by burning is like a bitter lesson that many people must learn about themselves. Once a person becomes convinced that God hates sin, the natural response of their heart is to try to balance out the evil that they have done by doing good. However, in the course of time, if they are honest with themselves, each one will make a startling discovery: Despite all their best efforts they will find the black tendency in their hearts to do that which is hateful in God’s sight just as strong as it ever was.

This is exactly what the Bible says: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? not one” (Job 14:4). Or, “Though thou wash thee with niter, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me” (Jer. 2:22). Self-reformation may provide a temporary, false sense of comfort, but before long that which is in the heart will come out and all the best efforts will be worth nothing. There is no power in men to make themselves more suited to the presence of God, but there is power in the Savior to make the vilest clean.

God knows the sinfulness of our hearts far better than we do ourselves. He can forgive and cleanse the worst of sinners because of the great price for sin that Jesus paid on the cross of Calvary.

After the burning of the ship, there was still the wreckage of the bow section, with very much oil, left to threaten the shore. The fuel that remained had become so thick that once it was scooped up by a coffee cup it couldn’t be poured out.

Experts now formulated a plan to rid the coast of the bow section and all its oil. They would tow the bow 250 miles out to sea and sink it in water that was several miles deep. The temperature is so cold at these depths that it would preserve the oil in almost a solid state, ensuring that it would never leak out and do any more environmental damage.

They ordered what was reported to be the strongest rope in the world. It had to come all the way from Holland. Using this rope, the tugboat Sea Victory, after several days of pulling, dislodged the bow from the sand bar and started towing it out into the open water.

When the ship was fifty miles out to sea, a winter storm developed and the rope broke. The bow section of the New Carissa was carried by the currents back to shore and ran aground at Waldport, Oregon, still leaking oil. The rope was reattached, and this time the weather cooperated and the ship was hauled out to sea.

Demolition experts first tried to sink the ship by lowering explosives onto the hull from a helicopter and then detonating them by remote control. It didn’t work. Then a navy destroyer shot eighty rounds at the ship with one of its medium-size guns. The ship still refused to sink. So the navy commander ordered a submarine to torpedo the ship.

The torpedo struck the ship, and the New Carissa with all that troublesome oil was on its way to the bottom of the sea. At the bottom of the sea the oil would never rise and trouble anyone again.

The gospel—God’s good news to man—declares that all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God will have their sins forgiven. “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” God will take all the sins of those who trust in Jesus and cast them into the depths of the sea where they will never rise again. After the Lord Jesus paid the penalty for sins at the cross, He arose from the grave and then a number of days later ascended into heaven. A songwriter beautifully wrote:

See Him now in glory seated

Where thy sins no more can rise.

Now is the time when God is offering to the world a free salvation through faith in His Son. It is reported in the book of Acts (which is in the Bible) that when the glad tidings based on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus were preached, “some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not” (Acts 28:24). To which company would you belong?

The Sky Diver

Sky diving! Thrilling, exciting, dangerous! Jumping from a plane at heights up to 13,000 feet, free-falling almost miles before pulling the cord that deploys their parachute, skydivers risk their lives with every jump. Sometimes they lose.

One who almost lost was Frank Farnan, a skydiver of twenty-five years’ experience. He was practicing aerial formations when a teammate, also free-falling, hit him on the head and knocked him out.

Falling, spinning, helpless, upside down and unconscious, Farnan was on the way to a sudden death.

Another teammate, Eddie Turner, saw him upside down, his arms “flapping in the wind like a rag doll.” At first he thought that he was trying to open his reserve chute, but then Turner realized that he was unconscious. He began a desperate plunge to try to catch up with Farnan.

Breathless seconds passed. Now Turner was below Farnan. Spreading out his arms and legs, he tried to slow his own fall enough to catch Farnan. Still the two men fell at the same speed. At the last moment, another diver “flew” under Farnan and “stole his air away from him,” and Turner was able to grab him.

Quickly he pulled the cord on Farnan’s chute and then his own. The two chutes billowed out above the hurtling men less than ten seconds before they both struck the ground-and lived.

Farnan, helpless and unknowing, had been falling straight to death. Many, many people are going about their daily business or pleasure just as unconscious that they are falling too-falling straight toward death. They are helpless, too, and unable to save themselves.

Someone must come between them and the end that they are racing towards-someone conscious, in control and able to save.

Who can that be? It can only be the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave His own life to avert that dreadful end for every one who will receive Him.

The picture fails a little here. Farnan did not know he was being rescued; he was saved unconsciously. You must consciously believe and receive Jesus Christ as your Savior.

And Eddie Turner’s courageous act almost cost his life, but not quite. The Lord Jesus gave His life. He actually went through a horrible death to save you and me.

From a hospital bed, Frank Farnan thanked Eddie Turner for saving his life. Have you thanked the Lord Jesus for giving His life for you?

The Smoke Alarm

Too late-too late! The fire had too great a head start, and when the firefighters arrived, the fierce heat prevented them from going inside until the flames were brought under control. Then the sad search began, and soon the bodies were brought out: one and another and another. Three people lay dead in the ruins of the two-story house. No more could be found, but there was still a faint buzzing noise in the ruined house. Could someone else still be alive?

The search continued, and the cause was soon discovered. Downstairs they found a smoke alarm, covered and muffled with old clothes, but still faithfully sounding the alarm-the alarm that, if they could only have heard it-would have roused them all in time to escape the burning building.

The sad fact is that they did not want to hear the alarm. They did not want to be disturbed, and so they deliberately muffled the sound that could have saved them. In peace and quietness they slept on until the moment when they awoke, engulfed in the flames of death.

There is an alarm sounding for our world today-a warning that time is short and that “it is high time to awake out of sleep” (Rom. 13:11). The good times will end; the luxury and self-indulgence, the fun and thrills cannot last. They may have muffled the sound of the alarm, may have diverted the mind for a time, but they cannot avert the eventual wakening.

Will you wake too late?

The Taki Too of Tillamook Bay

“Everybody was happy and jolly. They were all excited to go fishing. The trip began so normally,” said Jeff Folknere, the owner of the Garibaldi Marina on Oregon’s Pacific Coast. He had sat in his office sipping coffee and watching as the thirty-two foot charter boat named Taki Too motored out of the harbor.

The Taki Too was a ruggedly built, no frills kind of boat, and Captain Davis had many years of experience. He knew where to find fish as well as any other charter boat captain on the coast. Most of the passengers sat on benches out in the open, as the cabin was too small to accommodate more than a few people at a time.

