Echoes of Grace: 2005

It was such a vivid dream! The surf was up and the waves were rolling in onto the beach. Twelve-year-old Peter couldn’t resist the appeal of the foaming blue water and he joyfully dived in.

But-instead of landing in the tumbling water, he fell from his family’s camper into the rushing traffic of the interstate highway, almost under the wheels of a big truck.

What a terrible awakening!

But all ended happily for Peter. Sheriff’s deputies took him to a hospital where his cuts and bruises were treated, and soon he was back with his family with a tale to tell of his dream.

What a strange happening!

Strange? Not really! We see it every day: men, women and children living their lives in dreams and totally forgetful of the awakening just ahead. People all around us are living in dreams of prosperity and pride and riches, of popularity and success and happiness in the world we live in. What will the end be?

In Psa. 73 we read, “How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment!...As a dream when one awaketh.” The dream of life is over, and the awakening is rude indeed. To wake in eternity without God and without hope forever-could anything be worse?

Young Peter awoke to find help and comfort and a speedy reunion with his family, but there can be nothing to help the one who leaves this life unsaved. There is no second chance.

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

“It is high time to awake out of sleep....The night is far spent, the day is at hand” (Rom. 13:11-12).

“Awake thou that sleepest” (Eph. 5:14)!

At the Last

“When I am asked to arrange my affairs and give my final directions, when the doctor shakes his head and says, ‘I can do no more,’ when my family and friends move softly about my sickroom and speak in hushed tones-then it will be time enough for me to ask for mercy. I shall pray and get pardoned at the last.”

And so she kept putting off that vital decision for Christ until “the last.” But life does not always go according to our plans. She died suddenly, struck down and unconscious, and all that medical technology could do failed to restore her to consciousness for even one minute. Silently and sadly her immortal spirit passed into the unseen world without even a prayer. She had put off the salvation of her soul until a dying hour. That terrible hour had come-and she was not ready.

Can you think of anything worse than to leave your home, your family and friends, to pass into the shadow of death with no Savior’s arm to lean on, no Savior’s precious blood to trust in, no Savior’s love to cheer the soul with light and peace and joy? If you want to be safe for eternity and ready for death at any moment, get saved now!

Don’t say, “I shall pray and get pardoned at the last.”

Don’t even think it!

Like that poor woman, death may come to you in a form that deprives you of power to speak or even to think before you breathe your last.

A Big Truck and Bug

Driving on the interstate around Atlanta on a Saturday afternoon seemed so easy, compared to what traffic would have been like on a weekday during the same time.

It was lovebug season again, and windshields and front bumpers and grills were collecting the evidence. Somehow one lovebug (Plecia Nearctica, an insect that swarms at some seasons in the Gulf states) had found its way into the cab of my semi. It floated around from window to window looking for a way out. When it landed on the visor over my head, I decided to help set it free. I opened my driver’s side window about an inch and then reached up to carefully pick up the lovebug and put it out the window.

I took my eyes off the road for a few seconds to make sure I didn’t injure the bug as I picked it up and transferred it to the opening in the window. It took only a few seconds, but when I looked up I was driving on the shoulder of the highway! A set of concrete barriers was straight ahead of me, to prevent vehicles from running into the supports of an overpass coming up just ahead. I quickly steered the big truck back onto the road and immediately thanked my Lord for saving me from hitting the bridge or losing control and causing a bad accident-and possibly even the death of myself and others.

It was only one tiny lovebug, and only a few seconds between life as I knew it and a sudden death. Thankfully, if I had been killed, I know I would have immediately been in the presence of my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. But how about you? Are you ready to go, and are you sure of where you would be if your life suddenly ended? Amos 4:12 tells us, “Prepare to meet thy God.” If you wait to be ready and to prepare in your own time, you may not have time enough at the last.

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2). Ask the Lord Jesus to come into your heart, remove your sins, and be in control of your life-and do it NOW! We cannot see our own future, nor realize how quickly life can end. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:1).

The Cambodian Jeweler

Let me tell you about my recent experience. I went to pick up a ring from a nearby jewelry store. The jeweler was a Cambodian, and his thoughts were very much with the circle of countries affected by the terrible tsunami in December. He said to me, “It’s good you came in today, because I’m leaving tomorrow for my home country.” Then he added, “Isn’t that something about the catastrophe in India and Indonesia? How awful!”

“Yes,” I said, “almost unbelievable!”

“Is there something in your Bible about such things?”

“Yes,” I said. “These are signs of Christ’s coming, and in Mark 13:7-8, it says, ‘When ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes... and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.’”

“Very interesting,” he said. Then he asked, “Your God—what is He called? Jesus? Lord? What?”

I told him, “My full name is Sally Jane Doe, and like that His full name and title is Lord Jesus Christ.”

“Oh,” he said, “I see.”

Then I said, “We hear ‘Jesus Christ!’ or ‘God!’ often when people are mad or angry.”

“Yes, I know.”

Then I told him, “Jesus is God’s Son, and in John 3:16 we read 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.’” I told him also that the Lord is a wonderful Savior and that I hoped he would believe His love.

He seemed very touched, so I am praying for his soul. Hopefully he will have a safe flight to Cambodia and he will not neglect this decision, for the Bible says that “NOW is the accepted time...NOW is the day of salvation.”

My prayer is also that this little story will bring a better understanding of the gospel to you, too.

Come Enter Today

The mistakes of my life have been many;

The sins of my heart have been more;

I hardly can see for weeping,

But I’ll knock at the open door.

I know I am weak and sinful;

It comes to me more and more;

But as the dear Savior bids me come in,

I’ll enter the open door.

“I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture” (John 10:9).

Come to Jesus

WHY? Because Jesus has died and risen again. On this basis you can be saved, and on no other. If you are to be saved, your sin’s heavy load must be removed. If sin’s heavy load must be removed, sin’s penalty must be borne. If sin’s penalty must be borne, then Jesus must die, for sin’s penalty is death. “Your sins are forgiven you”-not for your work’s sake-not for your morality’s sake—but “for His name’s sake” (1 John 2:12).

HOW? By faith, and by faith alone. Scripture is definite on this point. Salvation is not by works, nor by faith and works combined, but by faith alone. “Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:9).

WHERE? The answer is simple: Anywhere. Mercy flows today, not through some shrine in a holy city, nor through the fingertips of some holy hands, but from a victorious and ascended Christ in heaven. He is accessible anywhere. Reach out to Him. In other words, believe on Him, and you shall be saved.

WHEN? There is only one wise answer: NOW. Be careful that you do not lose your soul over the little question of when! “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Come to Jesus NOW!

Coming Home Again

The geese flew high under the billowing clouds, heading north. I counted 160 of them in the big V formation and, even though we were a mile away, we could hear their constant springtime melody of honking.

What a view they had from up there, looking down at the familiar blue lakes and green forests. I could just imagine Mr. Goose finding his favorite old pond or the same edge of the lonely lake. Back home to the lovely north!

I’ve had that “coming home” feeling a few times. I still remember the warm Siberian sun on my face as we stood in the sad village rail yard waiting for the train. And then what a wonderful feeling it was to peer through the dirty window at the tired old wooden houses and watch them fade into memories. It was wonderful to visit and help, but oh, so wonderful to be going home to familiar places, familiar food, clean water and precious hugs.

Could it be that even you are feeling the need to come back home spiritually? Maybe you’ve had good intentions, even made a few plans to get back. And God has tugged at the strings of your heart more earnestly recently. I like the bumper sticker I see on the car just down the street. “God allows U-turns.” Indeed He does!

You know it could be better, don’t you? You remember sunnier days, when you had more interest in spiritual things. Time, activities and urgencies have rather frayed that interest, but recently you’ve thought about getting back.

You’ll remember the timeless Bible story of the Prodigal Son, the son who wasted his money, time and talent. The Lord Jesus told of the son’s determination to return home and his prayer of regret. The lost son did go back, humbled and remorseful, but yet the reception he got was worth it all.

Do you remember how the Lord spoke of our need to stop, turn and begin with God? He commanded us to “repent,” start thinking from God’s point of view, and “believe the gospel,” the message of God’s grace for repentant sinners. He also put out the welcome mat when He said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Thinking about a change? Need to come back? Come home! This is where you belong. You will never find happiness in running away from God. “Come unto Me...and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

Dangling From a Drawbridge

Seventy-nine-year-old Mrs. Helen Koton was walking into town to buy a few groceries and see some familiar faces. These daily walks were both exercise and pleasure to her, and the road was very familiar. This time she was about midway across a drawbridge that spanned a canal when, to her dismay, the bridge began opening under her feet.

With the bridge opening, she was in a dangerous position. In her advanced age, she could no longer move fast enough to escape, and although she yelled, no one heard. Within a short time the bridge was so sharply tilted that she was beginning to slide. She did the only thing possible to save herself from severe injury or perhaps even death: She wrapped her arms around the steel railings of the bridge and hung on for dear life. Soon the two halves of the bridge were drawn up to a nearly vertical position, and poor Mrs. Koton was dangling forty feet up in the air.

Motorists waiting to cross the bridge spotted the struggling woman, and some of them ran and told the bridge operator. He was appalled at the mistake he had made in raising the bridge with a pedestrian on it, and he lowered it at once. When the bridge came down, people ran out to see if they could help the trapped woman. They found Mrs. Koton “all in one piece,” unhurt except for a few bruises and scratches, but she was badly shaken up.

You want to make sure you are not halfway across a drawbridge, but all the way across, before it begins to rise. Thank God, there is a Savior who doesn’t get you halfway saved from your sins and then leaves you dangling by your own strength and in danger of perishing. When He saves you, He gets you all the way saved.

At the cross He made the one sacrifice for sins that God can accept. That sacrifice, made at Calvary, has infinite worth and merit before God. Because the death of the Lord Jesus means so much to God, He is willing to give all those who believe in the name of His Son the gift of eternal life. “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).

The moment a sinner sincerely believes on the Lord Jesus, all the infinite worth of the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross is applied on their account and they are reckoned as righteous. At that moment of faith they are justified forever. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Salvation, eternal life, righteousness, justification and peace are all things that we desperately need. We need them because our sins have opened up a great gulf between ourselves and God, who is holy. That great gulf will continue for all eternity if we don’t come to the Lord Jesus for salvation.

God in His holiness must see that sin gets its due. Men and women who have loved darkness and sin and never seen their need of God’s salvation will be sent away to a terrible place at death. What a dreadful price they will pay for rejecting the One who came from heaven to save them!

No one needs to end up in that awful place. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). He is such a Savior that He can bring even the vilest of sinners safely to God if they repent and turn to Him in faith. He will never leave anyone dangling in jeopardy of falling into hell if they repent and place their faith in Him.

Because of Christ’s death on the cross, God can righteously save every believer. When He saves them, they are not partway saved but all-the-way saved. There are no halfway measures with God. Won’t you believe on Jesus Christ so that you might be completely, totally, absolutely saved?

The Demise of Galloping Gertie

The Olympic Peninsula is in the northwest corner of the continental U.S.A. In the late 1930’s it was decided, in order to open up this area of spectacular natural beauty for tourism and economic development, that a great suspension bridge would be built over Puget Sound. The site chosen was the only spot on Puget Sound narrow enough to make a bridge practical. (Puget Sound is a vast inland sea that was formed by glaciers long ago.) Since the city of Tacoma was the population center nearest to the chosen side, the bridge was appropriately named the “Tacoma Narrows Bridge.”

At the time it was built, it was the third longest suspension bridge in the world, just short of the Golden Gate Bridge. The bridge with its high towers reaching skyward and long arching cables was designed with a special regard for beauty and sleekness.

Although it was impressive to look at, the bridge seemed to have problems from the beginning. While it was being built, workers had noticed an unsteadiness about it. However, concerns were allayed because engineers assured everyone that the bridge was strong enough according to their calculations.

Soon after the bridge was opened to traffic, drivers noticed a lot of unnerving movement while crossing over it. Somebody in jest called the bridge “Galloping Gertie” and likened driving over the bridge to the up and down motion when riding a horse very fast.

The nickname stuck. Even though travelers complained about “Galloping Gertie,” authorities still insisted it was safe because it was designed to proven scientific formulas. According to these formulas the bridge was more than capable of handling everyday stress of traffic.

The bridge designers got the shock of their lives when, four months after the completion of the bridge, a windstorm swept through the area. The sustained winds of over forty miles an hour began acting on the bridge in ways the engineers had never anticipated. The bridge that had always seemed a little unsteady suddenly began pitching and rolling violently from side to side. Apparently the wind passing under the slender roadbed of the bridge was creating “lift” in the same manner as air currents working on the wing of an airplane.

A driver caught on the bridge when this rolling began became fearful for his life. He stopped his car and opened the door to get out. The bridge tilted so violently beneath him as he stepped out that the pavement slammed against his face. Desperate to escape and unable to stand on the crazily moving bridge, he crawled hundreds of yards on his hands and knees to safety. As soon as he was off the rolling part of the bridge, he turned around just in time to see his car tumble off the bridge and make the long fall to the churning waves below. Seconds later he watched aghast as the long mid-section of the bridge broke apart. He had gotten off just in time!

The great modern bridge, so carefully designed, plunged through the air to crash into the depths of Puget Sound. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured when the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was destroyed.

Why did Galloping Gertie break up? It broke up because the effects of the wind were not clearly understood by the engineers. Their formulas were correct as far as they went, but they did not take into account the effect of strong side winds.

In the fall of Galloping Gertie there is a lesson for each one of us. People have always had many different ideas on what will get them to heaven. There is a whole array of formulas on how to bridge the gap between themselves and God. One such popular formula is trusting that one’s good works will outweigh the bad things they have done. Another idea is that if one doesn’t commit any really bad sins they will be fine in the end. Some say that in the end all will be saved, while others say there are many different ways to God and each one of them is equally valid. Many think that they can bridge the gap by faithfully performing ceremonies, or carefully following a ritual, or perhaps reciting a creed. But the problem with all of them is that they don’t fully take into account the effects of sin.

We are all going to have to do with a God who is absolutely holy. In His holiness He infinitely loves all that is good and just, while He abhors all that is evil with all His being. As the designers of Galloping Gertie didn’t understand the effect of wind on their beautiful bridge, so many people today don’t understand the effect sin will have on their lives. The Bible is perfectly plain: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” And in another place: “The wages of sin is death.”

Sin and death are inseparably linked together. Have you sinned? Then death is the wages you will collect. The verses about death just quoted refer not only to physical death, but also to spiritual death which occurs when a soul is banished out of God’s presence forever. In that awful place called hell the spiritually dead will never cease to exist.

Maybe they never thought about it on earth, but God was always near to them. He was the provider of their every necessity-Giver of every good thing; He preserved them through countless troubles. Through Him came every true joy and happiness they ever might have experienced. The Bible says, He opens His hand and satisfies the desire of every living thing. He ordered their lives with sorrows and blessings alike so that they might turn to Him in repentance and faith-but they never did so. In hell they will never again receive good from God’s hand, never again a blessing, never again a joy. Never again will God take a thought for their happiness.

The Lord Jesus spoke more about hell than any other person in the Bible. He said it was a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place of torment and endless thirst, a place where the fire is never quenched. It is the kind of place that should be avoided at all cost!

