Echoes of Grace: 2023

These teenagers were ready to celebrate! They had just finished their mid-term exams, and better yet, some of the last COVID-19 restrictions had just been lifted in South Africa. Hundreds of them decided to celebrate at a bar in a coastal town called East London on the evening of June 25-26, 2022. What they thought would be a night of fun, laughter and dancing would end in tragedy for 21 of them. The ages of those that would have their lives snuffed out would be from 13 to 17 years old.

Their sudden and unplanned deaths were to prove the truth of a very sobering message written to all of us in the Word of God, the Bible. It is this: “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death” (Ecclesiastes 8:8). God warns us that each one of us will have to face the day of death, as these 21 teenagers did on that fateful night. When God determines that our time on earth is done, not one of us can stop or prevent it.

Both floors of the bar were jam-packed with young people dancing and trying to have a good time. But at about 4:00 in the morning, police received a call saying that there were “lifeless bodies” in the bar. Rushing to the scene, police saw teens who had fallen on top of tables, some who had collapsed onto the floor and others who were draped over chairs. Most of them were dead already. Two died at a clinic, one died on the way to a hospital, and one died at the hospital. None of them had any visible signs of wounds or injury.

So How Were Their Young Lives So Suddenly Cut Short?

At first it seemed that the mystery would be quickly and easily solved. A few weeks later it was announced that the toxicology report showed that there was methanol in all of the teenagers’ blood. Methanol is a toxic chemical that is a colorless liquid with a strong odor. Methanol can be absorbed through the eyes, skin, lungs and stomach. It is not used in alcohol for human consumption, but is used industrially as a solvent, pesticide and alternative fuel source.

Further testing would show whether there were lethal amounts of methanol that would have killed them. High levels of alcohol and carbon monoxide were ruled out as a cause of death, as was a stampede, as there were no signs of bodily injury.

One 19-year-old girl described how she narrowly escaped with her life in a phone interview with AFP. While trying to exit through a door crowded with people, she shouted, “Please let us through,” while others shouted, “We are dying, guys,” and yet others shouted, “We are suffocating” and “There are people who can’t breathe.” It was a scene of total fear and confusion!

She said this is when she passed out because she was running out of breath. There was a strong smell of some type of spray in the air, which they thought was pepper spray. When she revived after someone sprayed water on her, she saw dead bodies lying around. People tried to revive them with water, but to no avail. Her comment was, “I could have died.”

Ready to Meet God

Her experience shows why it is so critical to be prepared to meet God. None of those 21 teenagers had time to “get ready” for death that night. They were either ready to meet God or they weren’t. We decide where we will spend eternity in this lifetime, not after we die. “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Police Minister Bheki Cele said, “They dance, fall, and die. Literally. Others would just feel dizzy, sleep on the sofa, [and] die. It tells you the story that they were all kids because somebody should have taken note.”

Every day that we have life God is giving us a chance to “take note.” We see the beauty of His creation; we draw breath to live; God’s Spirit speaks to us, telling us that there is life after death and that there is a God to whom we must answer.

God has made a way for us to know Him and to serve Him. There is a way to know that our sins are forgiven and that we will spend eternity in heaven. “For 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). “For God so loved the world” — God’s love reaches out to everybody, no matter how deeply we have sinned; “that He gave His only begotten Son” — God sent His Son Jesus, who in love and obedience left the palace of His glory to die on a shameful cross and shed His royal blood for our sins. He was without sin, spotless, undefiled and pure. He was the perfect sacrifice for our sins; therefore, God raised Him from the dead so that we can be made righteous (right with God) in Him. If we put our faith in Jesus’ work on the cross for our sins, we will not spend eternity in hell but in heaven.

Families of the 21 teens were told a few months later by health officials that their children had died from suffocation due to “friction” caused by dancing in the overcrowded bar. Whatever the cause of death, the only thing that matters now was what choice those children had made about Jesus. Did they put their faith and trust in Him? Had they repented of their sins?

And what about you? While you now have life, you can make the choice to have “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21).

We have spoken of the love of God. But the Bible also tells us of the wrath of God. The experiences described in A Night of Terror are a faint picture of what the wrath of God will be like.

Ambush Predator

With their camo-like skin which blends in perfectly to their surroundings (it is much the same color and pattern that soldiers wear on their uniforms when they go into battle — brown background with oval spots of lighter shades of brown) and their ability to remain perfectly still and then strike lightning fast, pythons make excellent ambush predators.

Pythons are non-venomous snakes, which means they don’t inject poison into their prey. They latch on to their prey by biting them with their four rows of curved, pointed teeth. Their teeth are curved to make it harder for prey to escape from their bites. Then they begin coiling their long bodies around their prey and squeezing the life out of them. Pythons have been known to take down animals many times bigger than themselves using this method.

It is their instinct to conceal themselves near game trails other animals might walk on and attack them before they know what hit them.