The boat sailed out of the harbor and into the wide expanse of Tillamook Bay. Two large rivers that flow down from the Cascade Mountains empty into the east side of Tillamook Bay. All this water finds its way to the ocean through the mouth of Tillamook Bay. This out-flowing water beats against the incoming waves and currents of the Pacific, producing currents and chaotic waves in the region right at the mouth of the bay.

Some of the passengers, when they saw the frothy, high waves kicked up by the wind and conflicting currents, decided to put on life jackets. Others looked past the turbulent water at the mouth of the harbor and saw the long, regular succession of ocean rollers on the blue Pacific and figured they would just sit tight until they were over the bar at the entrance of the bay and into calmer water.

As it crossed this area at the mouth of the bay, a large wave slammed against the Taki Too and in an instant flipped it over. It happened so fast that no one on board had time to react and jump clear. They were plunged into the frigid water beneath the overturned boat and had to fight a life-and-death struggle to get out from under it. Once they surfaced they had to battle the waves that seemed to batter them from every direction. A few brave people on shore who saw the disaster waded through the pounding surf and tried to swim out to help, but when it was all over only eight of the nineteen people on board made it to safety. Only the ones with life jackets on survived; the rest perished in the tumbling waters.

Can you look ahead to the time when you too will have to make a dangerous crossing? The crossing I am referring to is the passage from time to eternity; it is known as death. Each one of us will have to make it. Just like those passengers on the Taki Too who donned life jackets and made it to safety, only those who have God’s salvation through faith in Christ will make it to the calm and peace and joy of heaven. All others will be lost without any hope of being saved.

Why do you need to have faith in Christ? Because He is the only Savior for sinners this world will ever know; His death on the cross is the only sacrifice God can ever accept for sin. He was not only a very special man, the only perfect man the world has ever seen, but He was also the one and only Son of God. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The many miracles He performed, such as walking on water, calming a raging storm with the command, “Peace, be still,” the miraculous feeding of thousands of people with a few loaves of bread, healing multitudes of sick folks, as well as countless other miracles, showed who Jesus was. And, finally, Jesus Christ was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4).

No great religious leader ever healed a leper, never fed thousands by a miracle and never gave sight to a man who was born blind. The Lord Jesus Christ has done all these things, but most of all He is shown to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead. His dead body was wrapped in linen and placed in a tomb. A large rock was rolled in front of the tomb to seal it. From Friday evening to Sunday morning His lifeless body lay enclosed in that tomb, but early Sunday morning He AROSE!

After His resurrection His followers saw Him on several occasions. They even ate a meal of fish and honeycomb with Him. He remained on the earth after His resurrection for forty days before He ascended into heaven. Others had been raised from the dead, such as Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter and the widow’s son. All these persons then lived out their lives and died. Only the Lord Jesus rose from the grave never to die again. He lives now in the power of endless life.

Before His crucifixion, He had made very plain the way to be saved. Here are some of the things He said: “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17).

“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26).

Later, after He had ascended up into heaven, He sent out His followers with the same message: “Be it known unto you therefore...that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39).

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

That is like putting on the life jacket, as those who survived the sinking of the Taki Too did. There will not be time to seek safety when the terrible wave of judgment overwhelms you.

“It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation” (Heb. 9:27-28).

Oh, won’t you prepare to make the crossing from time to eternity by placing your faith in the Son of God? In mercy and in love God now invites you to receive the gift of salvation. The moment you receive Jesus as Savior is the moment that your name will be written in the book of life. Don’t delay another second, but place your trust in Him before it is forever too late!

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The Truest Love

A homeless Stranger among us came

To this land of death and mourning;

He walked in a path of sorrow and shame—

Through insult and hate and scorning.

A Man of Sorrows, of toil and tears,

An outcast Man, and lonely,

But He looked on me, and through endless years

Him must I love—Him only.

And I clung to Him as He turned His face

From the land that was mine no longer

The land I had loved in the ancient days

Ere I knew the love that was stronger.

And I would abide where He abode,

And follow His steps forever;

His people, my people; His God, my God,

In the land beyond the river.

The Unchanging Word

Feelings come, and feelings go;

And feelings are deceiving;

My warrant is the Word of God-

Naught else is worth believing.

Though all my heart should feel condemned

For want of some sweet token,

There is ONE greater than my heart

Whose word cannot be broken.

I’ll trust in God’s unchanging Word

Till soul and body sever,

For, though all things shall pass away,

HIS WORD SHALL STAND FOREVER!

Martin Luther

There Always Will Be God

They cannot shell His temple,

Nor dynamite His throne;

Nor rob Him of His city,

Nor rob Him of His own.

They cannot take Him captive,

Nor strike Him deaf and blind,

Nor starve Him to surrender,

Nor make Him change His mind.

They cannot cause Him panic,

Nor cut off His supplies;

They cannot take his kingdom,

Nor hurt Him with their lies.

Though all the world be shattered,

His truth remains the same,

His righteous laws still potent

And “Father” still His name.

Though we face war and struggle

And feel their goad and rod,

We know above confusion

There always will be God!

Though the Mountains Shake

San Francisco, April 18, 1906.

Dawn was just breaking and the city was beginning to wake to the new day. There was a clip-clop, clip-clop of horses pulling milk and delivery wagons, but most of the people were still in bed.

Then came a rumble of deep thunder-but not from the sky. From below, deep underground along the fault lines in the Pacific belt, the earth’s crust buckled and cracked. Shock waves raced through the ground. Earthquake!

The heaviest damage was in the main business section of the city. It was largely built upon filled land-land built up from the sea. Sand and mud, pumped in together for a foundation, were shaken into “a thick soup”-and the buildings fell.

Fires broke out, great fires that swept uncontrolled for miles in spite of the efforts by the firefighters. There was no water to combat the fires; the water mains for the whole city were laid across that unstable filled-in land.

The best estimate was that three thousand people died in that disaster. Damage was estimated at $300,000,000-a tremendous sum in those days.

San Francisco, October 17, 1990.

This time the city was not sleeping; it was 5:04 in the afternoon and rush hour was well under way. In Candlestick Park, 62,000 people were gathered; the third game of the World Series was to be played. Again the tectonic plates slipped along the fault lines, and again the earth rippled and shook. Highways cracked, hillsides collapsed and slid down with a roar, and buildings shook, cracked and fell. In Oakland, across the bay, columns supporting a section of Interstate 880 failed and some 26,000 tons of concrete crashed down on the roadway below.