Outside of saving faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, every attempt to bridge the gap between sinful man and a holy God will fail. When Jesus Christ came into the world and went to the cross, it wasn’t man trying to bridge the gap between himself and God. No, it was God undertaking to make a way for sinful man to come unto Him and find forgiveness and fullness of life and joy. The difference is immense. Man’s efforts will never succeed, while God’s way of salvation is open to all and will never fail. There is salvation in Jesus Christ for every one of us if we are only willing to believe.

Be honest with yourself, admit that you are a sinner and unable to save yourself, and turn to the One who is mighty to save. Through Him alone can a sinner find forgiveness and cleansing. Only through Him can we cross over safely from this life to the shores of heaven. No other bridge exists that won’t come crashing down. People may have many ideas for bridges that will carry them to safety at death, but they are all bound to crumble and collapse under them because of the weight of sin. Salvation is through faith in Christ alone. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8).

The Diamond in the Sand

A twenty-five-year-old man stepped on his shovel, pushing it into the sandy riverbank. When he turned it over, what he found would change his life forever. In the shovelful of sand, he uncovered a diamond the size of a computer mouse. It measured 182 carets, turning out to be one of the largest diamonds ever found.

The man who discovered it had lived all his days in poverty. He rarely possessed more than just enough to stay alive. Like most of his fellow countrymen in Guinea, he lived under a crushing weight of poverty.

Whether this man can escape the poverty which engulfs him awaits to be seen. Neighbors of the man marveled that he wasn’t robbed and murdered the first night he spent at home after finding the stone! When government authorities got news of the incredible diamond, they had the stone confiscated and the finder hidden away so he wouldn’t be such an easy target for crooks. They informed the media that the finder of the diamond was entitled to keep a percentage of the worth of the stone.

It was not disclosed how big a percentage the man could keep, but since the diamond could be worth millions, even a small percentage would doubtless seem like a fortune to someone who was all his life accustomed to poverty. If he managed to get it and keep it, he could have a real “rags-to-riches” transformation.

Did you know that in order for any of us to escape hell and enter into heaven, we too must have a “rags-to-riches” transformation? Strange as it sounds, it is true. Every one of us, whether we are rich or poor in this world’s goods, must experience such a change in our lives on a spiritual level. Each one needs to personally realize that all his righteousness is as “filthy rags” and take the salvation that is so freely offered through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says that “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). That is the judgment God has pronounced on all mankind. In God’s sight we are all sinners, dressed in filthy rags, and unfit ever to enter His presence. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Not a single one of us will ever make it into heaven in our natural state. God is holy, and He must judge sin.

One sin is enough to sink a sinner into hell for eternity. Don’t be fooled into taking sin lightly. It is the weightiest matter known to man-weighty enough to sink multitudes into hell if they fail to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus. To “repent” means to pass the same judgment on yourself that God has already passed on you. It means to realize that you are unfit for His presence and on the road to hell.

When sinners repent and look to Christ for salvation, He will take away their filthy rags and give them the true riches of His salvation. What are some of the riches that He gives with His salvation? Here is a verse that speaks of them: “Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). These are all qualities that we are totally lacking in our impoverished state as sinners. But let a person take Christ as his Savior, and all these qualities in their perfection and super-abundance will be his through the blessed Savior.

Wisdom: “In whom [Christ] are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” All the efforts of this world’s philosophers never devised a way for a sinner to be cleansed from sin and made fit for heaven, but God through Christ not only devised a plan but carried it out. Before the foundation of the earth was laid, God knew His Son would become a man and die for His creature’s sin-the only way those sins could be put away. It was God in His supreme wisdom that made such a plan, while His perfect love carried it out. We can enjoy all the benefits of that wisdom when we make Jesus Christ ours through faith.

Righteousness: In our sinful condition, God describes even the best of us as having only “filthy rags” for righteousness. However, let a person believe in Christ and the work He did on the cross, and they will be made “the righteousness of God in Him” the moment they believe. The only way to be justified or accounted righteous is through faith in Christ. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5).

Sanctification: This word means to be set apart to God. The Lord Jesus is the light of the world, and without a real faith in Him, people are set apart to sin and darkness and are headed towards hell. But when people turn to Jesus Christ for salvation, God will forgive their sin and set them apart for His special care for time and eternity. The forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified belong only to those who are set apart by faith in Christ.

Redemption: Redemption means deliverance from the power of sin and death. We were all under their power-all in danger of going down into everlasting hell. Jesus Christ went into death and conquered it for us, rising out of the grave. In His victory over death He became our great Redeemer. Believe on His name, and redemption will be yours. Then you can say like Job of old: “I know that my Redeemer liveth.”

When people repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they go from the utter poverty of being a sinner to possessing eternal life and all the riches that come through faith in Christ. They are riches that no thief or murderer or government of man can ever take from them. Every sinner who trusts in the Lord Jesus has passed through a “rags-to-riches” transformation. Won’t you take Him as your Savior, so that you can leave the rags and ruin of sin behind and possess the riches of salvation through Christ?

Do You Know?

It is a dark, foggy night, and a man is groping his way along the wharf of a large port when he takes a wrong turn. Another few moments and he is over the edge! A splash, followed by frantic cries for help. Confused efforts are made to reach him, but it is too dark to see and he cannot be found. Soon the cries are over.

The next day his body is recovered, and he is identified. A very able and skillful man is no more! He was well-known around the docks: He knew ten thousand things about docks and ships and navigation, but the one thing of supreme importance in those critical five minutes he did not know. He did not know how to swim!

None of us know everything! All of us know something. A few of us know a great many things. Some of us know the one thing of supreme importance.

The question is: DO YOU KNOW IT?

To be right with God is the one thing of supreme importance.

It does not matter what you are, if you are not right with God. All knowledge of things that count in this life will count for nothing if you remain in ignorance of this one thing that counts in eternity. The question of questions is: Are you right with God?

God’s Word (the Bible) clearly shows the way.

FIRST: Justification (made righteous) before God cannot be deserved. If a soul be justified at all, it must be by the grace of God, and by that alone.

SECOND: The only means of having justification is through the redemption work accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ when He died on the cross. His atoning death and His resurrection alone can meet the guilt of your sins and put you right with God.

THIRD: You can only be justified before God if and when you believe in Jesus. Then God reckons to your account the value of His Son’s death and you are positively justified.

FOURTH: When you do believe in Jesus and are justified, that great blessing will reach you freely. God justifies not only without charge, but also without grudging.

Trusting in Christ for yourself, definitely accepting Him as your Savior and Lord, you can say, “By faith in Jesus I am right with God.”

By this and this alone you will know the one thing of supreme importance. You may not be great or learned in the wisdom of this life, but you will know how to “swim” when death’s dark waters rise about you. You will be “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24, 26).

Does God

“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord God: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” (Ezek. 18:23).

The recent tsunami disaster saw thousands of people swept into eternity. Often when calamities strike, many blame God, or at least they ask why God would allow this thing to happen. God is labeled as distant and uncaring.

Does God care? God shows His care continually. He speaks to the world through different events such as this one. He speaks to nations, perhaps with internal strife. He speaks to individuals. God’s desire is that all should turn from their way and live. God directs circumstances and provides opportunity to make this possible.

God often does things in miraculous ways. One such miracle took place on Pillopanja Island, situated at the southern end of India’s remote Andaman-Nicobar archipelago. Island residents are the Nicobarese, who still follow their centuries-old practices of spirit worship, animal sacrifice and identifying nature as a living being.

On December 26, 2004, tremendous waves swept the shore. All were lost, except for forty-year-old Michael Mangal. He said, “The water scooped me up and drew me into the sea. Then the water picked me up again and threw me back to Pillopanja.”

He soon realized he was all alone on the island. All others were dead. “The nights were the worst; I was scared.”

One day, sifting through the rubble looking for something he could use, he found a Bible. “All I came back to each evening was that Bible, and I read it every night and prayed.”

Twenty-five days later Michael Mangal was rescued by four men in a motorboat. He was severely dehydrated and weak, but he was alive.

What an example of God’s care! How did a Bible end up on an island of poor coconut farmers? A tiny island, a handful of people, and God provided them with a Bible, His holy Word. What an opportunity for salvation God had presented them with! They were given a choice. Did they make the right choice? God only knows! We pray that Michael is continuing to read that Bible and that he is trusting in our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve....As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15).

The Dog in the Dumpster

Think of being trapped in a garbage truck! Half buried under piles of garbage, more garbage regularly dumped in, and the big compactor forcing it back, crushing the great pile ever tighter and tighter together-what a terrible way to die! Can you imagine the pain and terror of the little honey-colored dog who was thrown into just that?

Inside the big truck, half buried, helpless and injured, the little dog did the only thing possible to her: She howled!

Driving slowly down the narrow street behind the big garbage truck, Dawn began to hear noises from inside the truck. Then, as yet another load of trash poured in upon the little dog, she yelped frantically.

Dawn said to herself, “I can’t walk away from this! The way it is barking and yelping, it’s telling me it’s still alive!”

She began sounding her horn and flashing her lights to get the truck driver’s attention. At last he stopped and heard the yelps himself. The rest of his route was abandoned as he drove straight to the landfill. There the truck was carefully unloaded until the little dog’s head appeared. As they cleared more trash, the dog waited patiently until her tail was free—“then it started waving!”

Taken at once to the animal shelter, she was found to have bits of glass and tin cans between her teeth; evidently she had gnawed on anything that had the smell of food. X-rays showed further problems: a dislocated left hip, broken right hip and crushed pelvis—even a nail she had swallowed in her hopeless search for food.

Perhaps you can feel with the little dog. You may share that feeling of being trapped, of desperately needing food for your starving soul, but receiving only more empty bottles and cans, and as more and more of the same is dumped in you feel crushed broken-but still alive and crying for rescue.

There can be rescue! There is One who can save and heal and fill “the hungry soul with goodness.” How can it be? It is all a part of the good news of God’s wonderful kindness to us. Job says that God “looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; He [God] will deliver his soul from...the pit, and his life shall see the light” (Job 33:27-28).

His promise is sure: When He says, “Deliver him from...the pit: I have found a ransom,” it is based on the death on the cross of “Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all.” DELIVERED!

The little dog was delivered too, and what a change for her! Her cuts and scratches were gently washed and disinfected. With her broken hip secured with a sling, on a clean and comfortable blanket in a safe cage, she settled down happily to eating—and eating—and eating!

When the veterinarian has attended to all her hurts and injuries, she will be released to a new home where she will be loved and wanted. Never, never will she be tossed away in a dumpster again. And the person who has trusted in the Lord Jesus for this life and the one to come can be happy in his present deliverance and the great promise: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).

The Eighteen-Million Dollar Hunting Trip

Jason Hoskey was eager to go hunting. He spent a big hunk of change and bought an expensive hunting license, and he purchased all the proper gear, including rifle, ammunition, boots and clothing. He went out into the Mendocina National Forest in Northern California to bag some game. An entire day he spent tramping through the forest, scrambling over logs, marching up and down hillsides, and getting slapped in the face by branches, and he still hadn’t shot an animal. His boots pinched his feet, his limbs ached with fatigue, and he was cold.

By evening he was beginning to wonder what ever prompted him in the first place to go out and try to shoot some poor animal anyway. He stopped at a little clearing and started a small campfire to warm his hands and lift his spirits. A burn ban was in effect because of very dry conditions, but that didn’t stop Jason from building his fire. He just figured a small fire would be harmless. He leaned against the trunk of a tree near his little fire and dozed “just for a few minutes.”

While he was napping, a small spark shot up from his fire and ignited the dry brush a few feet away. Feeling the heat of the fire, Jason woke up and had to flee for his life. The little spark had started a forest fire that would eventually burn over 6000 acres of prime forestland and require a small army of firefighters to extinguish it.

Six months later Jason got the bill. A federal judge ordered him to pay damages of $18,000,000. Jason was stunned. He had nowhere near that amount of money. If he was able to save every cent he earned, working for a salary of $50,000 per year, it would take him 360 years to pay off the fine. Having such a fine levied meant his financial ruin, all because of an errant spark.

Many of us have experienced financial difficulties, but fortunately few are in a state of complete financial ruin. However, each member of the human race is in a state of utter spiritual ruin because of sin. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Since we have all sinned, heaven’s gate is closed against us. By our own strength, our own wisdom, our own good works, there is nothing we can do to remedy our spiritual ruin. “The wages of sin is death,” the Bible solemnly states, and again, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”

The death referred to in these verses isn’t something that you pay the moment the soul leaves the body and then the bill is stamped, “Paid in Full.” No, it is far more than that. It is the state of a never-ceasing-to-exist soul that is banished from God’s presence to the outer darkness of hell. Death is the penalty affixed to sin, and it will take not hundreds of years, but all eternity to pay it.

The God who has levied this fine is infinitely wise and just. He knows truly what sin deserves. Thank God, He is also full of love and mercy. In grace He has made a way that all mankind can be saved from the spiritual ruin of sin. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The Son of God, who spoke a word and the universe came into existence, became a Man and went all the way to the cross. The very creatures He created drove spikes through His hands and feet, and they nailed Him to the cross. They meant it for evil, but God overruled it for good, because in the death of His Son God has opened up the way of salvation for lost sinners. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

After He died, men put His body in a tomb and sealed it, but death couldn’t keep Him. He arose triumphant over the grave and now sits in the highest place in heaven. It is only believing on the Lord Jesus Christ that souls can find a remedy for their spiritual ruin and find heaven’s gate open to them. They pass from complete ruin to complete riches in Christ the moment they truly repent and believe.

Jason Hoskey earned a stupendous penalty that day he went hunting, but each one of us has earned a far greater penalty because of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is the only remedy for the spiritual ruin of mankind. He is the One—the only One—able to cancel that great debt of sin for all those who receive Him. Only through Him is there salvation. Won’t you take Him as your Savior before it is forever too late?

The Final Choice

Our lives reflect the sum of all our choices. Fortunately, some of the wrong choices we may make in life (with hindsight and upon sober reflection) can be reversed, and then with a sigh of relief we happily make progress. However, with others, reversal is impossible!

For example: Today I had to take three cats to the Humane Society to (hopefully) adopt out to another family. The whole affair took a couple of hours and was an education for me, almost a traumatic one. The facility was extremely busy, with a steady stream of people coming and going. All who entered got into one of two lines: one for the bringing in of pets, or the other for the adoption of pets.

The expressions on faces were something to watch. One line was all smiles, while the other was sober, even to red eyes and tears. I had to fill out detailed forms for each of my cats, and before I was allowed to leave I had to sign a declaration that stated that I understood that upon signing I released all rights in said animals and they became the sole property of the shelter. It would be impossible to reclaim my pets or even make an attempt to inquire as to their welfare! My decision was FINAL!

Yes, other people were having trouble with the realities of this situation. I also have been pondering the meaning and effect of this word FINAL. There is a relatively simple question that will decide your eternal well-being: “What will YOU do with Jesus?” It will require an answer-a FINAL answer.

The issue is not whether He ever existed or whether He was crucified or whether He arose from the dead; history gives abundant proof as to that. The issue is, having been exposed to what God says in His holy Scriptures regarding His eternal Son, Jesus Christ, and what Jesus Christ says of Himself...as to who He is...where He came from...who sent Him...why He came...what the plan of atonement entailed...what He says regarding your personal standing before Him... your desperate need of His salvation...what He said concerning God’s love for you and the way He has provided a way for you to be made righteous in His sight only by His free grace in giving His own life a ransom for your eternal soul...I say the issue is, having been exposed to all of this, What will you do with Jesus who is called Christ?