A Nasty Surprise

One day a five-year-old boy was excited to go swimming in his backyard pool with his 76-year-old grandfather. The in-ground pool was filled with cool water and surrounded by a brown sandstone patio. On the edge of the patio was a raised garden with eucalyptus plants growing in them. The family lived in Australia.

Out the sliding door the boy went. He only had eyes for the water in the pool. Had he been looking where he was walking, he might have seen the nine-foot-long python coiled up on the concrete. The python had slithered into the backyard under the fence.

The boy may have even stepped on it. It happened so fast. In a flash the snake swung his head towards the boy’s foot and sank its four rows of curved teeth into his heel. The boy screamed out in pain. Before the boy knew what was happening, the nine-foot-long python began coiling its body around the boy. The boy fell sideways into the pool with a splash.

If it were not for the 76-year-old grampa, the boy probably would have drowned in the pool with the snake coiled around him. As soon as he heard the scream, the grampa knew something terrible had happened. He ran to the boy who had fallen into the pool and jumped in the water. With one hand he grabbed the snake around its neck just behind its head and with the other hand he lifted the boy’s head out of the water so he could breathe.

Cradling the boy with the snake wrapped around him in his arms, he carried them out of the pool. Then by squeezing very hard, he got the snake to release its grip on the boy’s heel and was able to uncoil the snake from around his body.

Sobbing and scared, the boy was driven to the hospital where his wounds were cleaned and bandaged. Although pythons are non-venomous, they often carry diseases and germs that are harmful to humans, so the doctors gave the child medicines to prevent infection.

The Bitten Heel

The wounds on the back of the boy’s heel from the curved teeth of the python were fearsome looking. I am glad the snake attack on the boy didn’t turn out worse than it did.

The bite on the back of the boy’s heel reminds me of a Bible story found in Genesis 2. The story takes place in the beautiful Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve lived there, and God told them they could eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except one, the tree of good and evil. Somehow a serpent got into this garden too. This serpent was really the enemy of every person, the devil. He convinced Eve to eat of the one tree she was commanded not to. Then she gave the fruit to Adam and he ate too. This sad moment is how sin and death came into the world.

From that point on, all the children born into the world would be born with a sinful nature. This meant they would be easy prey for Satan. The ambush predator, Satan, had done his damage. If somebody stronger didn’t come to the rescue of the human race, they would remain in his clutches.

This One who is stronger is the Lord Jesus Christ. Although it was to take place several thousand years after the fall in the Garden, the coming of the Lord Jesus was foretold shortly after the fall of our first parents. The Lord God spoke to the serpent and said, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel” (Genesis 3:14-15).

The Lord Jesus is the woman’s seed, meaning He was born of the virgin Mary. He came into this world and lived a life of total obedience to God His Father. His obedience led Him all the way to the cross. Satan, in his short-sightedness, thought he had won a great victory by inspiring men to nail the Lord Jesus to the cross to kill Him. This is how the serpent bruised His heel. The pain and agony the Lord Jesus felt at the cross was deep and real.

But at the cross, the Lord Jesus dealt a far more crushing blow to Satan and the powers of darkness. The death of the Lord Jesus was the ransom price required to set sinners free. “Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

From that moment onward, the gospel was to be preached to all nations, telling sinners there is forgiveness for them through faith in the name of Jesus. By God’s grace, those who deserve death and hell through the sins they have done may repent and receive the gift of eternal life. This is how the Lord Jesus bruised the serpent’s head. Because He bruised Satan’s head, sinners can be set free from the power of sin and look forward to a home in heaven.

The grampa carried the boy out of the pool and got the snake to release its grip on him. The Lord Jesus is the only One who can come right where we are and break the power of sin in our lives so we may live through Him. His death was the ransom price to deliver us from the captivity and slavery of sin.

Will you believe in His wonderful name and receive eternal life?

Cows Corral Carjacker gives us another vital lesson from animals.

As the Sparks Fly Upward

“Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward,” a verse from the book of Job in the Bible reads (Job 5:7). To understand this verse, envision yourself sitting around a roaring campfire at night, the tongues of orange and red flames leaping upwards, and small sparks shooting out of the flames from the energy of the fire. Sometimes the sparks jump so far that they land on camp chairs and burn little holes in them. Trouble in our lives can seem as numerous as those sparks.

We can walk away from a campfire if it gets too hot, but we can’t escape trouble in our lives. Trouble seems to follow us wherever we go. Who can deny it?

The greatest trouble facing people in today’s world hasn’t changed from the greatest trouble facing people in ancient times, such as the days of Job. It is the problem of sin and death.

You know that cold you once had with the aches, sneezing, coughing and fatigue? It is a little reminder that one day health will fail and people will die. The wise as well as the foolish, the young as well as the old, the rich as well as the poor will one day be laid in a grave. Where will they be forever after?