The greatest damage to buildings was in the “Marina” district, which was built on land filled in after the 1906 quake. In the rush to rebuild and to prepare for an international exposition in 1915, San Francisco used rubble from the collapsed buildings to fill in yet more of the shallow water of the bay. As before, the built-up land was the most unstable.

What about the 62,000 people in Candlestick Park? They felt the shaking, but the structure was sound. The many tiers of seats did not collapse, one upon another and on the frightened people below. Candlestick Park was built on rock-on solid bedrock! It stood firm.

Where is the safest place to be in an earthquake? Firmly on the rock!

Where is the safest-no, the only-safe place while our world is shaken around us? Again it is the rock-but this Rock is Christ.

Earthquakes are not only geographical today. Governments that claimed to be formed to “last a thousand years” are collapsing almost overnight. Nations are rising-falling-being divided-being reunited. Nearer home, businesses are failing, bankruptcies are common, and the rising tide of crime and violence threatens every area of life.

In the midst of the turmoil there is still a firm foundation for our hearts. It is a foundation, not on a sandy, shifting base of human ideas and efforts and promises, but on the absolute Word of God. The Bible tells us that “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 3:11).

The Lord Jesus Himself said, “Come unto Me... and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

To those who come to Him He promises, “My peace I give unto you....Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27). Rest-and peace-a sure, certain promise.

“Who is God save the Lord? or who is a rock save our God?” (Psa. 18:31).

On Christ salvation rests secure;

The Rock of Ages must endure;

Nor can that faith be overthrown

Which rests on Christ, the living stone.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear...though the mountains shake” (Psa. 46:1-3).

Three Dams

A young man stood on the bank of the Catawba River and steadied his inflatable boat so that a friend, holding her small dog, could step into it. This stretch of the Catawba was relatively mild, but recent rains had muddied the Catawba. Brown water flowed past them. Small eddies swirled around the occasional log or rock breaking the surface of the river. A large dam a few hundred feet upstream from where they launched the boat controlled the amount of water flowing in the river.

After the two were settled in the boat, several pulls on the oars propelled them out into the center of the river. At places large boulders jutted out of the river. It was by one such boulder at midstream that the little dog, always playful, decided to jump out of the boat. Both persons reached out at the same time to bring the little dog back into the boat. The sudden shifting of weight to one side of the boat caused it to capsize.

The two were thrown into the frigid, waist-deep water. Quickly they scrambled out of the water and onto the large rock. The dog, frightened by the commotion, swam to shore. The current carried the boat out of reach. Chilled to the bone, they stood on the rock, angry with themselves for being so careless.

The engineer in charge of the dam was completely unaware of anyone boating near the dam, much less of the accident. At this moment, he decided to open the floodgate on the dam and release some of the pent-up water that had been rising behind the dam. A great wall of water came hurtling through the floodgate. The river quickly increased in depth and breadth. The current that had been mild became a torrent. The two young people had to climb to the very top of the rock to keep from being swept away. Just when it seemed that they would be swept off the rock, the water leveled off.

Someone on shore saw their predicament and called 911. In minutes a rescue truck from a nearby fire station drove up to the water’s edge. Rescue workers saw at a glance the danger the two were in and immediately called for a helicopter. When it arrived, it hovered over the two shivering people stranded on the rock. A fireman trained for such emergencies was lowered on a cable by a winch from the side of the helicopter. First, he gave each of them a helmet and life jacket. He made sure these were securely fastened on, and then he tried to persuade the girl to put on a harness so she could be lifted up into the helicopter. At first she refused. The ordeal had left her badly shaken, and the prospect of being hoisted through the air on a cable terrified her. The fireman comforted and reassured her until at last she agreed to put on the harness and to be hoisted up. The process was quickly repeated to lift the man also to the helicopter, and soon they were both in safety.

What a shock it must have been to see the floodgates open and the torrent of water racing toward them. Can you imagine how the two felt when, after the misfortune of tipping their boat over, they realized the dam was opening and they were in danger of being swept away and drowned?

This happened in February of 2003. It makes for good storytelling, but it doesn’t directly involve you. The second story is of a dam and how its floodgate was opened nearly two thousand years ago, and though it seems like so long ago, it does directly involve you.

It wasn’t until the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for sinners that the floodgates of God’s love were opened wide and His love and grace could flow out to all the world. Because of the death of His Son, God can now freely offer the gift of eternal life to everyone. When Jesus died on the cross, it was as if an overpowering flood of His love flowed forth. This wonderful love in all its freshness and greatness still flows out to people today. It flows out to every sort of person, rich or poor, young or old, high or low, telling them that if they trust the Savior, the blood that was shed on Calvary’s cross can wash away every stain of sin.

Since these floodgates of God’s love have been opened, it does the most miraculous thing: It takes sinners who deserve nothing but wrath at the hand of God and instead gives them eternal life when they believe on God’s Son! The same love that brought the Lord Jesus to the cross, the same love that the Father showed the Son when He raised Him from the grave, the same love that filled the heart so that He spoke from heaven and said, “This is My beloved Son; hear Him,” is now reaching out to you. It swirls in eddies around you. God waits for you to realize the immensity of His love towards you and the priceless gift of eternal life He offers.

This is love indeed. It is love that surpasses all other loves. This is love the world would never have known had it not been that the Lord Jesus died on the cross to show us what was in God’s heart. If you haven’t found out for yourself how great this love is, won’t you trust the Savior right now so that He can save you and become part of your life?

The third dam to consider is as terrible and bleak as the previous one was wonderful and glad, for it has the power to sweep men to destruction and everlasting death. It is the dam that holds back God’s wrath in order to give men time to consider their ways and repent. The Bible solemnly speaks of sinners: “[Treasuring] up...wrath against the day of wrath” (Rom. 2:5).

What does this treasuring up mean? It means that every moment spent in careless indifference to the claims of Christ, every selfish act, every sin committed, is like floodwater gathering up behind a dam. When the pressure behind the dam reaches a certain point, God will open the floodgate of His anger to destroy such a one in hell. It is true that God loves sinners, but it is also true that He hates sin. One sin is more hateful in His eyes than ten thousand are to us. If you remain unrepentant you will find out the terrible extent of God’s hatred of sin when you die. Impenitent souls will be sent to a hell where the suffering will never cease.

By not obeying the gospel message to repent and believe in Christ, you are showing God that you do not want Him. When God banishes you out of His presence forever, He will only be finalizing the decision that you yourself already made. Won’t you realize the extreme danger you are in and come to the Savior for forgiveness of sin? Only by so doing can you be certain that the dam that holds back God’s wrath-His righteous indignation-will never be opened against you.