He is not “a” way (one among many); He is “THE way, THE truth, and THE life,” and no man comes to the Father but by Him. There is no other way to come to God. God is sovereign, but God is also fair. He will take care of those who have not heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25). You and I have heard, and consequently we are responsible to respond to what God has spoken-and that is fair. Our choices now will become FINAL.

“God our Savior...will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:3-4).

God, having shown His love to us in this way, desires us to come to Him through Jesus Christ. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). If we do not accept Jesus Christ as Lord, as God commands, He has nothing else to offer but eternal judgment. And that will be FINAL.

Finding Sasha Again

It was the early spring of 2003 and snow still covered everything in a northern city in Siberia. In the outdoor market old women sat on flimsy chairs selling cupfuls of sunflower seeds for about 20 rubles. A younger one, dressed in a fur coat, sold ice cream from a box on the ground. We walked past the tables of decaying fruit and stepped into the little building where the indoor shops were. And that’s where I saw Sasha again. He looked older and harder now, and he stood with three other rough looking boys eating candy.

We had befriended young Sasha five years earlier on the streets of this old city. At his apartment I realized why he preferred living on the streets. The dirty room had few comforts. I couldn’t understand the Russian his parents spoke, but I felt the tone of their voices. Sasha was an unwelcome annoyance there.

We taught him the first half of John 3:16, in Russian, of course. “God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son.” With the interpreter’s help we could scarcely help him comprehend that Somebody loved him.

He wondered, “What is God? And who is this Jesus? Why would He come here?” The rest of the verse says, “Anyone who believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.” We were not able to teach him this part. It was too much, beyond what he could absorb.

For five years I wondered if I would ever see my “friend” again. Now on the first day back in this city of 50,000 people we met. I was a little surprised that he was still living.

We spoke to each other through the interpreter. “I’m fourteen now,” he said. “Life is tough. We live in a nearby village now. The old log apartment is falling apart but it’s all we can afford. Mom finds bottles in the garbage bins every day and we trade them for bread and cigarettes.”

We visited his home several times in the next couple of weeks and left food, glasses for mom, and other things. Most importantly, we were able to talk about that great verse in the Bible again. “Yes,” we explained, “God does love our world. No, He doesn’t like the injustice, the stealing, the swearing, the sin. But He did send Jesus Christ.”

Sasha and his mother sat across from us on one of the two dirty cots in the room that was both living room and bedroom. She peered through the new glasses at the simple verse. “Who is God’s Son? Why would He love us this much?” She could read the words clearly, but the sense of the words was too much for her understanding.

We tried to explain simply how God loved a dark sinful world of sinners, and how He proved that by sending Jesus Christ to die on a cross as the sacrifice for our sins. Have you ever given it much thought? Have you ever thanked God for His wonderful gift? Maybe you’ve known this verse for many years. Are you also in the dark still?

It is just so simple! “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).

Have you believed in Him?

The Fire Extinguisher

Curve after curve the road wound up the mountain, on and on, up and up, and every bend only revealed a further ascent. Motors labored, overheated, stopped to cool off. At last, the top. At the top stood a motor home-a big, heavy, luxurious motor home. What a long, hard pull it must have had to get there!

But something was wrong. From the motor issued a wisp of smoke. Another! Then another! Did this signal something worse going on inside?

Another car with a vacationing family reached the top. An experienced driver was at the wheel. He looked as he passed the motor home, and pulling quickly past it, he stopped. Grabbing the fire extinguisher from his own car, he ran back to the motor home.

The smoke was thicker now, and there was beginning to be an ominous flickering in the engine compartment. Quickly the driver tried to activate his extinguisher.

The helpful driver tried; he did his best, but nothing happened. The extinguisher was empty; it had not been charged.

Helplessly, hopelessly, there was nothing to be done but to watch that beautiful motor home burn. And burn it did. Totally.

A fully charged fire extinguisher in the right place and in time might have stopped that disastrous fire. But once on top of the mountain they were five miles from help, five miles from even a telephone where they could call for help. Long before help could come, the fire had consumed everything combustible.

This reminds us of a story told many, many years ago. Ten girls set out to go to a wedding. There was little street lighting in those days, and each girl carried a little lamp as we might take a flashlight. Five girls were wise and took oil with their lamps. Five were foolish and did not make sure that they had enough.

Soon five little flames began to flicker and go out, and the five “foolish” turned to the five “wise” to beg for oil. But the wise had only enough for their own lamps; they had none to share. Five foolish girls had to go away to buy oil for themselves, and while they were going, the wedding began-“and the door was shut.”

It was too late when the fire began to have the extinguisher recharged. It was too late to buy oil when the wedding began. And it will be too late to seek the Lord Jesus when He comes for His people, for all who are His, and takes them back with Him to His home in heaven.

There will be no time then to cry, “What must I do to be saved?” No time to say, “Lord, Lord, open to us”! It will be forever too late.

The fire extinguisher could have been charged, but it was neglected. The girls could have kept their lamps burning, but they neglected to carry oil. That was all. And how sad it will be if someday you have to say, “I could have been saved, but I neglected to come to Christ.”

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

Soon it will be too late. Don’t neglect!

The Foolish Rich Man

Have you ever read the story of the man who was called a rich fool? He was a landowner whose fields had yielded so much that he did not know what to do with all the harvest.

“He said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater....I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:18-19).

“But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”

Can we put this into modern English? A successful businessman might say, “Well, now, I have done well in business. I have worked hard to earn what I have, and now I have plenty to last me for my lifetime. I will take it easier than I have done in the past and enjoy life.”

Nothing very wrong in that, is there? Nothing dishonest in hard work, nothing foolish in saving what he earned, nothing sinful in wanting to “take it easy.” Why, then, does God call him a fool?

He was a fool because he left God out! He made wise provision for his body, but he forgot his soul. He took care to see to his physical comforts while here, but he forgot that the soul lives forever. He valued his body highly, but his soul as worthless! Because he did this, God called him a fool. That night he died.

What were his thoughts as he found himself in eternity without God and without hope? When morning dawned, the harvest was there, the barns were there, but the man was gone.

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

Are you a fool in God’s eyes? Have you forgotten your own soul? While we know that this man was a sinner, we do not know that he was guilty of any great sin. God did not call him a fool for being a sinner; he was a fool because he left God out. Are you in danger of doing the same?

Your immortal soul is your most valued possession. Though your body may die, your soul will live on. But where? Will it be in the Father’s house or in the lake of fire? If you leave God out, He will have to leave you out.

“What must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).

The Lord Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37).

Don’t be like that rich fool!

A Friend

“A Friend of Sinners!” What a name-what a title to give anyone! Who would not consider it a disgrace to be called “a friend of sinners”? And yet that was what they called Jesus when He was here upon earth.

Who was it who gave Him this title? It was not those who were known to be sinners, but the respectable, those who thought themselves better than others, those who kept up the outward appearance of religiousness. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, they said, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them”!

Although this is the title they gave Him-they, the respectable and religious people of that day how true it was then! And how true it is to this very day! They know nothing of their own need of His salvation and His help. They hated Him because His presence and His words proved them to be sinners themselves and showed that their covering of religiousness was a greater sin than any other, for it tried to cover up what would not be hidden from God’s all-seeing eye.

Do you admit that you are a sinner? If so, there is a Friend for you. The Lord Jesus Himself tells us: “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 Lord Jesus speaks to us while in all our sins and failures and tells us of God and His grace and mighty power. And then He speaks of Himself: “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Notice the words: not only to save, but to seek and to save.

Fellow-sinners! God’s Word says that “there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22-23). The promise is to “whosoever believeth in Him.” Can you not rest and trust in Him, the One who took the sinner’s place and suffered for him? “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8).

Grief Over

People from every corner of the world were convulsed with grief and shock as images of the tsunami disaster of December 26, 2004, were flashed around the world. The pictures of the suffering caused by this giant wave of destruction have been indelibly etched into our minds. Images of people being swept away by the wave to their death, of shocked survivors staggering in the aftermath searching for loved ones, of mass graves and unidentified bodies-these images and many more like them will stay with us as long as we live.

The tsunami was created by an earthquake in the depths of the Indian Ocean. From the epicenter, the wave raced at nearly five hundred miles an hour to the Indonesian coast. When it reached land, the wave rose to more than eighty feet in some places. Most people were taken by complete surprise. With little or no warning, very few were able to escape. If only there had been adequate warning.

There is another terrible disaster looming over humanity, but for this one God has provided plenty of warning and a perfect shelter. This one will be the judgment that will fall on all who have not taken shelter while there is time. God has spoken about a real, eternal hell as the final destination of the wicked. Hell is not a pleasant topic to talk about or even to think about, but that doesn’t make it any less real.

Hell is a place of torment: “The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.”

Hell is a place of darkness: “Blackness of darkness forever.”

Hell is a place of never-ending punishment: “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.”

Every person, male or female, who has come to the age of understanding will be swept into that everlasting darkness of hell if they continue in their sins. Should they die without ever having come to the Savior, it will be as though a giant wave of destruction has swept them away with irresistible power. It will obliterate everything good and replace it with darkness, pain and sorrow.

Be warned! “The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God” (Psa. 9:17).

The only way to escape eternal punishment is to trust in the Savior. So that souls wouldn’t have to perish, God sent His Son into the world. The Lord Jesus went all the way to the cross-all the way to death—so that sinners could escape the punishment their sins deserve. Now all who put their heart’s confidence in Him will be saved. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Those who hear the warning of impending judgment can flee to the Savior. They can do it alone in the privacy of a room; they can do it on a busy street. You can do it in a prayer out loud, or you can do it soundlessly in the depths of your heart, but if you are ever going to escape that overflowing flood of judgment it must be done. You must go to Jesus Christ and to Him alone. And once you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as the one way to be saved from sins, you should confess Him before others. Don’t keep the good news to yourself! “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:10).

The Helping Hand

The Amtrak “Sunset Limited” rolled on in the night through the bayou country. Bayous, rivers and bridges were the main features of the flat landscape, and the train was making good time. Nearing the end of the long trip from the West Coast, the passengers were sleeping in comfortable berths or reclining chairs. Then the jolt, the shock, the wild “roller coaster” motion, and the terrifying awakening. The train was suddenly plunged into the deep, dark water of Bayou Canot.

One car was only half submerged. The panic-stricken passengers inside were choking and blinded by smoke from a car burning near them. Amid the groans and cries of the injured someone yelled, “We’re all going to die!”

One young man, Michael Dopheide, borrowed a key-ring flashlight from a fellow passenger. Following its faint gleam, he scrambled to the higher part of the car. A piece of timber from the bridge had crashed through a window. Climbing outside, Dopheide clung to the timber and called to the others to follow. Holding on with his left hand, he reached out with his right hand to help people scramble through the window. Grasping firmly, he lowered them feet first into the water—a drop of about six feet. Those who could not swim to safety were helped to pieces of wreckage and floated across to a bridge support.

All told, about thirty people grasped that extended hand and were pulled from the wrecked car to safety. Gus Maloney, whose injured wife was rescued by Dopheide, said, “If there were any way to reward him, I would! We’ll be forever grateful.”

There is another hand stretched out-a hand stretched out to you and to me and to all souls in peril of eternal death. God says, “All day long I have stretched forth My hands.” All day, all night, those hands have been stretched out to rescue souls in danger. That hand is stretched out still, and the way to eternal safety is still open. Only take it and, like Gus Maloney, you will be forever grateful.

“Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem?” (Isa. 50:2).

“The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save” (Isa. 59:1).

High Stakes Gambling

Lately I have been struck by the great number of people involved in gambling for high stakes. This tendency to indulge in this gambling isn’t limited to a single class of people but includes men and women from every income bracket and every station in life. They seem perfectly willing to place their entire future-even more than their present life—at risk in a mad gamble.

Their willingness to get involved in such dangerous gambling is due in large part to the one who is promoting and overseeing the large-scale gambling venture. He is an incredibly clever “con artist,” without a shred of honesty or integrity. He is at the absolute pinnacle of his chosen profession. As far as ability to fool people is concerned, he is utterly without rival.

Here is the strangest thing about the game he runs: Nobody else ever wins! Yet he has people so convinced that they can “win big” that they rush to place their bets with him. They go lightheartedly to play the game, but without exception, they leave not “broke” but broken.

You see, these people aren’t just betting the paychecks they receive at the end of the month, nor even all their savings and assets. These would be but trifles compared to what they have placed on the table. They are betting their never-dying souls. They are gambling that they will be just fine at death if they ignore the claims the Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has over their lives.

The crooked dealer who gets men to gamble with their souls is Satan, the Master Cheat of the universe. He is a master of every ruse to get men to disbelieve that Jesus Christ is the one and only Son of God. He knows that if a soul dies in unbelief, it will spend eternity with him in hell. In his malicious heart he wants as many as possible to go out into the darkness, not from any fondness for them, but from his bitter hatred of God, who is light and love.

DON’T gamble with your soul! If you go on and never give the Lord Jesus Christ the rightful place in your life, you certainly are gambling. Unless you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, He Himself said, “Ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). To “die in your sins” means that you will be sent away to the dark prison house of hell to be punished for all eternity. “These shall go away into everlasting punishment” are the sad words that will be spoken about all those who die without the Savior. What a high stakes game you are playing if you are living without a saving faith in Jesus Christ!

You can quit that high stakes gambling by believing with all your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is infinitely worthy of your trust. He has done so much to win your faith and love. Believing on Him is not a gamble at all: It is a sure and certain guarantee of eternal life.

It is only through faith in the Son of God that any member of the human race can ever be saved. Souls are saved by faith alone. They are not saved by faith and a combination of something else, such as faith and good deeds, or faith and charity. God has made the gift of salvation to be received solely by faith. He has done this so that all the glory should go to the One to whom it is truly due, that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

The possibility of being saved if you never come by faith to the Lord Jesus is zero. But thank God, because He sent His Son into the world, everybody who comes to Him in faith can know with absolute, 100% certainty that they are saved.

Don’t gamble another day with your soul. Every day is a gift of God, and you cannot be certain that you will have another day. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth” (Prov. 27:1) is God’s advice to you from the Book of Proverbs. Come to Christ today, and the horrible gamble with your soul will be over.

Himself

Once it was the blessing,

Now it is the Lord;

Once it was the feeling,

Now it is His Word;

Once His gifts I wanted,

Now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing,

Now Himself alone.

Once ’twas painful trying,

Now it’s perfect trust;

Once a half salvation,

Now the uttermost;

Once ‘twas busy planning,

Now it’s trustful prayer;

Once ‘twas anxious caring,

Now He has the care.

Once I hoped in Jesus,

Now I know He’s mine;

Once my lamps were dying,

Now they brightly shine;

Once for death I waited,

Now His coming hail,

And my hopes are anchored

Safe within the veil.

The Hindu Musician

You could truly call me an incorrigible. As a young man, less than thirty years old, I had led a totally selfish life. I was idle and purposeless, and my life was miserable. I was only a burden to my family, who were all staunch Hindus.

I had a gift for vocal music and won awards for my proficiency. I was often invited to funeral parties to sing mourning songs during the ceremony.