The Biggest Trouble of All

God saw that each person had wandered from His right ways into the paths of sin. He knew that the trouble facing them because of sin was eternal death. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). These wages include not only the death of the body but also spiritual death. “Behold ... the soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The soul can never go out of existence. After death, people will continue to be forever in either heaven or hell. Death in the above verses refers to people who die in their sins and then are eternally separated from God’s goodness and love in a place called hell. The pains of hell are real and will go on forever. It is the place where the fire is not quenched forever.

Is there any trouble facing sinners greater than that? I don’t think so.

God’s Grace-Filled Answer

However, God doesn’t want anyone to die in their sins and end up in hell. “The Lord is not ... willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He wants you, as well as all others, to come to repentance.

To make a way for sinners deserving death and judgment to be saved, God sent His Son into the world. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

He came into this troubled scene and lived a perfect, sinless life. At the age of 33, after three and a half years of public ministry, He was betrayed into the hands of sinners and crucified.

He was given a false trial; He was savagely scourged; He was mocked, spit on and beaten. His hands and feet were held over the wood of the cross and nails were driven through them. A crown of thorns dug into His head. Pain jolted through His body as the cross was dropped into a hole to hold it upright. While He hung on the cross, those who passed by Him ridiculed Him and the thieves who were crucified with Him taunted Him.

The Savior meekly endured it all. God, who protects all those who put their trust in Him, seemed to have left Him in the hands of His enemies. For long hours He hung on the cross. Then the sky went dark, and the sun refused to shine. He cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mark 15:34). Shortly after this cry, He dismissed His spirit and died.

A prophet, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote of the suffering of Christ: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger” (Lamentations 1:12).

The depth of the suffering of the Lord Jesus on the cross could not be expressed adequately with plain words. Therefore, King David wrote these poetic words: “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts: All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me” (Psalm 42:7). It was like all the troubled waves in an ocean of sorrow passed over His soul.

Why did He suffer? He suffered for you and me. He suffered so that anyone in the whole wide world could look to Him and be saved. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22).

Through His death on the cross, the door was thrown open so guilty sinners who had forfeited every right to heaven could enter in and be saved. “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). God forgives those who come to Christ and declares them righteous and justified, not through any work they might have done, but through the work the Lord Jesus did on the cross.

How Will You Respond to God’s Grace?

In this life, those who come to believe and love the Savior still have to live in this troubled world. Someday they may have to go through death. But it won’t be the death of the wicked that ends in hell. It will be the death of the righteous. Those who die in faith will be welcomed home to the joys of heaven. To them, death will be a portal they pass through to a far better world.

This world is full of trouble as the sparks fly upward. You might try to deny this trouble, but you can’t escape it. Death is the end of the road for each of us. To save us from eternal death, Christ died on the cross. He is the sinner’s only hope. He is the door by which all who pass through will be saved. Will you believe that you might receive the gift of eternal life? “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

The "Boom and Zoom" Strategy

The P47 Thunderbolt, nicknamed the “Jug,” short for juggernaut, was one of the main fighter planes for the U.S.A. in World War II. The plane was powered by a single 2000-horsepower engine. It was well armored and equipped with eight large-caliber machine guns. It was one of the fastest planes in the war. In fact, a souped-up P47 would hold the world speed record for single-engine planes until 1989. Although it was well-armed and fast, it was at a disadvantage in a dogfight against the lighter, quicker, more nimble Japanese fighters. The Japanese fighter plane could turn and accelerate much faster than the P47 Thunderbolt.

American pilots developed a strategy to consistently beat the Japanese Zeros in battle. This strategy was called “Boom and Zoom.” In this strategy, the heavier, better-armed P47s would cruise at high altitude looking for enemy planes beneath them. Then they would steeply dive towards their targets building up incredible speed. When they got enemy planes in their sights they would open fire with their eight machine guns. Then, before they lost too much speed, they would pull back on their sticks to gain altitude and “zoom” out of the battle zone. They had to keep their speed up so they could “bounce” back up to high altitudes. As long as they kept their speed up, the Japanese planes were no match for them, but if they lost that speed and tried to engage the Zeros at lower speeds, the Zeros could easily turn the tables and out-maneuver and outflank the heavier P47s.

A Serious Mistake

This explains what happened one day when three P47 pilots were flying near Guadalcanal. They were cruising at high altitude and saw three Japanese light bombers beneath them. They swept down on the bombers and opened fire. Two of the bombers were destroyed immediately in the machine gun fire and went up in flames. The third bomber was riddled with bullets but didn’t go down. The P47 pilot who made the attack on this plane made a fateful mistake. As an experienced pilot, he knew better. Instead of using his speed to bounce back up to high altitude out of the battle zone, he slowed the speed of his plane down to circle and attack the bomber again.

He was just about to do this when, out of the blue, a Japanese Zero attacked him. The quicker, more nimble, Japanese fighter plane flew behind the Thunderbolt and opened fire on it. The P47 was hit and smoke and fire issued from the fuselage.

The plane’s wingmen saw what was taking place and from their higher altitude zoomed down and shot the Zero to pieces. But during the dog fight they lost sight of their fellow pilot whose plane had been damaged.