In the first case, it was foolish for the two to be out boating so near a dam that might be opened at any moment. More foolish-deadly, fatally foolish-are the multitudes of people today who are trying to make their lives as happy, pleasant and prosperous as possible apart from God when what they are really doing is treasuring up “wrath against the day of wrath.” Someday that wrath will break out and sweep them away in irresistible power.

A verse in Proverbs reads, “Fools make a mock at sin.” That is, they think little of it, when in truth it is the gravest of all issues. Won’t you realize the seriousness of sin and recognize your need of the Savior? Won’t you come to Him at once?

True Riches

Not all the gold of all the world,

Nor all its wealth combined,

Could give relief, or comfort yield

To one distracted mind.

It’s only to the precious blood

Of Christ the soul can fly;

There only can the sinner find

A flowing, full supply.

Oh, what can equal joy divine,

And what can sweeter be,

Than knowing that the soul is safe

For all eternity?

Safe in the Lord without a doubt,

By virtue of the blood;

For nothing can destroy the life

That’s hid with Christ in God!

Uncle Ernie and the Power of Hope

My uncle Ernie was about fifty years old when doctors diagnosed him with cancer and told him he had possibly six months to live. I saw him often during this time and was struck by how much power hope has in a person’s life.

My uncle would hear of some new, non-traditional cure for cancer—perhaps a diet or an experimental drug available only in a foreign country and for a few days his spirit would be buoyed up. He would take a renewed interest in his business and in the people around him...but when the supposed cure turned out to be unsuccessful, his spirit would come crashing down and he would become withdrawn and very bitter.

His life, after the news of his cancer, was like a roller coaster ride. There would be periods of hope, full of high hopes and good feelings, followed closely by times of extreme despondency. After a few months of grasping at any hope for help in his fight against cancer, he decided it was all over for him and that he was going to die. He felt robbed and cheated of everything he had worked so hard to get, and that sense of loss made him bitter and resentful.

One evening, as he was lying on his back in a hospital bed, he got a surprise visit from a young man called John. John was a plumbing subcontractor who had done quite a bit of work for my uncle’s home-building business. He was used to dealing with my uncle on a business level, though my uncle was demanding and sometimes harsh.

“Hello, Ernie. It’s John 1 thought I would come by and talk with you a bit,” John said.

“Mmm,” my uncle mumbled. He looked away from John and stared at the ceiling.

“I’m sorry you are not feeling well,” John said clumsily, standing at the bedside. “I wanted to come and share something very important to me with you. I wanted to tell you how important the Lord Jesus is in my life.”

John paused for a response. Ernie gave no indication he was listening at all. He simply continued to stare at the ceiling.

“I wanted you to know that the Bible says we are all sinners and that not one of us will ever get into heaven by ourselves. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ came to save sinners. When He died on the cross He shed His blood, and the blood of Jesus can make the worst sinner clean if they only trust him.”

Ernie gave no indication that what he was hearing interested him in the least bit. He lay stone-faced on the bed. John figured that even if Ernie wasn’t giving him any encouragement to continue, he at least hadn’t asked him to stop talking either, so he opened his Bible to the third chapter of John.

“I am going to read to you an important chapter out of the Bible,” John told him as he opened his Bible and began to read aloud: “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with Him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”

While John was in the middle of reading this, my uncle abruptly sat up. It was the first time that he had moved during the visit. In a clear voice he said, “I want to be born again! I want to take Jesus as my Lord and Savior!”

It was as sudden as that! John was taken by surprise by my uncle’s confession of faith. He set his Bible down on the bedside stand and hugged my uncle; then he prayed with him and gave thanks to the Lord.

In the few months my uncle lived after this, his life gave evidence he truly was born again. His bitterness disappeared and the Lord helped him to bear his illness. He had regular Bible readings both by himself and also with others. In God’s Word he found food for the new hunger in his soul that every born-again person has. He also shared the message of salvation with others in his family.

His physical state progressively worsened, but his new faith in Christ gave him a hope that carried him through the difficult months before his death. When he found the Savior, he found the greatest hope a man or woman can possess. It is the hope that when the body dies, the soul will live on with God, and then in a future moment of time the body will be resurrected out of the grave and the soul and body will be united and live forever in the presence of the Lord. This hope-no, this absolute certainty-gave him the confidence to face his impending death without bitterness. Instead of feeling that death was robbing him of all that he had, he saw it as a doorway he would pass through to enter the light, the joy and the peace of a much greater place of blessing.

Before he was saved, all his hopes had been bound up with things that must shortly pass away: health, wealth and land. But after he accepted the Lord Jesus, he could say with all those who belong to the Savior: the “Lord Jesus Christ...our hope.”

How about you? Where do you stand in regard to the One who died at Calvary and gave His life for you? Have you bowed your heart to Him and called Him Lord and Savior? If you have, then He is your “hope” and no other hope can be compared to Him. Or would the words, “Having no hope, and without God in the world,” better describe you? If they do, don’t wait another moment before you make the decision to bow to the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Savior!

Ernie found the Savior in a time of great trouble. Thousands upon thousands of others have placed their faith in the Lord Jesus. They have found Him to be altogether true and faithful, as His Word promises. When it was time to pass out of this world and into the next, not one of them regretted trusting in the Savior. Won’t you too confess your faith in the Lord Jesus and join the ranks of those who are saved?

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9-10).

Wanted: Something More

At the close of a gospel meeting in the West Indies, a woman stayed behind as the others left. She had a very worried look.

“Will you tell me what is troubling you?” I asked.

“Oh, sir,” she said, “there is something more wanted.”

“Really! What is it?” I asked.

“Well,” she said, “I really trust in Jesus; I know He died for me, but something more is wanted.”

“You are sure that Jesus died for you?”

“Yes. I am sure of it.”

“And that He is able to save you?”

“I’m sure of that too.”

“Do you think that He is willing to save you?”

“Oh, I know that He is willing” was her earnest reply.

“And you tell me that you really trust Him as your Savior?”

“Yes,” she said, “I do, I really do, but I am not happy. Something more is wanted.”

“There is nothing more wanted to make you safe,” I replied. “If you have really believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are as safe as He can make you. Not one person who trusted in Him was ever lost. But it is one thing to be safe and another thing to be sure about it. What you need is to have assurance, and you can have this on the authority of the Word of God.”

Taking my Bible, I turned to Acts 13:38-39 and read, “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things.”

“Now, here we have God’s unchanging truth. He said, ‘All that believe are justified.’ Are you a believer?”

“Yes, I am,” she answered.