Sad to say, I indulged in drinking and smoking, and I was also addicted to opium and other narcotics. I became the head of a gang of young men, all reckless fellows who did not hesitate to engage in terrible fighting. Sometimes I even spent the night in the graveyard dodging the police, and finally I ended up in jail. My parents were furious with me for all my bad behavior.

Dejected and desperate, I sought the help of a friend who might assist me in getting a job, but I could not find his correct address. The next day I again went in search of this friend, and one of his neighbors directed me to his upstairs home. (I remembered having seen this neighbor many times before, but had never spoken to him: I had heard he was a Christian.)

After I had finished my errand, this Christian man spoke to me very kindly and gave me a tract, “A Faithful Friend.” Since I was short of money, he gave me two rupees for bus fare.

While traveling in the bus I read the tract, and for the first time I attended the Christian service in Chennai. I had read many religious books, but I found that there is none like the Bible that touches the heart of man. I was impressed by the verse, “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).

Soon after that I got a job, but one day when I went to work I was shocked to hear that my service was terminated. I was very troubled about the loss of my job and went to my Christian for consolation. He prayed for me, gave me a New Testament and told me to read Matt. 11:28. “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” This verse helped me to regain courage and I was relieved of my worries.

When I went the next day to receive my salary, I was surprised that my boss wanted me to resume work again. My joy knew no bounds. Immediately I went to my Christian friend to give him the glad news, and his response was, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Day by day as I read God’s Word I realized more and more what a great sinner I was. I confessed my belief that Jesus Christ had died to save me from the inevitable penalty for my sins. I put my trust in Jesus Christ and accepted Him as my Savior. Praise the Lord!

Sometimes my thoughts wander back to those days. What a wretched and miserable man I was! I wasted my precious time in “riotous living.” How true is the verse in the Scriptures: “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them” (Eccl. 12:1).

How great and merciful is our God, who said, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” He will forgive your transgressions and remember them no more.

Now I am working in a Christian bookstore in Chennai. I hope and pray that everyone who reads my testimony will consider for a moment the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you made serious preparations for the life to come? The promise of Jesus Christ still holds good: “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).

The Honey or the Sting

Bees are noted for two things, honey and stings. In seeking the honey, look out for the stings. Sins also have their sweets, “the pleasures of sin” which are only “for a season” (Heb. 11:25) and always end in the penalties of sin, which are eternal. Doing wrong may be like eating honey, but when the conscience convicts, its stings are terrible.

Sins, like bees, are numerous. There are, in some hives, as many as 30,000 bees. Who can tell the number of sins in our hearts? They are countless. How they buzz around-sins of speech, sins of action, sins of thought!

Try to count the number of bees flying in and out of a hive, and then try to number your sins.

Thousands of bees are inside the hive and out of sight. A friend of ours, who had made his own wooden hive, opened it one evening and let us see the black swarms of bees moving within, though not a bee could be seen outside.

We cannot always see the sins that are in our hearts, but God can, and He says, “I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them” (Ezekiel 11:5).

Jesus, when on earth, knew what was in people’s hearts (Luke 9:47), and He knows what is in our hearts today. One day He opened the human heart, as my friend opened his hive, and showed some of the evils working within-“evil thoughts, murders, adulteries...” (Matt. 15:19).

We would not like for the world to know the thoughts within us, yet God says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart” (Jer. 17:9-10).

Did you ever have a bee follow you and try to sting you? One went after a friend of mine. He started beating the air until he thought he had beaten his attacker off. When he stopped, I saw the bee quietly crawling inside his coat. It is hard to get away from sin, and when we think we have succeeded, it may be nearer than ever.

I knew a woman who, when a swarm of bees were threatening to attack her, shut the garden gate to keep them out! This was just about as effective as our good resolutions to keep away evil thoughts and desires.

Now a bee cannot sting two persons. Its sting is barbed, like a broad arrow, and when inserted, cannot be withdrawn, but is left in the wound. Thereafter that bee is stingless and cannot sting again.

My sins the Savior stung,

And caused His painful death

When on the cross He hung,

And yielded up His breath;

My sins will never sting me now;

They left their stings in His blest brow.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can save from the sting of sin. “There is none righteous, no, not one....There is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Rom. 3:10,12).

BUT—the Lord Jesus Christ can save from the sting of sin. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

The House of Refuge

What a raging storm! It was April 1886, and the little sailing ship, J. H. Lane, battled hopelessly against the roaring winds and crashing waves near the coast of Florida. Both masts were carried away, and, driven by the wind and tide, she went aground on a reef.

Daylight found the ship broken up and her cargo, barrels of molasses, scattered up and down the shore. The eight men in the crew were in desperate condition. Worn out with their long struggle with the storm, they still faced death from exposure or starvation even if they succeeded in reaching shore alive. At that time Florida was sparsely settled and there was little help to be expected.

But trained men had seen the debris along the shore, and they understood only too well what it meant. One man, Samuel Bunker, tied a line to himself and, with the other end held by two others on shore, he waded out into the boiling surf to pull the exhausted sailors to shore.

Then what relief! Not only were the lives of seven of the men saved, but they were well cared for. They were given hot drinks, food, dry clothing, beds and blankets. After the long ordeal at sea, it must have seemed like a little taste of heaven to the rescued men.

Was it just a lucky break that the shipwrecked men were saved? By no means! Everything had been prepared beforehand. Ten years earlier the need had been seen on that dangerous coast, and all along that empty shore “houses of refuge” had been established. They were built for just such a shipwreck.

The houses, two story wooden buildings, were stocked with food, clothing and cots, and they were manned by live-in keepers who were stationed there to give help to shipwrecked sailors. According to the log books, the men in the house on Hutchinson Island, to which the sailors were taken, went out on more than thirty-four rescues.

In the same way, when mankind made spiritual shipwreck through sin, God had His “refuge” prepared. The Lord Jesus came into the world and gave His life to atone for the sins of all those who will receive that atonement. That work completed, He rose from the dead and is alive forever. “Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.”

Can you imagine those sailors refusing rescue? It wouldn’t make sense, would it? Nor does it make sense to refuse the salvation God now offers to all. It has all been accomplished by the Lord Jesus. Wouldn’t it be wise to accept it now before your own soul is lost in the storms that are rising in this world?

Jesus

I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only, JESUS.

My soul is night, my heart is steel-

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life, I must appeal

In simple faith to JESUS.

He died, He lives, He reigns, He pleads;

There’s love in all His words and deeds;

There’s all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in JESUS.

Though some should sneer and should blame,

I’ll go with all my guilt and shame,

I’ll go to Him, because His name,

Above all names, is JESUS.

Lesson in the Sorting Barn

The tomatoes played dizzily on the sorting belt as busy hands reached out to grab one after the other. The stock lady with the white hair tried to squeeze one more into the bulging basket. “These are too big,” she said.

I walked past large bins of peaches which would be sorted later as she turned and smiled at us. “Oh, you’re back this summer to get more peaches, are you?”

“Yes, of course. And it’s good to see you again. I thought you had retired,” I said.

A little smile spilled over her wrinkled face. “How old am I?”

“Well, it could be dangerous to guess, you know.”

“Go ahead,” she challenged. “It won’t bother me.”

“Just tell me.”

“I’m 83. And I did retire, but that was last year. I took the year off because my husband was so sick. He died. You know, he was 87. So then I came back to help again.”

“I’m truly sorry to hear about your husband,” I stammered.

She looked at me with settled cheeriness. “Put it this way. He’s gone to be with his Lord. He was singing with the Christians at the Wednesday prayer meeting and went home to heaven on Saturday.”

I nodded. “It’s nice to hear you say he went to be with his Lord.” She seemed quite comfortable talking about the Lord, so I asked, “Was he one of those who say that they are saved or born again?”

“Oh yes,” she smiled as the light sang in her eyes. “He was saved. Do you know what that means too?”

“I’m so glad to say that I do. It’s wonderful to know the Lord, isn’t it? To be saved, to be sure about where we’re going and how we’re getting there?”

She turned to go into the huge cold storage to get the peaches we wanted. My mind went back to the words of the Lord Jesus: “I am the Door: by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved” (John 10:9).

It is a grand moment when the sinner finds out just how much he needs the protection of that Door. It is an unforgettable experience when the sinner just steps forward in faith to receive the Lord Jesus as the Savior. No wonder the sparkle in her eyes sang joyfully even as she spoke of her late husband who knew the Savior. He was already in eternity.

Soon you will be there also. But where?

Make Me Good

From the time I can first remember, I was taught to “say my prayers” and to respect the Bible. At times I longed to be “good,” and like many others, I tried to make myself fit for heaven. Sometimes, doing good deeds, I felt quite proud of my efforts. At other times, my own miserable failures cast me into despair.

So I continued until I was twenty-one. Then a brother dear to my heart was taken from me by death. To comfort myself in my loss, I filled all my spare time with a series of “good works” and felt that I must be earning God’s approval. More and more I longed to be pleasing to God. Day after day I asked Him to make me good, to make me feel that I was better.

One night I could not sleep. I took up a little book, God’s Glad Tidings, thinking it would be dull and dry enough to put me to sleep quickly. It was a simple little book, but soon I found I could not put it down.

As I read, I came to a quotation from the Bible: “No flesh should glory in His presence.” This stopped me, and I thought it over. If this were true, how could I attain the degree of goodness that would be acceptable to God?

I read on: “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus.” What? Didn’t I have to do anything? Light began to dawn; for the first time I saw the value of Christ’s work on Calvary.

With wonder I now read: “Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:29-31).

Now I saw that the whole work was Christ’s, and if I believed it was for me and received Him as my Savior, God viewed me as in Christ Jesus. Only in Him would I glory, and through Him as my righteousness I would find acceptance with God.

How simple, but how deep! My soul reveled in it then, and throughout the passing years it has grown more and more precious to me. In Christ I have found complete satisfaction and perfect rest for time and eternity.

“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

A fun day at Long Beach, Washington, took a sudden turn for the worse when Peter Doumit, watching his son and his nephew, both about ten years old, saw them get farther from shore than they should have gone and then begin to panic. So he ran through the surf that was pounding the beach and waded out through ever-deepening water forty or fifty yards to where the boys were having trouble. His nephew, the stronger swimmer of the two, seemed to be holding his own, but he saw that his son was flailing his arms and gasping for breath. He reached his boy and held him up above the shoulder-high water.

The run through the water had tired him and the water was bitter cold, but the important thing was that his son, whom he loved more than anything else, was safe. Because of his love, he was willing to put himself in harm’s way to protect his son. He never stopped to consider the danger to himself. It is the way love works.

He was holding on to his boy when he discovered his feet were trapped in the sand. Evidently he had stood for a few minutes in a patch of soft, shifting sand, that some locals call a “crab hole.” He couldn’t break his feet free from the suction of the sand, and the more he struggled the lower he sank. Soon the waves were crashing over him and he was no longer able to catch his breath. He held on to his boy, holding him safe until at last, unable to breathe, he lost consciousness and let the boy go. A rescue team arrived in time to pull his badly shaken-up son out of the water. The nephew was able to swim to safety on his own, but they searched for the father for forty fruitless minutes, even calling in a helicopter to help. At last they found him, but it was too late. He had drowned saving his son. A member of the rescue team told a reporter, “The dad died a hero, saving his son.”

Peter Doumit loved his boy and died trying to protect him. Love is the earnest desire for the good of another. It is stronger than the desire of good for oneself. Solomon felt the power of love when he wrote the following passage in the Song of Solomon: “Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death....Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.” Peter Doumit loved his son with a love that was stronger than death, and he gave more than the substance of his house for it; he gave his life that the boy might live.

I would like to tell you about another whose love was far stronger than death, which many waters couldn’t quench, neither the floods drown. It was the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for a perishing world. Even though we are all sinners, He loved us so that He left heaven above to live as a man among men. In the first four books of the New Testament you can trace His life on earth and see how truth and love shine out in all He did and said.

You can read of many wonderful incidents that reveal how He showed God’s love to those who were in need. Take, for instance, the time He was walking on a road to a town called Nain. Near the city gate He passed a funeral procession. A widow’s only son had died, and many people from the town were carrying him out to bury him. When Jesus saw the poor, heart-broken widow, we read that He had “compassion” on her, and with the words, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise,” raised her boy back to life. You can find this story in Luke 7.

Truly His is love like no other! At another time He passed by a man that was born blind and could only live by begging. Jesus anointed his eyes with clay and told him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. “He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.” The story doesn’t end there. The religious leaders of that day were so infuriated that such a miracle undoubtedly took place that they examined both this man and his parents. The man’s honest answers so enraged them that they reviled him and cast him out. But Jesus found him, talked to him and led him to a real faith in the Son of God. These are just two incidents. There are many, many others also that you can read. As you read, you will begin to understand more about His great love.

Reading these stories of how He loved others, you can begin to get a picture of His love, but the picture can never be complete until you read of the cross and how He died a willing sacrifice for others, for sinners, for US.

The Lord Jesus knew that God is holy and must punish evil; He knew that every member of the human race sinned and would end up collecting the wages of sin: death. Death—not only physical death where the spirit is separated from the body, but spiritual death also where the soul is banished from the presence of God forever. Knowing the wages of sin and at the same time loving us with a love stronger than death, He went to the cross and willingly died in the sinner’s place. It was not the nails that held Him to the cross, but His love for sinners that bound Him there.

The Apostle Paul later wrote (being inspired by the Holy Spirit), “Christ died for our sins.” The waters of death and judgment, in wave after wave, passed over His soul. He sank beneath those waves so we might be brought to safety. It is only by His death and suffering on the cross that any of us will ever escape the punishment our sins deserve. Jesus Christ came to earth, became a man, and died that we might live through Him. Because of His death, God is able to offer the gift of a free salvation to all who believe on the name of His Son. “The wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Peter Doumit, in an act of courage and devotion, gave up his life to save his son from drowning. A far greater than Peter Doumit came to this world, and in love He gave up His life for you. Will you let His love go unanswered and never come to Him as the Savior of sinners? Or will you bow your heart to Him in recognition of what He has done and believe on Him? It is a choice only you can make. Oh, be wise, and, like the blind man who received his sight, believe on the Son of God.

Marooned

Physically and mentally exhausted, Mrs. Bernice Brown was rescued by the U. S. Coast Guard from bleak, uninhabited Anacapa Island where she had been marooned for fourteen days. Her husband and a friend who sailed with them out of Santa Monica Harbor were drowned in the mountainous waves which sank their boat, and she was left alone.

“We ran into a heavy storm,” Mrs. Brown told her rescuers. “Our little boat was whipped around like a feather in a windstorm. Then a huge wave flooded the engine and, with our power off, we had no chance. When the boat was swamped, I clung to the bow. But I was washed away as though I were a fly. When I came up again, both men were gone. I didn’t see them again.”

Tossed from the tops of giant combers to the depths of the troughs, Mrs. Brown was drowning with seawater when she floundered against a gas drum. She hung on to it for hours until, at nightfall, she saw a big rock jutting out of the water. With her strength almost gone, she struggled to it and lay there exhausted until the next morning, when she was able to swim three hundred yards to Anacapa Island.

On Anacapa she might well have expected to starve, for it is uninhabited and there is no natural means of existence. Nevertheless, she found a hut once used by the navy containing emergency rations, barrels of rainwater, blankets and a battery radio.

Cut and bruised in the wreck of the boat, exhausted by the long struggle, she collapsed and for a while was barely able to move enough to feed herself. At last on the third day she was able to build a fire on the beach, and she kept it lighted until she was rescued.