These pilots felt a fierce loyalty to one another. They flew their planes and searched long and hard for their fellow pilot but didn’t find him. They only gave up the search when they were running out of fuel and needed to return to base. Sometime later it was discovered that this pilot had been killed by machine gun fire from an enemy plane as he parachuted to earth. The wingmen who had flown with him were heartbroken and deeply disturbed by this news.

A Unique Opportunity

A couple of months later, one of these wingmen was flying his P47 Thunderbolt plane on patrol over the Philippine Sea looking for targets. Once again he spotted a Japanese bomber below. He put his plane into a deep dive and in seconds the light bomber was shot to pieces. He watched as the Japanese pilot ejected and his parachute opened up like a white blossom against the background of the deep blue sea.

This was his opportunity to take revenge for his friend. The American pilot turned his plane towards the enemy descending by parachute. He remembered what the Japanese had done to his friend months before. He flew his plane directly towards his enemy.

One burst from his machine guns and the man would be cut to pieces. Hadn’t his friend been machine gunned in a case just like this? The American pilot had his finger on the trigger and the man in his sights. He was about to pull the trigger when suddenly it felt like a strong arm reached out from nowhere and pushed him back in his seat. He heard a voice saying, “Do not do this thing.” Later, he concluded it was the voice of the Lord speaking to him.

The P47 Thunderbolt pilot veered away from his enemy. The man parachuting landed in the open water with a small splash. The American pilot slowly circled around and flying just above the wave tops slid his cockpit canopy open. If somebody told him he might keep a Japanese pilot from drowning the day before, he would have told them they were nuts. The pilot took his life preserver and threw it into the water near the downed pilot and then flew off to continue his patrol.

An Infinitely Honorable Act

It was an honorable act and I am glad it was later memorialized. However, I know an act that was infinitely more honorable where mercy was shown to enemies. In this act, the One who spoke and created the universe left heaven to come to this earth. Did the world receive Him? make Him welcome? honor Him? No, just the opposite. He was born in a stable because there was no place in the inn. Then when He was 33 years old, the Lord Jesus was cast out and crucified. Could God have taken vengeance on such a world? Oh yes, indeed.

However, this is not what God did. He took that act that men meant for evil and turned it into the greatest act of love and mercy this world has ever known, for by the death of His dear Son on the cross, God opened the door of salvation to all mankind. “God commendeth His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

What is a sinner but an enemy of God? The Lord Jesus died for us when we were His enemies. He died to save us from the death our sins deserved. We deserved to come into judgment and to be sent out of God’s presence forever, but by His death He made a way that we might instead be reconciled to God for time and eternity. “If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life” (Romans 5:10).

The Lord Jesus left heaven’s highest glories and came to this earth. He was slain and laid in a grave, but the grave couldn’t hold Him. God raised Him back to life, and He showed Himself alive for 40 days before ascending up to heaven to sit at God the Father’s right hand, His name being made higher than every other name.

But the “boom and zoom” strategy is only loosely like what happened with the Lord. There are important differences. He didn’t descend to destroy but to save. And the Lord didn’t ascend up to heaven after His resurrection because He was in danger. Far from it. “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth,” He said (Matthew 28:18). He had the power to destroy all His enemies if He wanted to. Instead, He sat down at the Father’s right hand in the heavens in order to give the unbelieving world time to consider the truth of His death and resurrection and repent, believe in His name, and escape the condemnation their sins deserve.

This waiting time will not last forever. In the future, the Lord Jesus will descend once again to this earth and take vengeance on His enemies. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

In this interim time between His resurrection and His coming again, He is waiting for His enemies to have a change of heart and get right with God. When they come to Christ in faith, they are forgiven, washed, and set apart for His love. Truly no one ever loved their enemies like the Lord Jesus who voluntarily gave up His life to save them.

Will you honor Him by bowing your heart before Him in love and believing in His name? You don’t have to stay an enemy to God.

The Choices We Make

The two incidents in this story happened in the same week in the same state. They both involved prisoners, and they had two opposite outcomes, one for sorrow and grief and one for joy and happiness.

Violence

Thirty-three Georgia inmates were being transported by bus when two of them were somehow able to overpower and disarm the two corrections officers guarding them, whom they then shot to death. The older man, Donnie Rowe, 43, was in for life without parole, and the younger man, Ricky Dubose, 24, was well on his way to becoming a hardened criminal.

Their Tuesday morning escapade continued with them carjacking a green Honda Civic that had pulled up behind the bus on the rural highway. For the next few days, they led local, state and federal officers on a car chase which covered multiple states. They also tied up an elderly couple and made off with their Jeep, which they eventually crashed. They then fled on foot through the woods in rural Tennessee. Their spree of lawlessness and violence came to an end when they were stopped by a homeowner who held them at gunpoint after he caught them trying to steal his car. As of this writing, they now face the death penalty as they await their trial.