“Then what does God say about you?” I asked.

“I’m justified,” she answered with a sigh of relief.

“How do you know?”

“It says so there” was her reply.

“Then do you want anything else?”

“Nothing more now; that’s enough!” was her emphatic answer as she saw for the first time, on the authority of God’s Word, that she belonged to the justified because she was one of the “all that believe.”

Thank God! His Word is true, and upon the authority of God’s Word every believer may say, “I’m justified.”

I quoted those same words to a young fellow in Canada who was longing to have peace with God.

“Let me look at that verse,” he said. “I never saw it like that before.”

Slowly he read the verse over, and then rubbing his eyes he exclaimed, “Praise God, I’m justified.”

“How do you know that?” I asked.

“Why, the Book says so” was his triumphant reply.

Yes, the Book that never lies says, “By Him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses.”

Well might we praise God!

Warnings

It has happened again.

Again?

Yes, again—and again—and again. It is a constant refrain (or dirge) through all the history of humanity: “Why didn’t I listen? Why did I go on? Why?”

It began with Adam and Eve. Warned (by God Himself) of the dire consequences of eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they yielded to Satan’s tempting, and what a bitter harvest of evil the whole world has reaped from that disobedience!

From those days until now, human nature has not changed. In the days of Noah “the earth was filled with violence.” (Our time is little different!) God saw that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth,” and the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth.”

Did they listen to the warning? The Lord Jesus said, “In the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that [Noah] entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away” (Matt. 24:38-39).

That could almost have been today’s newspaper! Recently there were floods in India-floods that were also predicted. There were warnings, plenty of them, and on the night before the storm broke the police went out with megaphones. They walked among the little thatch-built houses and warned people to take shelter from the coming storm in the sturdy school buildings.

Amor Maharana was one who admitted that he spurned the advice. There had been other warnings that had come to nothing; it was hard to believe that anything would happen this time. But “the water hit us with such a rush and swept us all away. I grabbed on to a chunk of road, and my two oldest children grabbed on to me.” But his wife and four youngest children? “I saw with my own eyes how they were taken away by the water. I searched for three days-they are gone forever.”

He is not alone. Many, many other hearts are very heavy there; many, many cannot stop thinking: “If we had only listened to the warnings!” The death toll is unknown.

Of course, it is tempting to think that is way over there in India, halfway around the world. We would not be so foolish. We have all the latest technology, the very best warning systems. But one thing has not changed: human nature. The most accurate forecast is worthless in the face of unbelief. The best technology cannot save the person who says: “We’ve heard all that before-they’re just crying, ‘Wolf, wolf!’ again, and we know better.”

Witness the Florida Panhandle last summer. With red flags flying, even (as in India) policemen with megaphones walking the beach, even a helicopter hovering overhead and broadcasting warnings about dangerous riptides, it was not enough.

The combination of white sand, blue sky and water was too tempting. How could anything go wrong on a day like this? It could, and did, go wrong. Tragically wrong. Swimmers and non-swimmers continued to play in the water. The beach patrol was further frustrated by those who would leave the water when warned, but go right back in when the patrol went to another area.

One woman, swimming with her four children, said, “We saw the flags, but we just ignored them.” She added, “And I’m sad to say that!”

The death toll: 24—and counting. They just wouldn’t believe.

If they could only realize that it is only the patience and mercy of God that has permitted this sinful old world to go on so long. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

This “day of grace” in which we live will certainly come to an end. Judging by the many warning signs in the world around us, it could be very, very soon—perhaps today!

What Can You Believe?

Some people believe one thing and some believe another concerning life, death and eternity. Some people believe religion has the answers, and some believe science is our hope. Some people believe life just happened and death is the end, and some don’t know what to believe.

Consider man’s relentless search for meaning to life and for relief from his anxieties through sensual experiences and numerous philosophies. Consider the social unrest, uncertainty and utter despair of many people. Then consider the peace, the joy and the eternal hope God gives in His Son—that which man so desperately seeks in every other way.

There are many of us who have been glad to find that God has not left man to wander, wonder and worry. We have read in His Word of His promises and we believed them. We received His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into our hearts by faith and found to our great joy that it is all true and real—the reality of salvation in Christ.

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

God’s salvation is a Person-the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know Him?

If I gained the world but lost the Savior,

Were my life worth living for a day?

Could my yearning heart find rest and comfort

In the things that soon must pass away?

If I gained the world but lost the Savior,

Would my gain be worth the toil and strife?

Are all earthly treasures worth comparing

With the gift of God, eternal life?

What Does It Say?

John wasn’t really that old, but still he held the little paperback and squinted at the words. What does it say? Is it “pharmacy?” That must be it, he thought out loud. It must be a prescription from the doctor.

He handed the paper to the clerk. “It’s up to you to read it,” he said as he tucked his glasses into his pocket.

“This is difficult to read.” He nodded as she squinted at the words. “What does it say?”

Now he didn’t feel so bad; her eyes were a lot younger than his!

“What is this medication?” she asked. “Is this that new cancer drug?” Poor John almost leaped right out of his shoes.

“Oh. I’m sorry. But I can’t read this word. And there’s no doctor’s signature. It’s funny, I know, but at the top it looks like it says ‘pet store’ or something.”

“Wait a minute. I’ll call my wife.”

She answered, “Oh, hi, John. Did you go to the pet store for the dog food?”

“Oops! No, dear, I’m on my way.” Now John knew what the note said. He smiled and took the note as he turned away. “It does say ‘pet store’ at the top.”

It was a funny mistake, but it made me think about the important question, “What does it say?” It does matter. Recipes must be read carefully and road signs are important. And the road map for life—the Bible—is most important of all. And what does it say?

Happily, we can read the Bible in our own language and even in large print. We have no excuse for not knowing what it says. What does it say about our sin, about our need to be “born again”? Did Jesus talk about these things?

Of course He did. He said, “Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” He solemnly said: You “shall die in your sins: [where] I go, [you] cannot come” (John 8:21). He is in heaven. And you? Are you on the way to hell? When will you arrive there?

Today?

Of course, the Lord Jesus also spoke about the prodigal son who wasted his time, money and health as he played with sin. But sin proved to be his master, and you’ll remember how he repented and went back home to his father. There he found forgiveness. Do you remember what it says? Read Luke 15 and see how he asked for mercy and found it.

What does it say? It pays to know!

What Is It That Redeemed Me?

Judas, with the priests, was ever so bold

As Jesus, his Friend, for silver he sold;

Then went and hanged himself,

Scripture has told,

But this is not what redeemed me!