Imagine yourself in Bernice Brown’s place, washed “as a fly” from the bow of the boat and floundering for hours in the storm-tossed sea, and you will understand something of her joy at spying that great rock in those turbulent waters, and later at finding food and water and shelter on that barren island!

You may never be caught in a storm at sea, but you may have discovered that, as far as your spiritual experience is concerned, the sea of life all about you is roaring and you have been swept helplessly from every ship of good works and religious rites and traditions to which you have desperately tried to cling. And, at the present moment, you may be floundering desperately between hope and fear as the deep darkness threatens to engulf you.

But see directly before you-unshaken and unshakable-is the great Rock of Ages, Christ Jesus. You may hide safely in Him and see the storm give place to a great calm as you sing:

Oh, safe to the Rock that is higher than I,

My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly;

So sinful, so weary, Thine, Thine would I be;

Thou blest Rock of ages, I’m hiding in Thee.

You will find in Him the shelter and supplies needed for all time until He leads you at last to the heavenly haven of rest. “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).

Men's Hearts Failing Them for Fear (Luke 21:26)

I grew up in the prairies of Canada. The wide, open plains and large fields of crops were often referred to as the “Bread Basket” of the world. Wheat was harvested and sent to the mills to make flour to bake bread.

One afternoon as we were going about our farming duties, we noticed some unusually dark clouds coming from the west. They were moving quickly and appeared like a pot of boiling water. Everything became deceptively quiet. There was no wind, birds stopped singing, the cows were heading for the barn and the chickens and turkeys were restless.

Suddenly a wind came up, followed by severe lightning, thunder and a downpour of heavy rain. Then something very frightening occurred. Hailstones the size of baseballs pounded the fields, gardens and buildings.

I remember the fear in my mother’s voice as she herded all of us children into the root cellar, and I remember my father trying to calm our fears. There was crying and there was a pleading in prayer to the Lord Jesus to keep us safe.

The storm subsided as quickly as it had come up, and we left our safe haven in the root cellar to view the damage-windows shattered, shingles demolished, garden vegetables shredded like salad, fields of grain totally destroyed, chickens and turkeys dead from fear and exposure, and water everywhere.

For us youngsters, our fear quickly disappeared and we enjoyed wading in the water. For the older ones, there was the concern for the loss and damage. Our family placed our trust in the Lord Jesus to provide for that which had been damaged and lost. Our food that ordinarily would have been laid up for the winter was gone.

Recently we have seen devastation in the south due to hurricanes. People are “fearful.” The Bible tells us that these are some of the signs of the last days. God is speaking to all of us. He is in control! God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world to save sinners. Many are not paying attention and are quickly forgetting the devastation. Just like us children after the bad storm, we played in the water and quickly forgot the destruction.

Are you going to pay attention to what has happened in many of the Caribbean islands and the southern states? “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). Jesus has prepared a home in heaven for all who will put their trust in Him.

Judgment is coming on this earth. This judgment will punish those who turn down God’s offer of salvation. Only those who put their trust in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ will escape the awful judgment that is coming. Will you admit that you are a sinner and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

“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).

A Moslem Writes

According to Moslem rites, at my birth the words meaning the greatness of God and the apostleship of Mohammed were pronounced in my ears, and thus I was received not only into this world but also into the fold of Islam.

At a very early age I had finished the whole of the Koran, and under an Arab Hafiz I had begun to memorize it. I also learned my vernacular Urdu, and at the age of ten I knew how to say the prayers prescribed by Islam. Under the guidance of a professor of Moslem theology, I acquired some knowledge of it and of the laws regulating prayers and fastings. Armed with this necessary Islamic knowledge, I turned out to be a strict observant of Moslem laws. I could hardly tolerate the Moslems who did not observe the prayers and fastings, or who were not good Mohammedans, and my contempt for non-Moslems knew no bounds. I was fast growing into a fanatic.

A little reading of books about the early conquests of Islam so influenced my thoughts that I would delight in imagining another jihad (holy war) and drawing a sword against all unbelievers and then dying a martyr in a glorious fight for Islam.

The guiding principle, the motive behind my religious zeal, and the tenacity with which I followed the practice of Islam lay in my blind faith in the truth of Islam. To me every other religion was an invention of the devil, and all non-Moslems, as followers of false religions, had no right to exist.

One day a copy of the Gospels was given to me by a Moslem friend.

On previous occasions I had torn it into pieces as a book of Satan. This time I decided to read it and study it carefully and try to discover something Satanic, but there was nothing which I could discard as a lie or corruption.

The simplicity of the life of Christ impressed me. The story of the crucifixion was something new and contrary to what I had been taught, yet it seemed to be the natural development of the whole thing. My faith in Islamic interpretation was shaken. The gospel story, either right or wrong, was not, at least, Satanic.

I managed to obtain a copy of the Bible and started reading it every day. Then came difficulties: There were so many questions to be solved; I wanted someone to guide me. I was introduced to Dr. Zwemer, who, using a mixture of Arabic, Persian and English, spoke to me on the Koranic text, “Show me the straight path.”

It was the first occasion that the Christian message in its absolute purity was presented to me. I had found the existing Bible to be the real Torah, Zabur and Injil mentioned in the Koran. Now I learned that Christ and only Christ is the Way, and that I must become a Christian not only for the intellectual satisfaction but in order to be saved-saved from the hell and judgment with which I was familiarized in Islam. I learned that I must accept Christ as my living, spiritual Guide and follow Him with unhesitating steps to the end of life.

It became clear to me that Christ is the Path leading to God, for He is the way between God and man, for He came from God and has returned to God. The path was clear and straight, and my soul cried out in exultant joy. It was the joy of a man who had lost his way and then found it again and, recognizing it as his path leading to his home, would feel happy and relieved.

Mushrooms or Toadstools?

What were those strange objects on the kitchen table? Were they mushrooms or toadstools? Opinion was divided; some said that they were mushrooms while others claimed that they were toadstools. The finder was sure that they were edible, but the cook insisted that they were poisonous. Other members of the family were anxious to clean and taste them.

Someone remembered seeing a copy of the National Geographic which was devoted to the subject of mushrooms. After a little searching, the magazine was found and its pages eagerly scanned for information which would decide the matter. Sure enough, two pictures were discovered which proved that the strange things were “shaggy mane” mushrooms, and the description of that species contained the definite statement that they were “edible.”

All fears of suffering and death being removed by her faith in the magazine, one member of the family immediately prepared and ate some of them. The next day found her alive and well. Her experiment verified the statement of the article.

This incident is an everyday illustration of the fact that “we receive the witness of men.” Just because the magazine article said so, that young woman believed that those strange looking things were “good for food,” and she was perfectly willing to risk life and health to prove it.

“If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater” (1 John 5:9). The Bible is infinitely greater than the best magazine. Its word pictures and statements are true and authoritative. Men and women have their opinions about spiritual things (just as they have about mushrooms and toadstools!) but a simple “thus saith the Lord” should be an end of all controversy.

A verse like the following should be sufficient to convince anyone of his sinful condition before God: “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

And the statement, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3), should be enough to reveal God’s way of salvation to every sin-burdened soul.

To stake your soul and its eternal welfare on the word of the living God is far safer than the risking of life and health on a magazine article!

My Eyes

My eyes are priceless! They are marvelous examples of a delicate and intricate mechanism. They are constant reminders of the Creator’s wisdom and power. Through them I look out on the world in which I live.

My eyes have been fair to me under the most exacting conditions. They have stood the test time and again. I use them constantly from waking until bedtime. In all that I have attempted, my eyes have had their part.

My eyes have enabled me to enjoy the work of artists, authors and poets. My eyes have enjoyed the wonders of God’s creation: the birds, flowers, trees, seas, mountains and plains.

My eyes have seen my loved ones: parents, relatives and friends. My eyes have looked on multitudes of people, among whom were some of earth’s notables.

But the most marvelous sight of all is yet future! My eyes will one day see the Lord Himself. The unfailing Word of God says, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him” (Rev. 1:7).

The eyes of those who believed on Him here will see Him as Savior. Yes, my eyes shall “see the King in His beauty.” They will see the One “who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).

But the eyes of unbelievers will see Him as JUDGE. To meet Him as judge will mean to perish, for as judge He will have to say, “Depart from Me.” “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40).

The greatest of all sights is still ahead of me. “We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”

Will you see Him as Savior-or as Judge?

No Problem

’Way down South, where frost is rare and roads never freeze, pavement is often very thin-and rainfall heavy. So there is one firm rule for drivers: Never drive into water of an unknown depth!

It is tempting, particularly to younger drivers, to put on speed and charge right through the puddles and see the water crest and spray out from the car. It just seems irresistible to some.

Probably the driver we are talking about didn’t really “floor it” at the sight of the mammoth puddle across the road, but he did say to himself confidently, “My Jeep can handle that! No problem!” And he drove ahead.

Two men saw a crack in the asphalt pavement and water gushing up. They ran to warn motorists, but as they waved their arms and shouted for our driver to stop, he thought they wanted a ride. “I don’t pick up hitchhikers,” he said.

So into the “puddle” he went-and down. Down into sudden darkness, down into cold water. Ten feet deep, and sixteen feet long and wide, the hole just swallowed the Jeep.

And who ran to the rescue? The two who had been spurned as hitchhikers! Plunging into the cold, dark water, one man was able to open a door and pull the driver out. Then, forming a human chain, the two were able to lift the driver to safety.

Lots of us travel the road of life just as the Jeep driver did. Whatever comes, we are confident that we can handle it-no problem! But there are problems-great, black, deep holes ahead, and sooner or later we find ourselves “in over our heads” and facing that last terrible darkness of eternity.

Who can lift us out of darkness into light? Why, only the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has told us about the danger, the One who warned us that “the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” and the certainty that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23).

And after all the warnings were ignored and people still rushed on into destruction, He did not turn His back and say, “They refused Me—let them go!”

No, the one thing left to do was to go down Himself-down into cold, dark death and the tomb, to accomplish rescue for sinners and to be able to offer life eternal to all who would receive it.

It was “while we were yet sinners” that “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). He didn’t wait for us to pull ourselves up from the hole; He knew we could never, never succeed.

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?

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?

No Time for God?

No time for God?

As soon to say, no time

To eat or sleep or love or die!

Or you will 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?

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 light itself-

Our God!

No Warning for Tsunami

His voice was determined: “The giant wave will hit the coast of India in less than three hours.”

The response was apologetic: “We don’t know who to call. There is no way to warn them.”

He explained again: “In three hours this tsunami will smash everything. Many people will die.”

“I hear you! But what can we do? There is no time.”

“There are three hours! Start now!”

“But how many people can be warned in three hours? We have no system along the coast to warn the people.” “In three hours thousands will die!”

“Yes, that will happen. We can do nothing. Try another department. Good-bye, I must go.” Click.

I can only imagine how some of the phone calls went as the scientist desperately phoned various countries to warn of a looming disaster. Within fifteen minutes of the December 26, 2004, earthquake, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii had sent an alert to twenty-six countries, but they struggled to reach the right people.

“We tried to do what we could. We don’t have any contacts in our address book for anybody in that particular part of the world,” said Charles McCreery, director of the center.

Television and radio alerts were not issued in Thailand until 9 a.m.-nearly an hour after the waves hit. What help was that?

I am sure glad that the Lord Jesus hears us and He is not helpless. In fact, the Bible says, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. 7:25).

Of course, God does not need an address book and He does know you, your address, and everything you have done, whether good or bad. And He has tried to reach you to get your attention.

For years Tad Murty, a Canadian scientist born in India, tried to get somebody in the government to listen. And now that 10,000 people would die in a few hours along India’s coastline, they would finally plan to build a warning system. He must have been heartsick to realize that billions of dollars would soon be available to rebuild villages and roads, but nobody had been willing to spend the millions required to save lives with the early warning system that other countries use.

Tsunamis have been known in the Indian Ocean, notably one that killed several hundred people in Bombay in 1945, and scientists have been urging countries in the region to protect their high population densities by being prepared. At a meeting of the Oceanographic Commission in June, specialists concluded that the “Indian Ocean has a significant threat from tsunamis” and should have a warning network. No action was agreed upon.

But God, who knew the sinful condition of the human heart, acted on our danger years ago. The Lord Jesus Christ left the splendor of heaven and came here to tell us our need and to give His life as a payment for our sins.

During the past Christmas season many people paused to thank God for sending His Son into our world. He came to speak to us Himself. No angel, no prophet could say it the way He would. He warned plainly and firmly: “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).

He told us what we did not want to hear, but He spoke in love. He also brought good news with the bad. He would pay the ultimate price, His life, to deal with our sin. His death was not an accident, not an unforeseen tragedy. It was prophesied and carried out according to Isaiah’s prophecy five hundred years earlier: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities...and with His stripes [punishment] we are healed” (Isa. 53:5).

The early warning system is in place. But who is listening? It cost the Lord Jesus His life; Peter said it this way: “Christ...suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

The Apostle Paul put it this way, reminding believers: “Ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God” (1 Cor. 6:20).

Take time now to think about spiritual issues. Begin by reading the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John. Read about how the light came into the world of darkness to bring real life. That’s chapter 1:4. Now keep reading.

There is a lot at stake. Time marches on—and eternity is too long to call yourself a fool.

You may not have three hours!

Of Death

There was once an old Scottish woman who wanted badly to go to Edinburgh, the capitol city, but for years she could not be persuaded to take the railway journey. There was a long tunnel through which the train would have to go, and she was terrified at the thought.

One day circumstances arose which compelled her to go. For a while her fears were great and increased as the train drew near the dreaded tunnel. But before the tunnel was actually reached, the old woman, worn out with excitement, dropped peacefully off to sleep. When she woke up, she discovered that the tunnel had been passed!

Sometimes even God’s people are afraid when looking ahead to the dark shadow of death, but the apprehension is as needless as the old woman’s fear of the tunnel. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life; he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

The resurrection hope takes the sting out of death; though we sleep, we shall awake in the full sunshine of His presence. “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness” (Psa. 17:15).

This is a sure hope for all the people of God, but what of those who do not know God? It will not be so with them. To go alone without God and without hope into the darkness of death is only the prelude to spending eternity in “the blackness of darkness forever.”

Now, that is not a needless fear! It is the most sensible fear a human being can have. If you find that fear in your heart, turn at once to the One who came into the world to die on the cross to “deliver them, who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15).

Paradise

A nameless man has blazed a historic trail. We have heard of a place-paradise. We have read of its peace and cloudless joy, of its inhabitants who never say, “I’m sick.” We know that in this place there is no death, no pain, no parting, no sorrow, no sin. There is no cemetery, no hospital, no prison, no sound or threat of war. If it is true that one man has already reached there, we would gladly take the same road.

But how do we know that he has reached it? We want facts, not theories.

Paradise is a fact, for the Savior of the world, the Son of the living God, has made the statement: “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). As surely then as Jesus Christ went into paradise when his eyes closed in death upon the cross, so surely did the man to whom He spoke.

Who was this man, this man so favored as to be in company with the Son of God? He was a robber, a thief. He had a lifetime of evil deeds behind him, and it was useless for him to promise reformation, for he now had only a little while to live. He performed no penance, he passed through no purgatory, he received no dispensation. But he turned to the Savior of sinners, and on the basis of his simple faith in that One he went straight from a robber’s cross to paradise.