A Different Outcome

These two prisoners had made a series of sinful actions, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Many people were left to grieve and mourn as a result of their actions. But that very same week, six other prisoners had made a choice that would have good consequences, for them and for many others. The Bible tells us that God is watching it all happen and taking note of it all. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). One day, every one of us is going to have to answer to God for the choices that we have made in life. “It is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:11-12).

On Monday of the same week, six prisoners were assigned to graveyard maintenance. It was a particularly hot and humid day in Georgia. As they were busy about their chores, suddenly, without warning, the deputy sheriff assigned to guard them collapsed and lost consciousness!

This would have been the prisoners’ golden opportunity to escape. They could have taken the officer’s gun and the work van, fleeing across state lines before anybody noticed. But they chose not to do so. Instead, they worked to save the officer’s life. One of them quickly dialed 911, using the officer’s cellphone. Others took off the officer’s bulletproof vest so that he wouldn’t be so hot and also so that emergency personnel could perform CPR once they arrived. Because of their quick thinking and action, the deputy sheriff’s life was saved.

Apparently, the officer lost consciousness from complications due to brain surgery that he had had 10 years before, but he was able to make a full recovery. In appreciation for what they had done, Sheriff Moats recommended that these prisoners (who were all nonviolent) receive reduced sentences. The Corrections Officer’s Department also had a pizza party for them, complete with homemade desserts from the family of the officer whose life they had saved.

What an unusual week for the Georgia prison system! From an act of selfless kindness on Monday, to cruel and vicious murders on Tuesday, ending with a party of thanksgiving on Friday. Everyone involved was struck by the consequences of the actions that the two groups of prisoners had taken. After the Friday lunch, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office wrote on Facebook, “As we watched the horrific manhunt this week of the two inmates that killed two correctional officers and were captured last night, we all know that Monday could have ended differently for our officer. We are very proud of the actions of all six inmates involved.”

The Most Important Decision of All

God is faithful to tell us in His Word, the Bible, that there is one choice that is more important than all of the daily choices that we can make. It is the choice between spiritual life and spiritual death. It is the choice for eternal life or eternal damnation. It is the choice to have your name written in the Lamb’s book of life or not. When we accept God’s way of salvation, we are receiving God’s forgiveness of sins, spiritual life and eternal life. He writes our names in the Lamb’s book of life! “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).

Jesus paid for our sin-debt towards God by dying on the cross and shedding His blood for us. It is God’s gift to us, but we have to receive it! God’s word to us is, “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19).

We must all choose whether or not we will receive God’s plan of salvation — those of us that consider ourselves “good people” and those of us that society considers “bad people.” God tells us, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Do you see your need of a Savior? What will your choice be? Either way, your choice will have eternal consequences! Therefore, choose life and live!

Cows CorralCarjacker

Some people are brought to justice in very unusual ways. Who would think that a herd of cows would assist police in capturing a car thief? Yet that is exactly what happened in Sanford, Florida, one Sunday night in August 2018.

A stolen Subaru SUV crashed in a ditch beside a pasture after a high-speed police chase. The driver and one passenger fled on foot, while the third passenger was arrested at the scene. The driver was apprehended, while Jennifer Kaufman attempted to flee on foot through the pasture next to the car.

She was making good headway until ... a herd of about 16 cows saw her and decided that they did not like this intrusion into their territory. They banded together, with the lead cow out in front, chasing her towards the fence on the other side of the pasture. Kaufman raced for the fence on the other side, hoping to evade this new threat ... but what she didn’t realize was that there was an Eye in the Sky helicopter that was tracking her every move and reporting it to the police below them.

The cows, who had never shown aggression before, did not know why this intruder was running through their territory. Was she going to hurt them or steal one of their calves?

The Bible tells us that God in heaven above sees and knows every secret thought, action and deed that every man and woman on earth has ever done or will do. The helicopter crew could only see and report what they saw, but God knows our very beings even before we are born. The Bible also tells us that God is keeping a record of everyone´s life who has ever lived or will live, and that one day every secret will be revealed.

Everything Known

A Seminole County Sheriff’s helicopter used a night-vision camera to capture the scene unfolding below and gave a play-by-play to the police below. But Kaufman did not know of the Eye in the Sky as she raced across the field, eventually climbing through a fence ... and directly into the arms of the waiting police.

In the end, both Kaufman and the driver were charged with trespassing, petty theft, drug possession (cocaine was found in the car) and resisting arrest.

How many people are living their lives today thinking that their secret sins are hidden and will never be brought to light? Many more do not even feel the need to hide their sin, not realizing that God is taking note, and that we must all stand before Him one day.

Here are three striking verses about the books that God is keeping. Every human being that was ever conceived is in the first one. This first book shows that God knows your makeup — how tall you will be, what color of hair and eyes you will have, your physical abilities and your personality. It shows that God cares about you and is intensely interested in you as an individual.

“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in Thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16).