To the smiters Jesus gave His back;

They “made long their furrows,” a vicious attack;

In spite of such hatred, He never turned back-

Yet this could never redeem me!

And His cheeks to them who plucked off the hair

He gave-the One who is of God the heir;

Thus Roman justice was forfeited there,

Though this is not what redeemed me!

The soldiers a crown of thorns plaited

And put on the head of Him whom they hated;

The injustice went on unabated,

But this is not what redeemed me!

My sins’ heavy load He bore on the tree

As the Lord laid on Him the iniquity;

He can now righteously set us free,

And this is how He redeemed me!

“It is finished,” He cried, and then bowed His head;

A soldier who knew He was already dead

Thrust a spear in His side; thus was His blood shed:

This it was that has redeemed me!

What Is Justice?

Robert Lucas was less than thirty years old when he murdered a man and was sentenced to life in prison. After serving seven months of his sentence, he escaped and went into hiding.

In a different state he adopted a new name and began a new life. Using his new name, he got a driver’s license, held jobs and even got married.

The years went by, and Robert Lucas lived the life of a model citizen. Ten years-twenty years-and still he lived quietly with his wife and “maintained a low profile.”

Twenty-three years after his escape, plainclothesmen came to his door and asked if he were Robert Lucas. One agent later reported: “He didn’t say much. He just stuttered and stammered for a while, and then he said he had a heart condition.”

The heart condition was real; two months later he died of a heart attack while fighting extradition to the state from which he had escaped.

Friends from his new life bitterly blamed the authorities who ordered his arrest. “Going to jail and worrying about it-that’s what killed him,” they said.

But a State Bureau of Investigation official said the agents had no choice but to arrest the man. “You’ve got to understand-he killed a man,” said the head of the fugitive squad. “It’s our job to find him, whether he’s been gone one, two, ten or thirty years. You can’t just forget a man who killed another man. It’s our job; the law says we’ve got to do it. There is no ‘statute of limitation’ for murder!”

Was it justice? Was it justice to take a man who lived an apparently blameless life for twenty-three years and to put him in prison for a long-ago murder? Was it justice to take him from his wife of twenty years? Was it justice to discount all the good things he may have done in that time?

Yes, it was justice; it was THE LAW. The law cannot forgive. Like the mirror, it can show you how dirty your face is, but it can do nothing to clean you up. Whether man’s law or God’s law, it can only judge and condemn; it cannot forgive. It has nothing to do with mercy!

God’s law says that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:20). And, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

There is no escaping that law. The sentence has been pronounced on every soul that has ever sinned, and, postpone it though we may, in time we must face the fact that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

The law can do no more, but God can! No, He cannot change His law, which is holy, just and good, but He can cleanse that sinful heart, because “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

“What the law could not do...God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us” (Rom. 8:3-4).

“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:4,10).

God could not pass the sinner by;

His sin demands that he must die,

But in the cross of Christ we see

How God can save, yet righteous be.

What King Solomon Saw

King Solomon wrote, “So I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done” (Eccl. 8:10).

They had come and gone from the place of the holy. They had mingled with the people of God, possibly had taken part in the same religious observances, but their condition remained unchanged. Maybe they were looked up to and respected, but they remained in their sins-unsaved, unpardoned and unblessed.

The wheel of time turns round. They still come, and they still go, unblessed. At last an unwelcome visitor appears: It is death.

Solomon says, “I saw them buried.” The long, mournful procession moved along. Every tribute of respect and honor was paid to the departed, but it was the burial of the wicked. The ungodly sinners were borne along and laid in their graves.

They had run their course. Their sun had set. And the terrible gloom of that eternal night, which knows no morning, surrounded them. The dark curtain of death had fallen, and their souls had passed away into eternity. They lived, they died, they were buried and they were forgotten.

Solomon could see no further. With all his wisdom he could only leave them in the grave, forgotten by man. It was a sad, sad sight, but the next viewing is incomparably worse!

What the Apostle John Saw!

“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in those books....And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works....And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:15,12-13).

Oh, you who are regular attendees at Christian services, who have come and gone so often, beware! You have remained immovable: Christless, careless and hardened.

For your soul’s sake wait no longer. Time is running out; there is no stopping it. Soon you will hear the “Good News” of God’s free salvation for the last time. God does not want your works, tears, prayers or feelings, but your faith. Believe in Him who has done all at the cross for you, and then His Word to you will be, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace” (Luke 7:50).

Then should you pass away to be with Christ, we who are left will not sorrow as those who have no hope. We will know that you are “with Christ, which is far better.”

What the Bible’s All About

“Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27).

The person of our Lord Jesus Christ is the key to the Holy Scriptures-the Bible. They all point to Him in one way or another. As Jehovah God in the Old Testament, He lovingly cares for His earthly people, Israel. He is the subject of types and the object of prophecies. He overrules in the governments of men and receives the worship of believers.

At Bethlehem, this glorious Son of God, member of the divine trinity, entered our world as the holy Son of Man-born of a virgin. Unrecognized by the majority of His earthly people, He showed His credentials as the true Messiah by perfectly fulfilling the prophetic Scriptures. Miracles of all kinds infallibly proved Him to be the Son of God with power, even to the raising of the dead.

He died on the cross as a sacrifice to God for guilty man. He was without sin, holy, spotless and pure. He suffered for the sins of believers of all ages, shedding His precious blood as the basis of every blessing for fallen humanity. He was raised from the dead to the glory of God. He ascended back to heaven physically and sat down at the right hand of God the Father.

He is there today caring for every interest of His believing people still on the earth. He listens to their prayers and receives their worship. Soon, He will call to heaven His redeemed ones, both the living and the dead who died in faith. The “church” is His bride-His companion to share His reign when He appears again to this world. Here He will reign as King of kings and Lord of lords!

He will be received by His earthly people, Israel, after great troubles have softened their hearts and made them willing according to the Scriptures. This time is very near at hand. Yes, Bible “history” is “His-story”!

“These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name” (John 20:31).

When the Lights Went Out

When high-voltage lines in an Ohio utility company short-circuited, the power failure “cascaded” through the interconnected district utilities with incredible speed. Within seconds the failure raced through the neighboring states and parts of Canada. An estimated 50 million people were suddenly cut off from electric power.

The effect was greatest in major cities, from Detroit to New York where the evening rush hour was well under way. Subways, elevators, trains and traffic lights all stopped, stranding people in unexpected places. There was a frantic scramble for any kind of transportation home. The ferries, where available, had their own power and so were thronged with commuters. Streets were filled with people walking—walking—walking toward home.