If, then, he received such wonderful, undeserved favor from the hand of God, may not we too have hope of similar treatment when we remember that He is the God of love, not willing that any should perish? Certainly we may, and the paradise of God is open free to all who come in the same way the dying thief came.

How did he come? This evil man had spent his waning strength and his gasping breath in cursing the silent Sufferer at his side. He expected a blistering retort, but as he railed on and on and no word of rebuke came from those kind lips, no fiery glance from His compassionate eyes, the cruel, venomous words trailed off into silence.

The conscience of the dying thief awoke. He remembered that when he and his companion had been thrown upon their respective crosses they had cursed their executioners, but that when the gentle Man beside him had been rudely maltreated, roughly hurled upon His cross and nailed to it, He had only prayed, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

This could be no ordinary man! What if it were true? He had heard it whispered in Jerusalem that Jesus had claimed to be the Son of God. He had done enough miracles to support that claim. No one had ever heard Him say an untrue word or seen Him do anything wrong. He never had to recall a sentence or apologize for a misdeed. Could He be the Son of God? And now to think of those words of forgiveness for His enemies! Surely here was God, if ever deity had visited this sin-stained earth.

He thought, I deserve my fate, but this Man has done nothing amiss. He may have added to himself, “If He really is the Son of God, this cannot be the end. Someday God will vindicate this just Man and give to Him HIS kingdom.”

Against the crowds who had cried, “We will not have this Man to reign over us,” the voice of the dying thief was heard. He said, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42).

What joy these words must have brought to the broken heart of the Savior of the world! He recognized the simple faith behind them. Here was no recital of good deeds or promise of betterment. Here was a helpless sinner casting himself unreservedly upon the Savior of sinners. How else could He respond except in His own princely fashion? This poor thief should be with the Savior Himself in paradise!

So he died. As his eyes closed upon a dim and dying world, they opened upon his Savior’s face and his ears heard his Savior’s voice. For him there is endless joy, though he deserved the blackness of darkness forever.

And we too may take the same place as the dying thief! The dying thief offered nothing and promised nothing; he accepted as a gift Christ’s promise of immediate entrance into paradise—and entered into paradise with his Savior.

We also must come to Christ as guilty sinners, acknowledging, “I know that in me...dwelleth no good thing.” We cannot bargain with God-no excuses for past sins and no promises for the future. We cannot turn over a new leaf or lead a better life or pay for the way with good deeds or prayers.

By His death on the cross, Christ has satisfied all God’s righteous claims against the sinner. God has “laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” and God can now righteously pardon the sinner who believes in His Son and accepts His perfect work of salvation.

Plenty of Time

The old man had died very suddenly. He had lived to an extreme age, but still someone at his funeral sighed and said, “He died so suddenly—he had no time to prepare!”

A Christian answered, “He had plenty of time to prepare!”

He reached almost the absolute limit of life expectancy, and he had many an opportunity for the settlement of the most important question in life.

He had plenty of time to eat and drink, plenty of time to buy and sell, plenty of time for sports and pleasure-all that, and much more. He had plenty of time to look into the future and to ask himself how things stood with him in reference to it plenty of time to repent, to believe, to be forgiven, to become a child of God and to live for His glory. But were these last done?

You too have had plenty of time for this, haven’t you? I can’t tell your age, but it is not necessary to become old and gray in order to have salvation. No, this is a question that should be settled at once! Every second makes it more serious.

Many a man makes this plan in his secret thoughts: He will get all the fun and pleasure possible until he is just at the end of life. Then a short time before death he will turn his attention to the matter of salvation, will repent of his sins, and throw himself on the mercy of God. He persuades himself that there is salvation “at the eleventh hour,” and if he should spend the first ten for himself, the last few moments will be enough.

But, unfortunately, there are two reasons against this common thought. The first is that Scripture never speaks of an eleventh hour salvation. It speaks of a present salvation and implies on every page that it may be now—or never.

The passage that mentions an eleventh hour is dealing with workmen in a vineyard, and not with sinners in their sins. It is a householder in search of workers, and not a Savior in quest of sinners. A man who is a sinner cannot, as such, be a servant of God. The difference is important!

And second, if it did mean salvation, who can say that this is not the eleventh hour of his life?

The fact is that no man had hired these laborers! They had stood all the day idle, and they accepted the very first offer. They did not refuse even once. Who can say that he has not refused offers of salvation times without number? Who has never said, “Later! Later I will be saved-it’s just not convenient now.”

What remorse will wring the soul that must endure the memory: “I had plenty of time”—yes, plenty!—“and I never used it.” To remember that for all eternity!

Procrastination is the devil’s most potent soul drug. Its effects are certain and lethal. It has been called “the thief of time,” “the thief of souls” and “the recruiting officer of hell.” Avoid it as you would the lake of fire!

Sand Castles

The third annual Canadian Open Sand Castle Competition was held at White Rock, B.C.

In only four hours, 200 groups of contestants turned the beach into a weird landscape of fanciful sculptures and architecture. The first prize went to a fairy castle rising above white clouds (liberally dusted with talcum powder). Others were as beautiful or as interesting, and 100,000 people crowded onto the beach to view the masterpieces.

Night came; the tide rolled in, and the sun rose the next morning on an empty beach. Of all the excitement, all the competition, all the frenzied building, no trace remained.

The sea gulls reclaimed their beach; the breakers rolled and crashed on the sand as always, but the sand castles-where were they?

What a pity that they didn’t last! All the planning and effort went into buildings that would be swept away by the waves! But many, many people are busy today building elaborate castles in the sand. All their time, all their energy, all their hopes and dreams are centered on their castles of sand. What will they do when the tide comes in?

The builder at last will have to say, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain” (Isa. 49:4).

The contestants had to build between one tide and the next; how much more time have we in our little life on “the shifting sands of time”?

The Bible tells us that “the things which are seen are temporal” (that is, temporary or relating to time-sand castles!) “but the things which are not seen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).

The Christian can say, “We have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). No rising tide can wash that building away.

Isn’t it wonderful to be able to look beyond our collapsing castles in the sand to a building “eternal in the heavens”? We can gaze past our brief life here to everlasting life, which is ours for the taking. Only one group could win the prize in the castle-building contest, but God’s offer is open to all of us.

“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).

Shep

Near the base of the Rocky Mountains, on the high plains of Montana, the grass grows plentifully. There in the 1930s an old shepherd, his face deeply carved into wrinkles from years of being in the sun and wind, worked with his sheepdog. They tended a big flock of sheep, and sometimes they didn’t see another human being for weeks.

The dog, with his lively eyes and thick, matted hair that protected him from the elements, was very good at what he did. Tirelessly he trotted his seemingly endless rounds, making sure the sheep stayed bunched together, always on the alert for predators such as wolves or coyotes. When it was time to move the sheep to fresh pasturage, the dog seemed to know, with only a nod, a whistle or a sweep of his master’s hand, exactly what to do. Several ranch hands working on horses would have had difficulty accomplishing the same tasks the sheepdog did easily.

Then an illness that had been creeping up on the old man laid him low, and he no longer could rise up out of bed. He needed medical help and the nearest place to get it was in Fort Benton, many miles away. When he was lifted up on to the bed of an old farm truck, the dog jumped up beside him and stayed by his side for the long trip. When they got to St. Claries Hospital, a couple of workers came out and carried the old shepherd in. The dog tried to slip in the door to accompany his master in the hospital, but a nurse discovered him and blocked his way. The sheepdog, or “Shep” as the people living in Fort Benton began to call him, lay down near the hospital door and kept a close watch on it. He didn’t want to miss his master if he should leave.

The old man’s illness was the last he would ever suffer, for he soon passed away. When his relatives were contacted back east, they asked for his body to be sent to them by train. Hospital attendants carried his body to the train station. Shep saw what was happening and followed along. When the old shepherd’s body was placed in a freight car, Shep tried to jump up through the open door, but a railroad worker prevented him and then slid the door of the car shut. With a puff of steam the train pulled away, leaving Shep behind.

Most dogs left to themselves would have wandered away and perhaps would find a new home. Not Shep. He had seen his master leave on the train, and somehow he believed that he would return in the same way. The next day when the train pulled into Fort Benton, Shep was there waiting for it. He walked among all the passengers that stepped off, looking into their faces, hoping to recognize the one he loved. Needless to say, he didn’t find him, but Shep didn’t give up. He came back the next day also, and the next, and the next...always checking each passenger to see if his master might be returning.

The train conductor noticed the behavior of the dog as it was repeated over and over. It was he who pieced together Shep’s story by asking a few questions around town. Shep faithfully looking for his old master became a topic of interest for many people. Some people even made the train trip to Fort Benton to see the dog for themselves. Shep didn’t disappoint them. Whether it was raining, snowing, or bitter cold, every day for the next five and a half years, until he died, Shep never missed checking out the passengers of the incoming train.

Shep’s faithfulness and loyalty to his master are remarkable. Few stories about dogs can rival Shep’s. Faithfulness and loyalty-they are traits that we admire in persons too. If we have faithful and loyal friends, we can count ourselves fortunate indeed. Whether you know it or not, you have a great Friend whose faithfulness and loyalty are unrivaled. This Friend has your best interest in mind and the good of your welfare in His heart, at all times. Even though you may not know Him, He knows you, and He knows what you need, better than you do yourself.

His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and He is a friend who sticks “closer than a brother.” In faithfulness to mankind He left the glories of heaven and came to earth to reveal God’s heart of love to a world of lost sinners. In faithfulness to the creatures that would so despitefully use Him, He went all the way to the cross. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

At the cross the Lord Jesus made a way for hell-deserving sinners to turn around and find forgiveness and eternal life from God. Eternal life is not only life without death; it is far more than that. It is life that can know the same joy that filled the heart of the Lord Jesus. This joy comes from knowing God the Father and ever seeking to please and obey Him. On earth we can know it in some measure; in heaven we will know it fully, completely and without interruption. Just to be in heaven and in the presence of the Lord Jesus will be joy so great that no words can describe it.

Jesus Christ is sometimes called “the sinner’s Friend,” because, no matter how deep in sin a person may have fallen, He can do wonders in that life. He can forgive, cleanse, justify, redeem and turn such a fallen soul into a child of God. Do you feel yourself far from God, full of grief and bitterness, and doing hateful things? Don’t despair! Come to Jesus. Never was a friend so faithful, and what He has done for others He can do for you.

If it were not for His faithfulness in seeking for lost souls like a shepherd might search for a lost sheep, not one of us would ever be saved. You can be sure He is looking for you even now. Won’t you hear Him speaking through His Word (the Bible) inviting you to come to Him that you might have life?

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand” (John 10:27-28).

Shep’s story moves our hearts because he was so faithful. Won’t you let the true story of the Lord Jesus, and all He did to save you, move you to accept Him as your Savior? His love to you is unrivaled. His faithfulness and loyalty in His dealings toward you are unequaled. Don’t go on being a stranger to His love and grace another day. Oh, that your eyes might be opened to what God has done for you, and that you might bow your heart to Him and confess Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!

Such an Offer!

Such an offer! Full and free!

Is it really meant for me?

That all my sins on Christ were laid;

That all my debt by Him was paid?

Yes, Jesus says it, who has died;

“Believe,” and I am justified.

Such an offer! Pardon now

For hidden sin and broken vow!

For years of cold neglect and scorn;

Can mercy’s day upon me dawn?

Yes, Jesus died instead of me;

His death for mine must be my plea.

Oh, what goodness! Lord, I take

This offer Thou dost freely make!

My one desire shall henceforth be

To live for Him who died for me;

Spread, glad news, through every nation:

Instant-free-and full salvation!

The Musician's Story

I was born and raised in an orthodox Jewish home. Every Friday night my mother would light the candles and say the Jewish prayers. We used three sets of dishes: one for dairy products, one for meat and one for Passover use. According to the custom in most Jewish homes, I received my religious instruction from a rabbi.

While I was still in high school my brother suggested my taking up the saxophone. The instrument seemed to be fitted for me; often I spent six or seven hours a day in practice, even on the hottest days, and I dreamed of being a great musician.

When I graduated from high school, I played with several bands; in them were all kinds of nationalities and religions. One had nothing better than the other; we were all in the same boat—hopeless and lost. With the others, I drank and gambled and thought of nothing but to have a good time.

All the while, I felt that something was lacking, but I did not know what it was. I tried philosophy. I read James, Plato and Schopenhauer, seeking satisfaction but finding none.

About this time I came home to Brooklyn after a New Jersey engagement. One evening I noticed a small crowd on a street corner. I went over to the gathering and saw a man holding a saxophone. Another man was speaking. What he was saying meant nothing to me, but the saxophone did. I wanted to see how well he could play it.

I had to stand there fifteen minutes before the man picked up the saxophone. Then he only played a simple note to start the singing! I did not particularly enjoy the singing, but I wanted to hear the man play a saxophone solo. So I waited still longer. In the meantime, I became more and more interested in what the speaker was saying. It was twenty minutes before the man picked up the saxophone again, and this time he only picked it up to pack it up—and the meeting was over!

However, by this time I had become really interested. At the close of the meeting, one of the singers came to me and invited me to come to the mission the next evening. Then he did something else for which I will be grateful as long as I live—he gave me a New Testament.

I went straight home. I began to read the Book until I had read most of the New Testament through before dawn the next morning.

Within twenty-four hours after I received that copy of the New Testament on a street corner in Brooklyn—through the simple reading of the Word of God—I saw that I was a sinner and that the Lord Jesus was Israel’s true Messiah. Then I did the only reasonable thing that one could do under the circumstances: I believed that He bore my sins in His own body on the cross, and I received Him as my Savior.

The following night I went back to the mission and publicly confessed my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I am saved, because I believe in the true Messiah of Israel.

When Christ came into my life, He made me a new person! The wonderful joy and peace that have come into my life far surpass all the so-called pleasures of my former life. Today I have the blessed hope of being with my Lord for all eternity.

“If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink” (John 7:37).

“Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).

The Old Signpost

The oldest known signpost in the world is in Great Britain. It stands at a junction of the road at Chesterholme. This old servant of the traveler is made of solid stone and was erected by the Romans about seventeen centuries ago. Though its wording is somewhat blurred now, its letters are still legible and its aged arms still point the way at the crossroads.

We all reach crossroads in life at some time or other, don’t we? Sooner or later we must each make a decision that affects our whole future pathway, our eternity. And there we find a signpost, one that points the way to safety for all eternity. That signpost is the cross of Christ. It points the way to God, to heaven and to life. It tells of a Savior who died, not for His sins, but because of ours. “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

The cross reminds us of how we rejected the Creator when He visited the planet He formed. The cross reminds us of God’s great concern about our sin. It tells us of the judgment His Son felt when He became answerable to God for my sin. It points the way to peace and salvation and forgiveness.

Where can you read more? Start in John 19 and notice the writing is not blurred; the letters are legible. This signpost gives the clear story of the Savior’s cross, death and resurrection. It points toward a safe eternity.

The Peach Barn

The peaches tumbled off the conveyer belt as it slowly rotated. Leila’s white hair betrayed her age, but she worked energetically beside the younger workers while they deftly picked through the rolling peaches. Three or four went into the fancy box on the right, then one to the bushel on the left.

That bushel was filling up with the peaches that were second best. Some were too small, some had brown marks, and some were an odd shape. They could not go in the high-priced box destined for the grocery store.