These next two verses are so sobering that we dare not ignore them! Not only do they show plainly that there is life after death, but also that where you go depends on which book your name is written in!

“I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works ... and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:12,15).

Standing before God, with the books opened ... everything you did, every secret revealed, including your unbelief in God’s plan of salvation ... checked against the Book of Life! Your name not found in the Book of Life ... sentence pronounced against you ... cast into the lake of fire for eternity!

How unusual to have a herd of cows help bring a woman to justice! But how supernatural for those who have died to be raised up, suspended in space before a great white throne to stand before the Judge of all the earth (Jesus) to be judged for your rejection of God’s salvation and to have sentence pronounced against you for eternity!

Not one person standing there will find their name written in the Book of Life, because ... all the redeemed who are written in the Book of Life will be in heaven with their Lord and Savior!

These are those who have believed God’s message that has gone out to all mankind. They believe that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God ... BUT the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 3:23; 6:23). They are the ones who are “redeemed ... with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). They have believed that “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). They have poured out their hearts to God, saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” (Luke 18:13).

Which group will you be in? God’s invitation to everyone is: “Let him that is athirst [thirsty] come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17).

God’s love goes out to the needy as Please Love Me clearly shows.

Doctors Couldn't Explain It

It is true that the word “miracle” can be overused. However, there are many instances where there is simply no known reason or explanation for why a person survives a life-threatening situation. Where reason, logic and medical science fail to shed light, the Bible, God’s Word, declares that it is God who appoints and numbers our days. “Seeing his [man’s] days are determined, the number of his months are with Thee [God], Thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass” (Job 14:5).

Evie-Mae’s mother, Amy Geurts, had just received terrible news. When Evie was two months old, she got a really bad cold which had left her with extremely red eyes. When Amy took her to the doctor to see what could be done, she was told that Evie was blind! Evie had no visual responses to having a bright light shone into her eyes. This would prove to be the first of many visits to Bristol Children’s Hospital in Bristol, England.

Increasing Desperation

During the next few months, Amy noticed that baby Evie’s head was swelling. She wondered if Evie had a condition called hydrocephalus. This condition is caused by a buildup of fluid in the ventricles deep within the brain. Normally, this fluid flows down the spinal cord and also over the surface of the brain and is absorbed into the bloodstream. Normally, it is a continuous, steady cycle. But if there is a blockage or overproduction of this fluid, it just builds up, causing an unimaginable amount of pressure on the brain.

Amy knew of this condition because her brother had it. She made repeated visits to the doctors, expressing her concern that it could be hydrocephalus. As in many diseases, the sooner they are treated, the better the recovery can be. But doctors told her that no, it couldn’t possibly be hydrocephalus because Evie was a “smiley” baby. Finally, in desperation, the determined mother went to her brother’s neurosurgeon for a diagnosis. Not only was Evie’s head continuing to swell, but she was also pulling her hair out! Sure enough, the results came back — Evie did have hydrocephalus. By now, Evie was 8 months old and in desperate need of help.

Back at Children’s Hospital, with diagnosis in hand, Amy refused to leave until Evie was treated. The next day, doctors inserted a shunt (a thin, flexible tube) that ran from her brain to her bladder to reroute the fluid. Doctors told Amy that Evie “could have died” because of the tremendous pressure on her brain, which measured a whopping 32 and even higher! (Pressure in the brain should be zero, and a bad migraine measures a 5.) They also told her that Evie might never see, walk or talk because of the delay in her treatment. Doctors said that they could relieve the pressure, but the damage to her brain was already done.

Doctors in Shock

But over the next year, Evie slowly regained her vision. Then, at two, she began to walk and shortly after began to talk! Then, when she was five, the headaches returned. Doctors had to put in a new shunt, as the old one had become blocked, a normal occurrence for people who have to live with hydrocephalus.

Over a year later, the headaches returned. Thinking that the shunt was blocked again, doctors were stunned to discover that the headaches were caused by the shunt “splitting” the no-longer pressured ventricles! Evie did not need the shunt anymore, so it was removed. Her body had completely recovered from hydrocephalus, something that does not happen, as it is a condition that needs lifelong treatment.

Amy said, “The doctor couldn’t believe it — he thought we’d be in and out of [the] hospital every few years because the shunts kept blocking, but it turned out that somehow, she’d cured herself! He said he’d never seen it before and certainly didn’t expect to see it in her.”

Now, 7 years old, Evie has perfect vision without glasses, can walk and talk and is at the head of her class. “They can’t understand — she was globally delayed and now all of a sudden, she’s very forward.”

So Much To Be Thankful For

There is so much that doctors and scientists do not even yet understand about the human body. The Bible tells us that “I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works” (Psalm 139:14). The Bible also leaves no doubt as to who created us. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:27). God created each of us to know Him, to worship Him and to obey and serve Him.