Soon there was a reaction: People began to cope as best they could, and lanterns, flashlights, candles and generators were hurried into use. Little by little, those in darkened subways found their way to the surface; step by step people in the high-rise buildings came down from thirty-forty-fifty stories.

Reaching the ground floor, there was little to do but mill around with others on the streets or go in search of a safe place to rest. It was a long night!

The first question everyone was asking was: “How long will it last?” No one could tell.

The second question-one that it was said would be a conversation-starter for years to come-was: “Where were you when the lights went out?” No one would ever forget that moment, or how they managed to spend that night.

But as darkness fell on August 14, 2003, the darkness was not total. There were stars, the soft light of a half-moon, and glimpses of emergency lights here and there to still the panic and assure the victims that “it isn’t the end of the world.”

There is going to be another blackout—a total blackout—and it may be soon. This time there will be no comforting moon and stars—no candles, lanterns, generators—and no hope for a quick end. How long will it last? FOREVER!

There will be no friendly question of “Where were you when the lights went out?” No one else will ever care; you will be alone with your ever-painful memory of that moment.

That darkness is reserved for all those who have not made sure of the salvation of their souls. They have not chosen to “walk in the light, as He [Jesus] is in the light.” They have chosen darkness rather than light. At last God has to give them up, and they will go out into “the blackness” forever. It will be a time of “weeping and wailing” and the beginning of endless remorse.

Why not turn to the light now-tomorrow may be too late. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Where Are You Going?

While eating breakfast in the restaurant, I looked around and watched the people. They came in, picked out a place to sit down, made themselves comfortable, looked up hopefully to attract a waitress, read the menu, gave their order waited, sipped their water, talked, laughed, ate their food, relaxed briefly, paid their bill and went out.

Who were they? Where did they come from? Where did they go? I didn’t know. It all happened so quickly. No one stayed very long; everyone went somewhere.

I began to think seriously: Life is like that! We don’t stay here very long. Soon we have to go. But where? That’s the big question!

The Bible says there are just two final destinations, heaven or hell, and we all ought to be concerned about which way we’re headed.

After these thoughts had been in my mind for a while, I bowed my head, closed my eyes briefly, and sent a prayer of thanks up to God for giving me the certainty of my own final destination. I knew for sure that I was on my way to heaven because Jesus had saved me from hell some years ago. In John 14:6 He said, “I am the way.” He promised to take me to His Father’s house, because I have put my trust in Him. How wonderful!

Are you going with me? You can, if you want to.

Jesus died for us both. His precious blood shed on Calvary’s cross is all the payment that God will ever need to wash our sins away. Believing on Jesus brings immediate forgiveness to us. God has said, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Heb. 10:17).

Also He has said, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Here’s how I found the way. It was through this wonderful verse in Rom. 10:9: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

It’s great to know for sure where you’re going!

Which Side of the Cross?

“They crucified Him....Then were there two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right hand, and another on the left” (Matt. 27:35, 38).

“So there was a division among the people because of Him” (John 7:43).

What a moment in the world’s history! The crucified Son of God dividing the thieves the one from the other! From that day to this the Lord Jesus separated the inhabitants of the world into two distinct peoples.

With wicked hands the world put to death the Son of God. Since that day some, with broken hearts confessing their sin, have found mercy and forgiveness. The rest of the world is still under the charge of murder. No one can be neutral.

On which side of the cross are you? Are you on the side of the thief who only “railed on Him,” or are you with the one who, acknowledging his guilt, said, “Lord, remember me”?

"Who Loved Me?"

One has loved me. Would you know

Who He was that loved me so?

Would you learn His precious name,

Who He is, and whence He came?

I can tell you. Will you hear

Of the One to me so dear?

Jesus! This His blessed name-

Son of God! From heaven He came.

For my gain, He suffered loss,

Died upon the shameful cross;

Conqueror o’er the grave He rose,

Triumphed over all my foes.

Now at God’s right hand He lives,

Peace and comfort thence He gives;

Listens to my faintest call,

Holds and keeps me lest I fall.

He is mine and I am His;

What a blessed portion this!

Soon I shall His glory see,

Dwell with Him who died for me.

Who Wrote It?

I was in a cabin in Ireland, where I was known, and began speaking to the brother-in-law of the man of the house about the Bible. His niece, a young woman who was present, said, “But they tell me, sir, that that is a bad book and that the devil wrote it.”

I said, “That is a shocking blasphemy! But I will not reason with you. I will read you a bit and you shall tell me yourself if the devil wrote it.”

I read to her what are called the Beatitudes in the fifth chapter of Matthew:

“And He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

“Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

“Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”

I then said, “Well, what do you think? Did the devil write that?”

“No, sir!” she answered. “The devil never wrote that! That came from none but the mouth of God.”

The Word of God proves its own truth and power to the soul. “My word...that goeth forth out of My mouth...shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa. 55:11).

Whose Way?

It’s so natural for us to want to “do it my way.” Little children beg, “Do it my way.” A fast food chain appeals to customers with, “Have it your way.” So it was perfectly natural for the captain of the Russian freighter Meckanik Tarasov to want to be rescued his way, wasn’t it?

Soon after the Meckanik Tarasov sent out a distress signal, the Danish trawler Sigurfarid came along side and offered to evacuate the crew.

The captain looked at the ship-smaller than his own. He thought of the crew-Danish, not Russian. And he thought of a large Russian ship not far away-more comfortable, better equipped, and from his own country. So he sent the message to the Sigurfarid that he “preferred to wait” for the Ivan Dvorsky. He wanted to be rescued, but only in his way.

But: “While waiting-the vessel went down.” His way led down into the cold, dark waters of the North Atlantic.

Only five seamen were saved, five men who were picked up by the Sigurfarid without waiting for the Ivan Dvorsky.

The Sigurfarid was standing by, ready and willing to save every one, but they would not. They wanted to be rescued in their own way, and only proved again the truth of Prov. 14:12: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” And, “This their way is their folly”! (Psa. 49:13).

Then the contrast: “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psa. 18:30).

How can we know His way?

The Lord Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

We can come to Him now, praying the psalmist’s prayer: “Teach me Thy way, O Lord,” and the answer is sure: “If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine.”

Thy will, not mine, is always best—

Thy way, not mine, leads on to rest—

Then let Thy way, Thy will, be known;

My only Guide be Thou alone.

Willing to Save

A dazzling flash ripped through the black night. The first rocket off the Titanic soared up far above the high masts and rigging. It burst with a distant, muffled thump. Bright white stars showered quietly downward to the sea.