As Leila looked over the peaches, she could not see the inside; she was only judging the outside. The peaches going into the box looked perfect. Were they as good inside or were they brown, woody and tasteless?

Her hands worked as she talked. “I came to the Lord when I was twelve years old. That’s when I asked Him to forgive me, to cleanse me inside from all my sin. That is the most important thing in life. It’s not what you see on the outside. It’s whether or not God has washed clean the inside.”

A Bible verse came to my mind: “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). God sees behind our smiling faces and fine clothes. He sees the heartaches, the ulcers that eat at the conscience, even the desires for Himself. He also knows all our sins, our disobedience and lies. He isn’t fooled by the exterior.

Of course, the Bible gives His analysis of the human heart. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9).

This is the very reason why Jesus Christ came. We couldn’t save ourselves, so He came to do what we could not do. The prophet Isaiah wrote, “He was wounded for our transgressions [sins], He was bruised for our iniquities...and with His stripes we are healed.” John records it this way: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son [cleanses] us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Yes, as we tumble along in life, people sort us out by what they see on the outside. God looks at the inside and He knows if I have ever called on Him to cleanse me. Have you done this?

I picked up a discarded peach. It had a little bump and a one inch brown scar where it had rubbed on the branch. I bit into it. Ah, just right. The inside was fine.

That’s what really counts.

The Pleasure Poll

What is your greatest pleasure? What do you enjoy the very most? Over 1500 adult Americans answered that question recently in a poll conducted by an advertising agency, and how do you think they responded?

More people reported that they enjoyed watching TV than anything else on the list. Watching TV was checked by 68% of those responding-more than family, food, travel, sport or (at the bottom of the list) religion.

But it is such a temporary pleasure. Yesterday’s programs-where are they today? Truly, they are “pleasures...for a season,” a very brief season.

Almost half got “pleasure and satisfaction” from the food they ate; less than a third spoke for “religion.” Evidently they consider their bodies more important than their souls! When the Lord Jesus Christ was on earth He said, “Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life” (John 6:27).

Then they asked Him, “What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”

Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.” More than that, He said, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”

Everlasting life. Not “pleasures...for a season,” but everlasting joy. “Thou wilt show me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore” (Psa. 16:11).

What are the things listed in the “pleasure poll” to compare with that? Are you content to spend your life-your one short life on earth-in such temporary pleasures, when “pleasures forevermore” are offered you?

The Space Beyond

This world of ours has suddenly become far too crowded and far too small! We live in an age familiar with orbiters-shuttles-space stations-how shrunken our little globe seems! Everything is to lead to planetary exploration: a space probe to Mercury, a “mission to Mars,” and a robotic probe with the destination Titan (the largest moon of Saturn).

What does it mean? Why is it that our world has become too small? Why have we become so interested in exploring outer space? Is it just the thrill of reaching and exploring the unknown? Or is there a motive deeper, much deeper than most have realized?

Here is one answer from an engineer in the space program, a man sober and sound in his thinking. Said he, “Well, yes, it is all of that to be sure, but I can’t help but feel that it is something more. After all, there are unknown and unexplored places on this planet. But I am convinced that many are sick and disillusioned by all that is going on down here-war, and all that. They are not running away, but they do want to get away somehow.

“They feel that on some other planet there can be a clean break, a fresh start and a beginning of things all over again.”

What a startling reply this is when fully analyzed! Yet it is how God said it would be. How true it was when God said, “SIN entered into the world.” Sin has ravaged every fiber of this old world, and because of this sin and the sinners in the world, the prophet of old stated the following: “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest.”

It may be that in a generation to come some of the regions of space will be explored, but nothing will ever be revealed nor discovered that will free sin-sick man from himself and his sin that God has not already revealed in the Holy Scriptures. Man may come to a new planet, but it will be the same old man, in the same old sin, with the same eternal condemnation.

No, there is no new solution to be found in space. But there is whole and utter and complete solution in the Savior from sin whom God gave. It was the Lord Jesus Himself who said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). The key is not to be found in another planet, but in a Person. “Jesus saith...I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). Not by rocket, but by repentance, “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Never forget that solemn reminder from the God of the universe: “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” You may not live to travel in a rocket ship, and you may not even travel very far by plane or even train, but if, as a repentant sinner, you trust Christ, the Savior of sinners, as your very own, you will someday ascend through the clouds with Him and enjoy the blessings of heaven for all eternity.

I hope that the seriousness of being without Christ as your Lord and Savior will bring you to Him, so that someday we may meet in “the space beyond.”

The Stranded Bird

Out of the hurricane, out of that wild smother of wind and rain, the white bird came-battered, bruised and hardly alive.

Far, far from home she lay on the soccer field of a Massachusetts school. A thousand miles of storm-tossed water lay between her and her nesting ground. Helplessly lying there, her life was fast flickering out. Then ten-year-old Ilse and her mother came to the rescue. Gently lifting the strange bird into a box, they carried her home to safety and began to nurse her back to health.

Ornithologists identified her as a white-tailed tropic bird, sometimes called a “long-tail” because of the bird’s two long tail feathers. It is the national bird of Bermuda.

A research station that raises live fish for laboratories donated her food: live herring, smelts and saltwater minnows. Soon she was gaining weight and fluttering her wings again.

And now, what was to be done with her? She could not survive in that cold climate, but Bermuda was too far away, and the weather conditions were too uncertain for the young bird to fly home. But fly she did-all the way from Boston to Bermuda-on a big Delta Airlines plane. Ilse’s mother bought a ticket for herself and the bird and flew with her to Bermuda to give her her freedom again.

It seems a great expenditure of time and money to save the life of just one bird, but bird lovers will understand. And it is a little picture of what has been done for human beings-for us. We have been battered and bruised by the storms of life; we have gotten far from God and home. We may be nearer death than we realize. Yet there is hope: As Ilse and her mother lifted up the big white bird and took her to safety, so the Lord Jesus came in love to save us.

It was at a fearful cost to Him: He gave Himself! And as the bird was carried safely home by the wings of the great plane, so He wants to take us home to be with Himself. Home—the Father’s house—“fullness of joy...forever”—He would give it all to us.

The helpless tropical bird was rescued completely by the kindness of others; even so we are saved “by grace...through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). He does it all. All we can do is believe and receive and thank and praise God.

The Wondrous Story

I will sing the wondrous story

Of the Christ who died for Me

How He left His home in glory

For the cross on Calvary

I was lost, but Jesus found me—

Found the sheep that went astray;

Threw His loving arms around me,

Drew me back into His way.

Days of darkness still come o’er me,

Sorrow’s paths I often tread,

But the Savior still is with me;

By his hand I’m safely led.

The Wrong Way

The hot Florida sun beat down on the expressway, and the hitchhiker trudging along with his backpack looked hopefully at each car that passed. Turning to face the oncoming car, he would hold up a hand-written destination sign: “PENSACOLA.”

No one stopped. As each car whizzed past him, he would give his pack a hitch and start on down the road, a hot and weary man.

Why did no passing motorist take pity on him and stop to give him a ride? He was certainly hoping to reach Pensacola—all his effort was directed to getting to Pensacola—but he was going the wrong way. Pensacola lay 450 miles to the north, and he was walking down the southbound lane. Every step he took, the longer he traveled, the more energy he put into his efforts to reach Pensacola, the farther he was from getting there.

No doubt he thought he was going the right way, but we can only think of the verse in Proverbs: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). Travelers journeying on through life-as we all are-must make sure that theirs is not just the “way that seemeth right.” When we ask, “How can we know the way?” the Lord Jesus Himself answers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

“The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:35-36).

That is the way. We come to God by believing on His Son. The promise is absolutely sure: “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” (Romans 10:9-10).

Could the way be plainer than that?

This Man

Nearly two thousand years ago the city of Jerusalem was in a tumult. Men, women and children were running about, yelling and leering, crowding closer and closer so as not to miss any of the excitement. In the very center of the storm, the center of that shouting, swirling mob, there was a Man. Who was this Man?

This Man was one who had healed many and fed multitudes. Some among the crowd had known Him quite a while and had been touched by His compassion and gentleness. And some had even wept as He restored a loved one to health again. But there were others who claimed that this Man has “a devil, and is mad.”

The crowd was a mixed one that morning. Some were common folk; others were men of high esteem. There were religious people too. The most religious people of that day were known as Pharisees and Sadducees, and they were the most vocal in condemning this Man. It was well-known to some of them-even the governor himself knew-that this Man was delivered to be crucified out of envy. They wanted only death for Him. “Crucify Him,” they cried; “crucify Him!”

This gentle Man slowly made His way out of the city and up the hill to die. He was bleeding and in pain and the wooden cross was heavy, so that He stooped as He walked. The crowd knew well that the Roman soldiers were cruel, and this morning they seemed specially so. They inflicted many blows on Him; His face was terribly marred, and a crown of thorns was placed on His head.

They came to the place called Calvary. He was laid on the cross, and soldiers took iron spikes and drove them into His hands and into His feet. The cross was lifted up while the people jeered and mocked at this Man hanging there between heaven and earth.

What a sight that was! This Man hanging there was still full of compassion for the multitude. He was in such suffering, yet He asked His Father to forgive the crowd—“for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

At about the sixth hour of the day the sun was darkened, and until the ninth hour He suffered in the darkness. He cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

At last He cried with a loud voice, “It is finished!”

This portion of God’s Word is familiar to most people, but what about you? Do you know who this Man was? He was the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Do you know that He died for you? God “made Him to be sin for us,” and He bore the penalty of sin so that anyone believing on Him and His finished work on the cross will never have to bear the wrath of God against sin. In other words, He took our place—my place, and your place if you believe on Him.

Before He went to the cross, the Lord Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24).

He also said, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

This Man:

“The man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all”

(1 Tim. 2:5-6).

This Very Moment

Take a second and look at your watch or at the clock. Whatever the time may be at this very moment, you can say, “At this very moment, I am ‘in Christ’ or ‘in my sins’.”

You are either saved or lost, heading for heaven or hell. You may not believe it; you may very much dislike thinking of it and do your best to speedily forget it. Nevertheless it is true. Ahead lies “everlasting punishment” or “life eternal.”

At this very moment, God has power to call you into His presence. What would be your destiny then? “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

At this very moment, God’s record is being made in that book from which every sinner is to be judged. That record is true, and in it God records your words, your deeds, and the very thoughts and intents of your heart. Will you be glad to see them again in that day?

This very moment has already passed into eternity to witness against you. Are you still in your sins, still not cleansed by the precious blood of Christ?

THINK! This very moment He longs to rescue you from the pit of despair and to save you for a glorious eternity with Him in heaven. Why refuse Him?

This very moment yield your heart, your life, your soul to Christ. This very moment you are hardening or softening under the weight of these solemn facts. Are you turning to or from the Lord Jesus?

This very moment may determine your eternal destiny. Eternal hell or eternal heaven depends upon your decision.

May the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit and by His love at this very moment turn your heart to Himself.

“As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die?” (Ezek. 33:11).

Three Reasons

Here are three reasons why you should not hesitate to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

First, when Jesus Christ came as a man to this earth, He fulfilled countless Old Testament prophecies. These prophecies specifically predicted the manner and place of His birth, His entry into Jerusalem, His betrayal, His death on the Roman cross, His burial and His resurrection. All these prophecies cannot be explained away by mere mathematical chance; they prove that Jesus Christ is the “sent One” of God.

Second, of all the men who ever lived, He alone lived a perfect life. He was perfect goodness moving in the midst of evil. He took upon Himself flesh and blood, even as we have flesh and blood, but He never sinned. His mind never entertained an evil thought. He never committed an evil act. He was in all points like we are, but without sin. Indeed, He was the only Man who never sinned. His holiness should convince us that there was something extraordinarily special about Him.

Third, His resurrection from the dead should be enough to remove all doubt in any heart as to His identity. Others written about in the Bible died and were restored to life, only to live out their natural lives and die again. But Jesus died and rose from the grave and lives in the “power of an endless life,” never to die again. All those who trust in Him will share in the power of His endless life. Jesus said, “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).

Three Things

Three things you will certainly do:

Every eye (including yours) will see Jesus Christ (Rev. 1:7).

Every knee (yours too) will bow to Christ (Phil. 2:10).

Every tongue will “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:11).

Do it now! Make Him your Savior and friend, now!

Tomorrow

“Tomorrow,” he promised his conscience;

“Tomorrow I mean to believe;

Tomorrow I’ll think as I ought to;

Tomorrow the Savior receive;

Tomorrow I’ll conquer the habits

That hold me in sin’s bitter sway,”

But ever his conscience repeated one word:

“Today, today, today!”

“Tomorrow-tomorrow-tomorrow”:

So day after day it went on;

“Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow,”

Till youth like a vision was gone,

Till age and his passions had written

The sentence of fate on his brow,

And forth from the shadows came Death,

With the pitiless syllable: “NOW!”

Tsunami

On December 26, 2004, a severe earthquake (9.0 on the Richter scale) took place under the Indian Ocean. Gigantic waves were produced (a tsunami) that moved very rapidly in all directions from the site of the earthquake.

No one was prepared for what happened. It was perhaps the greatest natural disaster of modern times. More than 175,000 lives were snuffed out without warning, and eleven countries were affected. One of the worst hit was the island of Sri Lanka off the coast of India. Banda Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, also suffered tremendous damage and loss of life.

Some who survived the disaster said in despair, “What did we do to deserve this?” When Jesus was on earth, He was told of a tower that fell and killed eighteen people. Jesus said, “Think ye that they were sinners above all men?...I tell you, Nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5). It was not just a question of sin and deserving death; it was a matter of preparing for an eternal future. The prophet Amos said, “Prepare to meet thy God,” because you do not know when your time will come to leave this world. Be prepared!

A man who had had a very profitable business saw it all wiped away in the waves. He mourned, “Now I have nothing!” How sad for him, but sadder still is one who lives only for earthly possessions to the neglect of his soul. It should make you fear to delay another moment. It was too late when the wave hit; it will be too late when death overtakes you.

Tourists enjoying a luxurious vacation in the tropics were not spared. Many were killed. Survivors sometimes exclaimed, “Our paradise turned into hell!” People who live without one thought about God or eternity will suddenly meet their doom. They will find themselves in that awful place called “hell,” because they did not come to Jesus for safety. He has made the way so simple that a child can understand. If you know this, are you ignoring the fact that your immortal soul is in danger? Neglecting the offer of the Savior’s “so great salvation” has the same end as rejecting Him-a lost eternity!

It is easy to think that disasters happen to someone else, but death is no respecter of persons. Khun Poom Jensen, the grandson of the king of Thailand, probably felt very happy and secure, surrounded by four bodyguards and several friends, as they were riding the waves on that beautiful morning, but he was taken by the wave just as the thousands of humble rice farmers and fishermen who lived in the little straw and mud huts along the beaches.

The whole world was shocked at the great loss of life, and many nations, agencies and individuals responded with much-needed assistance. Food, water, shelter and medicines flowed into the stricken areas in an enormous mercy effort.

God, too, has not left us helpless in our sinful condition. He has already sent help! “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Have you accepted that help? Have you come to Jesus for salvation?

“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).

Come to Jesus NOW! Tomorrow may be too late.

Wanted: An Eyewitness

Wanted: An eyewitness to the traffic accident involving a truck on Highway 59.