We need to be as diligent in seeking a relationship with God, our Maker, as Amy was in seeking help for her daughter. God promises, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). This verse shows us that it is possible to have a relationship with God. God wants us to know that we are sinners and unable to be good enough on our own to enter into heaven to be with Him. “As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). God wants us to know that after we die, we will one day stand before Him to be judged. “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). God also wants us to know that He loves us so much that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins. He has paid the debt for our sins, but we need to repent of our sins and receive God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake. “In whom we have redemption through His [Jesus’] blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:14).

Living With a Deadly Brain Tumor shows how a medical death sentence isn’t always the end.

Eva, the Belgian Malinois

Erin Wilson, 24 years old, drove out to the Klamath Mountains near the Trinity River in Northern California. Seated next to her in her pickup truck was her 2½-year-old Belgian Malinois dog named Eva. Erin worked as a waitress, and one of her favorite things to do on her days off was to hike in the mountains.

They drove to a remote trailhead and parked the car. Eva was full of pep and energy. Belgian Malinois dogs resemble German Shepherds but are slightly smaller. Eva only weighed 55 pounds. They are loyal, intelligent, obedient and athletic. They often work as police or military dogs. Erin grabbed her light backpack, locked the doors of the truck, and started walking down the trail.

Eva kicked up her heels and ran ahead enjoying the outdoors. Erin was walking a couple hundred feet behind her. They had only gone a short distance when a mountain lion, who had concealed himself behind a bush, jumped out at Erin and with a lightning quick swipe raked his claws across her shoulders. Erin’s heart leaped up into her throat. The cougar was crouching and sizing her up to attack again. All Erin could think of was to call out for help.

“Eva!” In a loud voice she called out to her dog.

Eva heard the troubled call. She turned and saw the cougar crouching as if to attack her mistress. She didn’t hesitate. She didn’t count the cost to herself. She ran as fast as she could, which was really fast, and lit into the cougar before it could attack Erin again. The cougar and the dog fought tooth and nail, rolling on the dirt trail.

Intense Battle

The cougar was an experienced fighter. All its life it had gotten its food by killing its prey. It weighed twice as much as the dog. The only fighting Eva had done was with her litter mates for fun.

Eva gave the fight her all. She didn’t think about turning tail and running. It never dawned on the dog that she should do anything but fight in order to protect Erin. But Eva was no match for the highly skilled predator. Soon the cougar got its jaws around the dog’s head and clamped on tight.

Erin saw the body of the dog go limp and thought, “Oh no. She’s dead.” Then she saw the dog was still breathing and the one eye that was still visible was moving. She couldn’t stand to watch idly by as the cougar slowly killed her dog.

She grabbed a stick and “wham” smacked the cougar over its head, but the cougar didn’t release its hold on Eva’s head. She straddled the cougar and tried to gouge out its eyes with her thumbs and fingers, but still the cougar kept its jaws clamped on the dog.

She decided to run back to her car and get a tire iron to fight the cougar and pry the dog free. On the way back she saw another motorist driving down the road. Erin, waving her arms, flagged down the car.

It was a woman in the car. “Do you have a gun or anything I can use as a weapon? A cougar is trying to kill my dog,” she asked frantically.

The woman, seeing the panic in Erin’s face, responded quickly, “All I have is pepper spray and a piece of PVC pipe,” she said.

She parked the car and together they ran up the trail to the scene of the fight.

The cougar was dragging the dog off the trail into the mountain forest. The two approached the cougar yelling and screaming and waving the PVC pipe over their heads. The two women ran up to the cougar. When they sent a stream of pepper spray towards the big cat, it didn’t know what hit him. He left the dog and ran off into the woods.

Hunting for Help

Eva wasn’t moving. She was bleeding from wounds on her head and body.

Erin scooped up the body of the dog into her arms and carried her back to the pickup truck. The nearest veterinarian was about an hour’s drive away at the speed limit.

But Erin didn’t do the speed limit. She put the pedal to the metal and raced down the country highways as fast as the truck would go. Eva went into convulsions a few times where her body started shaking uncontrollably.

“Hold on, Eva, please hold on,” Erin tried to comfort her.

The veterinarian dropped all his appointments so he could work on Eva. He hooked her up to an IV, gave her antibiotics, and stitched up her wounds. Eva spent a week at the animal hospital before Erin took her home.

Nothing was too good for the dog who had saved her life when Erin got her back home. She got a new comfortable dog bed and brand new chew toys — the kind Eva loved. The chef at the restaurant where Erin worked saved a big piece of prime rib to cook for the dog as soon as Eva would be well enough to chew the solid food.

“Eva!” Erin had called out when she encountered the cougar — and the dog came running. The dog didn’t hesitate because she loved Erin.

Our Rescue

Do you know, in much the same manner, the Lord Jesus loves you and came to give His life for you at Calvary’s cross? Do you know how much He loved you? He was willing to die on your behalf on the cross.

He knew your desperate need. “The wages of sin is death.” And He knew that “death” included eternal punishment. He knew the suffering He would have to endure to set you free, yet He didn’t hesitate in the least bit.