About ten miles away, James Gibson stood on the bridge of the Californian. Questions flooded his mind. What ship was that to the east? Why had it stopped moving? Or had it simply turned away from the ice? And why—just why—would a ship fire rockets at night? Were they celebrating something?

A few minutes before, James thought he had seen the ship’s Morse code lamp signaling. He answered with his own lamp, but then decided the stranger’s masthead light must be flickering.

He peered into the darkness. The lights on the ship looked strange. Could they be tilting? Now he noticed the red side light had disappeared. What was happening?

On the Californian, James set his binoculars down just in time to see the sixth rocket explode high in the black sky. He wondered again, What is that ship doing? Why the rockets? They can’t be for fun!

On the Titanic, Captain Smith told the cold and terrified passengers in lifeboat number eight to row over to the mystery ship that seemed so close. Row ten miles in time to bring help? Impossible!

By radio, Morse lamp and rockets, the dying ship had asked for help. None came. How glad we can be that in our trouble and sin God hears us and comes near to help us.

A man drew near to Jesus in a town and pleaded for the Lord to heal him of his disease.

The Lord Jesus was not only willing but able to heal the man-and He did so at once.

The prophet Isaiah also wrote this way about God: “The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear” (Isa. 59:1). Begin reading in your Bible and learn of His desire to respond to your cry for help. He is standing nearby to help and will be there the moment you realize just how lost you really are.

Remember the shortest prayer in the Bible: “Lord, save me!” Peter cried these words as he sank in the deep water. Immediately the Lord grasped him and saved him. He is able and willing to do the same for your sinking soul.

You don’t need dazzling rockets to call to Him!

Winners and Losers

An acquaintance told me once that the world was divided into winners and losers. He explained that to be a winner you must have one of three qualities: intelligence, good looks or wealth. Everybody who had at least one of these three qualities would be a winner, and everybody else would be a loser. Since he was a vice president of an up-and-coming company and fairly good looking, I suppose he would have classified himself as a winner.

I was startled at first by his declaration. Being a Christian, I think that many of the “winners” in this life will find themselves great losers when called to stand before God at the great white throne of judgment. Here are three so-called “winners” the Bible tells us about who will find themselves great “losers.”

The daughter of Herodias was very BEAUTIFUL. When she danced before the king, he was so won by her that he promised to give her anything she asked for, even to half of his kingdom. She asked for the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter. The king granted it. She earned hell for this evil act. Even though she had irresistible beauty, is she a winner?

There was a rich man who, because of his WEALTH, lived extravagantly every day. He cared nothing for the suffering humanity around him. After he died, he lifted up his eyes in torment in hell and begged for a drop of water, which could not be given. Could he be classified as a winner?

Another man who, because of his INTELLIGENCE, was an able administrator, the Roman governor of Judea, Samaria and Idumea. His name was Pontius Pilate. When Jesus was brought to trial before him, he asked, “What is truth?” and condemned Jesus to death. He knew the Man he condemned was innocent, but he did it to keep political peace. What will this man, who was so intelligent, have to say for himself when the dead, small and great, stand before God to be judged according to their works? He will be speechless.

My acquaintance had three criteria by which to distinguish between the two groups. Let’s look at the “winners” from a Christian point of view.

“Intelligence”: The simplest mind can “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,” although the very wisest can never fully understand the breadth and length and depth and height of the love that brought the Lord Jesus Christ to come into the world and die to save sinners.

“Good looks”: Everybody who has come to Christ has had his or her ugly sins washed away by His precious blood shed on the cross. They also have a new life within them, because they have been “born again.” God sees every believer as “in Christ”: Could that be less than beautiful?

“Wealth”: God now calls these simple believers “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Think of that! Can you imagine anything beyond that? What would it mean to you to know that for all eternity you would be supremely happy in the presence of One who loved you so much that He died for you? What would it mean to you to know that there would never be the slightest disturbance of your peace and joy? Knowing these things is true wealth!

Yes, truly there are two groups of people in the world. All those who have accepted Christ as their Savior are winners, and all those who have rejected Christ are losers. The winners are not winners because of anything they have done, but because the grace of God has enabled them to share in the victory that the Lord Jesus won on the cross. The losers are those who decide to stay apart from Christ.

Won’t you leave the foolish ways of this world behind and come to the Savior who loves you? Coming to Him is as simple as bowing in prayer and confessing to Him you are a sinner who wants to be cleansed from your sins. The exact words are not important.

At the cross where it seemed that He was beaten down and defeated, in reality He won a great victory over sin and death. So great was this victory that the most undeserving and vilest sinner can be saved if they believe on Him. What you do with the Lord Jesus Christ will determine if you will be a “winner” or a “loser” for all eternity.

What will you do with Jesus?

Echoes of Grace: 2004

Table of Contents

100 Years From Now

A Cat Named Cameo

Alzheimers: A State of Forgetfulness

"Because He First Loved"

Black Little Sheep

Blind for 18 Years

Blind Landing

Choose Now

Christ Jesus Lived!

Danger! Keep Out!

Deadly Directions

Deaf Ears

Does It Matter Anymore?

Earthquakes

Everybody's Doing It

Fifty Million in the Dark

Fire Alarm

Galya of Siberia

Grandma's Faith

Hide-and-Seek

How Do You Clean House?

I Can See

If I Die Tonight

In the Depths of the Sea

Just an Ordinary Day

Leonardo and the King of France

Living With Danger

Lost in a Sea of Negatives

New Life - A Must

Niagara Falls

No Time for God?

Over the Edge

Reality Sinks in

Ruby's Dream

Salvation's Day

Saved in the Pit and From the Pit

Sunrise

Thanksgiving

The Book

The Gamblers

The Gold Miner

The Greatest Need

The Life Jacket

The Long, Black Memorial

The Lost Sheep Found

The Plastic Mouse

The Pygmy Rattlesnake

The Sand Fort

The Shadow on the World

The Sinking of the New Carissa

The Sky Diver

The Smoke Alarm

The Taki Too of Tillamook Bay

The Truest Love

The Unchanging Word

There Always Will Be God

Though the Mountains Shake

Three Dams

True Riches

Uncle Ernie and the Power of Hope

Wanted: Something More

Warnings

What Can You Believe?

What Does It Say?

What Is It That Redeemed Me?

What Is Justice?

What King Solomon Saw

What the Bible’s All About

When the Lights Went Out

Where Are You Going?

Which Side of the Cross?

"Who Loved Me?"

Who Wrote It?

Whose Way?

Willing to Save

Winners and Losers