This ad appeared in a newspaper in Houston, Texas, some time ago. Apparently there was some dispute as to what had happened. These people wanted an eyewitness of the accident in order to prove what had happened.

Did you know that the Bible also speaks of eyewitnesses? God doesn’t want us to have any doubt in our minds about the truth of what happened in the Bible, so He gave us many eyewitnesses. In Luke’s Gospel he said there were those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses (Luke 1:2).

The Apostle Peter wanted to assure us that God’s Word is true, so he wrote, “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).

The Apostle Paul tells us that when Jesus rose from the dead, He was seen of Cephas (Peter), then of the twelve, and after that He was seen of “above five hundred brethren at once” (1 Cor. 15:5-6). There were over five hundred witnesses that Jesus rose from the dead!

Yes, God wants each one of us to be very sure that the Lord Jesus came into this world to die on the cross for our sins and that He rose from the dead. He provided many eyewitnesses, and He also gave us His own Word so that we do not need to have a single doubt. “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

Peter said they were eyewitnesses. The Lord Jesus is in heaven with all the majesty and glory of the One who will soon reign over all the world. You and I will someday be eyewitnesses of Jesus! If you have been cleansed from your sins by the precious blood of Christ, then you will see Him as your Savior in all the beauty and joy of God’s home in heaven. If you turn away from God’s offer of salvation, you will still see Jesus, but as your Judge. “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him” (Rev. 1:7).

Jesus is coming soon. How will it be when YOU are an eyewitness?

Warning Versus Protection

Since the disastrous tsunami in the Indian Ocean, governments and scientists are working together to try to ensure that there will be a warning before the next one strikes. The plan is to install “deep-ocean tsunameters” in possible earthquake places in the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. When the warning system is complete, those who live along the coasts can be at ease. They have been assured that they will be protected.

Protected? We-e-ll-there may be a few small problems. There may be a “glitch” somewhere in the lines of communication: some sirens may fail—some messages may be garbled—some hearers will not be physically able to escape—some may simply fail to hear.

But the worst problem of all—human nature.

In 1986 an earthquake struck near the Aleutian Islands. Tsunami warnings were sent from Alaska to California, and to Hawaii and Japan. The result? Roads and beaches were crowded-“swamped” one police dispatcher said in Coos Bay, Oregon, and “crazy” in Port Alberni, British Columbia, as people rushed to the shore.

A picture published in Oahu, Hawaii, shows a four-foot seawall at Makapuu Beach, solidly lined with sightseers. If the tsunami had hit?

In Banden, Oregon: “We cleared them off the beaches and the beach loop road, but they flocked back down,” a police officer said.

Warned? Yes, certainly. But protected? Not at all! By their own choice they stayed in the danger zones, enjoying the excitement and looking for a thrill. How foolish can one be?

Very foolish, to risk their lives in that way. But this life is “but for a moment.” When that moment our little, little time in the land of the living-is over, what is ahead? Eternity.

Are you willing to risk your eternal future for any “thrill” this life has to offer? “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37).

There is real and absolutely certain protection for your soul available. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He said it so plainly: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

He bore all the fury of the storm-all the “waves and billows” of the wrath of God against sin-and stood between us and everlasting destruction. How can we not trust and believe and receive this wonderful everlasting protection?

The promise is sure and certain: “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”

We Neglect

It is not said, How shall we escape if we disbelieve or despise or scorn so great salvation? It is written, “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).

Suppose a man has been poisoned, and a sure and certain antidote is provided for him. He does not need to throw it on the ground or trample it under his feet. He has only to let it remain untouched by his bedside, and the result will be the same as if he had destroyed it in a passion or flung it from him in contempt.

You do not need to be guilty of many and great sins in order to lose your soul. You have only to sit still and do nothing when Jesus stands at the door and knocks-to keep the door closed when He offers salvation-carelessly and indolently to neglect it.

If this is your course, how can you escape? On what good and solid ground can you rest any hope of escaping? God’s Word plainly says, “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). Neglecting this salvation makes escape impossible and condemnation certain.

What Are You Waiting for?

Perhaps you mean to be a real Christian someday. But when is this to be? Are you waiting UNTIL YOU ARE SICK? Surely you will not tell me that is a convenient season. Your body is racked with pain; your mind is distracted with all kinds of anxious thoughts, and calm reflection is almost impossible. Is this a convenient time for getting acquainted with God? Certainly not.

Are you waiting UNTIL YOU HAVE LEISURE? And when do you expect to have more time than you have now? Every year you live seems shorter than the last. You find more to do and less power and opportunity to do it. And after all, you do not know whether you may live to see another year. “Boast not thyself of tomorrow”-now is the time.

Are you waiting UNTIL YOU ARE OLD? Surely you have not considered what you say. Will you go to Him when your mind is weak and your memory failing? Will you give up the world when you cannot keep it? Is this your plan? If so, it is an insult to God.

Are you waiting UNTIL YOUR HEART IS PERFECTLY FIT AND READY? That will never be. It will always be weak and sinful-full of evil. You will never make it like a pure white sheet of paper that you can take to Jesus Christ and say, “Here I am, Lord, ready to have Thy law written on my heart.” Do not delay! Begin as you are!

Be honest; confess the truth. You have NO GOOD REASON for waiting. Do not delay any longer. Receive Christ as your Savior today. You may never have another chance.

“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near” (Isa. 55:6).

What Is Saving Faith?

A question was asked in Acts 16:30, “What must I do to be saved?”

The answer was, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”

But what is it to believe?

It is to put your whole trust and faith in the Lord Jesus.

But what is faith?

Faith, saving faith, consists in your believing that Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. It is believing in the good news of a complete salvation in Him and a firm trust in God that He will fulfill all His promises. “He that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

It is not just believing with the head-that is, mentally. Hear God’s own Word on the subject: “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith...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. For with the heart man believeth” (Rom. 10:8-10).

This is saving faith. It is not trusting to services, rituals or sacraments, but it is coming to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

In other words, saving faith believes what God has said. “These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life though His name” (John 20:31).

BUT: “He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (1 John 5:10).

What Must I Do to Be Lost Forever?

What a question! Have you ever wondered about it? Then have you thought, “That has nothing to do with me! I’ve lived a pretty good life and done the best I could. In fact, I’m a good person!”

Some people think you must commit a great number of sins to be lost forever. Others think that only very bad crimes matter; “little sins” (little white lies, perhaps) just don’t count. But the way to be lost is much easier than that! It’s all wrapped up in one single word: NEGLECT. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3).

You need only to go on living carelessly and indifferently, neglecting not your duties, but this great salvation, and you will be lost—lost forever.

God is now offering salvation by Christ Jesus to this sad, sin-blighted world. He is telling of a salvation which His grace brings for all men, a salvation which makes no conditions and makes no demands. It is for all. Based on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is suitable for all people in their deep and desperate need. Then, to be lost forever, simply close your ears to this glorious gospel and neglect this great salvation. You may do anything, be anything, say anything-only continue to neglect this great salvation and your doom is certain.

Now let us look at the other side: “What must I do to be saved?” The answer is so simple: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30-31).

When? The moment you believe.

Where? Just where you are, as you read this.

How can I know I am saved? God says so in His Word; you have it on divine authority.

The Lord Jesus Himself: “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).

What the Orderly Observed

I’m an orderly at the county hospital, where you can see human misery in its worst form. “The County” is a busy place and the orderlies manage to keep pretty busy. But there are certain hours during the day when you can stop and relax. The hours between 9:00 and 11:00 in the evening, for instance, are ordinarily dull. It was just after 9:00 one evening when something happened that set me to thinking. The nurses had finished their dressings, the lights were out, and my patients were settled for the night. I was walking past one of the units where we keep the more seriously ill patients when I was stopped by a call.

I went in to see if I could be of any help. It was the patient in bed #52 who had called, but he hadn’t called me. It wasn’t my assistance he needed that night. As I leaned over to ask him what he wanted, he called out again: “O God, please help me tonight.”

Just then the patient in bed #53 spoke up. “Why don’t you shut up?” he snapped peevishly. “You’ve been moaning all night. Look at me-I’m going up for a major operation tomorrow, and I’m not squawking. It’ll take more than God to help you now!”

I looked over at #53. He had a tube inserted through his nose, and I silently agreed that he did have some reason for complaint. But the patient in #52 paid no attention and kept calling on God for assistance.

I couldn’t help wondering at their opposite views. One, close to death, was calling with simple faith to his Maker, while the other, so soon to be under the knife, was callously denouncing Him.

Another patient called me just then and I left the room. I told the nurse that #52 was in pain, and I let it go at that.

I came to work at 2:30 the next day, the incident completely erased from my mind. I put on my jacket and was making a round of the patients when the head nurse pulled me aside.

“The patient in #53 went up to the operating room and expired under the anesthetic,” she said.

That set me to thinking again, so I went to look at #52. He was sleeping, but I picked up the chart from the foot of his bed. I glanced past the reports of temperature and medication until my eye caught the report of his condition: “Patient much improved.”

Since then I’ve thought a great deal about these two patients, #52 and #53—the one without faith, dead, and the one whose faith in God had made him a “patient much improved.”

How tragic to be “without faith.” It is far better to be without health, without wealth, without work, without comforts-even without food-than to be without faith!

Without faith there is no forgiveness of sins, no deliverance from judgment, no eternal life, no peace, no joy, no hope!

But no one need be “without faith,” for “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17).

Are you living “without faith”? Are you like patient #53? If so, it is not yet too late to take God at His Word and say with the Apostle Paul, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim. 1:12).

“Without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Heb. 11:6).

When Catastrophe Comes

Most of us are quite capable of handling the small crises of our daily life. Interruptions of all kinds, accidents, illnesses, unexpected expenses-we plan and prepare and are rather proud of our ability to cope with it all.

But what happens when catastrophe comes?

When the dam broke on Lower Price Lake near Reno, Nevada, Tim Miller said, “I saw a wall of mud at least ten feet higher than the sixteen-foot house. I don’t think I ran more than twenty feet when it came over me. I couldn’t breathe as I was being swept down in the mud. I called to the Lord.”

In Aptos, California, a violent storm destroyed ten homes along the coast. Celeste Coscilla, trapped in a collapsing house, said, “I was pinned against the wall; I don’t know how I got out. I said a prayer.”

A British jetliner with more than two hundred passengers was over the Indian Ocean when all four engines, choked with volcanic ash, stalled. Australian passenger Gary Middleton said, “Everybody was petrified. There was no noise. By the time we pulled out... just about everybody was praying.”

These are only three examples of people face to face with disaster-unexpected, overwhelming disaster. We, too, can at any time be brought face to face with the realities of life and death, with forces beyond our control, with circumstances where it is useless to call for help from family or friends. There are times when no human being is able to help.

Then what is the universal reaction? “O God, save me!” This is very much like the Apostle Peter when he began to sink beneath the waves calling, “Lord, save me!”

There may have been no time for God in the past, no thought or care for Him, but when catastrophe comes, “Lord, save me!” Beneath all the veneer of sophisticated civilization the heart knows that help comes “from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.”

Then why wait until “the moment of truth,” the last frantic seconds of desperation when death stares one in the face? There are times when death comes instantaneously, when there is not time for even one heartfelt cry for help. What then?

Wouldn’t it be wise to be prepared for whatever may come, no matter how sudden it may be? Knowing that disaster may strike at any time, in any place, why not “prepare to meet thy God” now? Why not “acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace?” “Peace of mind” is often offered in insurance ads, but this is real peace, real insurance, and that for all eternity.

When My Savior Came My Way

You ask me why I love the Lord;

Well, friend, just let me say:

My life was not worth living

Till the Savior came my way.

You say I lose so much in life;

Yes, friend, PRAISE GOD, I do;

I lose the sin and sorrow

Which was all I ever knew.

I lose the days spent seeking joy,

The long nights full of tears;

I lose the heavy burdens

Which I carried through the years.

But, friend, I would not have them back

For all that you could pay!

My life was not worth living

Till the Savior came my way!

When the Savior Came My Way

You ask me why I love the Lord;

Well, friend, just let me say:

My life was not worth living

Till the Savior came my way.

You say I lose so much in life;

Yes, friend, praise God, I do!

I lose the sin and sorrow

Which was all I ever knew.

I lose the days spent seeking joy,

The long nights full of tears;

I lose the heavy burdens

Which I carried through the years.

But, friend, I would not have them back

For all that you could pay!

My life was not worth living

Till the Savior came my way.

Will Your Anchor Hold?

The little fishing boat had run in too close to the shore, too close to the rocks, and the wind was blowing hard towards the land. To the watchers on shore, it seemed that the little boat must be driven on the rocks, but the fishermen saw their danger in time.

They sprang into action, and the anchor was heaved overboard promptly. There was a great splash as it hit the water, and down went the chain. Down—and down—and down.

Dismay! Panic! The chain was not fastened to the boat, and it followed the anchor down-all the way to the bottom!

What a scramble and struggle those men had to get safely out to sea and away from those dangerous rocks. And what an embarrassing moment it was for them! It was a long time before that was lived down-long before people stopped saying, “Did you ever hear about the time when?”

Very different was the experience of the old sea captain who had inscribed on his tombstone, “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,” with the reference Hebrews 6:19.

What hope did he mean? The Bible makes it plain that it is Jesus Christ our Lord who is referred to in this way. To Him and His atoning sacrifice you may safely trust your immortal soul. “He is able...to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him” (Heb. 7:25).

Have you trusted Him as your Savior and Lord? If so, He will save you from your sins and their consequences. He will save you from yourself. He will keep you in all trials and temptations. Thousands upon thousands have proven this true-have found Him truly a Savior and a Resource that never fails—an Anchor sure and steadfast.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul

Steadfast and sure while the billows roll;

Fastened to the Rock that cannot move,

Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.

Echoes of Grace: 2005

Table of Contents

All Forgiven

All Just

At the Last

A Big Truck and Bug

The Cambodian Jeweler

Come Enter Today

Come to Jesus

Coming Home Again

Dangling From a Drawbridge

The Demise of Galloping Gertie

The Diamond in the Sand

Do You Know?

Does God

The Dog in the Dumpster

The Eighteen-Million Dollar Hunting Trip

The Final Choice

Finding Sasha Again

The Fire Extinguisher

The Foolish Rich Man

A Friend

Grief Over

The Helping Hand

High Stakes Gambling

Himself

The Hindu Musician

The Honey or the Sting

The House of Refuge

Jesus

Lesson in the Sorting Barn

Make Me Good

Many Waters Cannot Quench Love

Marooned

Men's Hearts Failing Them for Fear (Luke 21:26)

A Moslem Writes

Mushrooms or Toadstools?

My Eyes

No Problem

No Time for God

No Time for God?

No Warning for Tsunami

Of Death

Paradise

Plenty of Time

Sand Castles

Shep

Such an Offer!

The Musician's Story

The Old Signpost

The Peach Barn

The Pleasure Poll

The Space Beyond

The Stranded Bird

The Wondrous Story

The Wrong Way

This Man

This Very Moment

Three Reasons

Three Things

Tomorrow

Tsunami

Wanted: An Eyewitness

Warning Versus Protection

We Neglect

What Are You Waiting for?

What Is Saving Faith?

What Must I Do to Be Lost Forever?

What the Orderly Observed

When Catastrophe Comes

When My Savior Came My Way

When the Savior Came My Way

Will Your Anchor Hold?