He gave His life so we who deserve death for what we have done might live through Him. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Sin, death and hell confront each one of us. These three things have the power to overwhelm us completely. They will take many souls by ambush because people nowadays don’t like to consider eternal things and they won’t be ready for them. People prefer to go through life oblivious to the dangerous consequences of sin. “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” seems to be the motto of choice for many. But it doesn’t work, because “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The sin we have done has left a stain on our record that will keep us out of heaven. Only the blood of Jesus can wash it away.

To deliver us from the clutches of this enemy, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). So that we can have victory over sin, death and hell, Jesus battled the powers of darkness in our place and completely overcame them.

We had no power in ourselves to fight our enemies. “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6). He fought the battle alone.

The Lord Jesus was slain and was buried, but He arose from the grave. The resurrection of the Lord from the dead gives those who believe in His name great assurance that all He said is true and that He really defeated the powers of darkness at the cross. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the cause of great joy for those who believe.

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). There is no other way to be shielded from Satan’s wish to do us harm but through faith in Christ.

Erin called out to her dog to save her. Will you call out to the Lord to save you? “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Every Second Counts

At Walmart, in the town where I live, they have installed a large blue bulletin board in view of the customers who pass through the checkout counters. The title of the bulletin board is written in large letters and reads, “EVERY SECOND COUNTS.” What does this title mean? Below it are black and white photos of faces of children who have gone missing, along with their bios.

Every second counts for these children because they are no longer under the protection of those who love them, and they are at high risk of having their lives destroyed by unscrupulous men and women who would take advantage of them. Every second counts because the lives of these children are at risk.

I hope that every one of these children who have been lost are recovered and are returned safely to their homes. I can’t imagine anything more devastating in life than losing a child like that.

Another Way To Be Lost

However, there is another sense where people may be lost. The Bible says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).

It is horrible when children are lost from their families, but it is even more horrible when we turn to our own way and become lost to God due to sin. There is an eternity of darkness and suffering for those who remain in their sins. To make a way for people to be recovered, the Lord Jesus Christ gave His life at Calvary. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Through faith in His name, people who have wandered away from Him can return and receive the forgiveness of sins, and they can know they have a home waiting for them in heaven.

God doesn’t need a bulletin board with faces on it to remind Him of who is lost. He carries the knowledge of each person in His heart. He earnestly desires the salvation of every one. “The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Even at this moment He is reaching out to sinners through His Spirit to bring them back to Himself. Nor does He need to remind Himself that “EVERY SECOND COUNTS.” He knows that perfectly. We are the ones that need to learn and to be reminded that “EVERY SECOND COUNTS.” Here are a few reasons why this is true.

Reasons That “EVERY SECOND COUNTS”

Every second counts because we all must die. It is estimated that every second, 1.8 people die in this world. Many of them don’t know the love of the Savior and pass into the darkness of hell. Every second that passes with you remaining in your sins increases the risk that you too will be lost forever. Every second counts because we are at risk of losing our never dying souls.

Every second counts because of love. In the greatest act of love the world has ever known, the Lord Jesus gave His life for sinners. Why? For the simple reason that He loves men and women and wants them to love Him in return. He wants them to live, not in a state of hostility and as enemies, but in friendship with Himself. He wants them to “abide in love.” He desires them to live in love while on earth, and when this life is over to bring them to His eternal home of love in heaven. For those in love, every second is altogether precious.

Every second counts because of hate. Those who have wandered away from God are under the power of Satan, the leader of the fallen angels. These fallen angels hate God and hate all that God loves. As lost children often come under the power of unscrupulous people, so men and women who are lost in sin come under the power of Satan, who hates them and continually seeks their harm. Only through repentance and faith in Christ can you escape Satan’s power and come to know God’s love. Don’t put off coming to Christ, because if you do, you will waste the precious seconds of your life apart from His influence.

Every second counts because once this life is over and you enter eternity, it will be forever too late to change. Those who die in their sins will forever remain in a state of hatred to God. They will pass from this world into a lost eternity. Those who die having been reconciled to God will remain forever in a state of love to God. In heaven this love will bring them unspeakable joy.

With so much to lose and so much to gain, every second counts. Come to Christ by faith, so that for every second from henceforth and forever you may live for the One who gave His life for you.

How to avoid the greatest danger can be found in Our Dangerous World.

Freddie's Final Lunge

Freddie was a big golden retriever who lived on a Caribbean island with his owners, Mr. and Mrs. Clay. Wherever Mrs. Clay went in the house or yard, Freddie was right beside her, and no one dared to come near. He barked and chased off cows, dogs or workmen who ventured into the yard.

Freddie was not always fierce. When Mr. and Mrs. Clay had guests, they told Freddie that these people had come to visit, and he accepted the guests as part of the family.

The years passed, and Freddie continued to be a brave and faithful friend, but just like humans, as Freddie got old, he began to have some health problems. Some days he was so weak that he hardly moved from his mat under the kitchen table.

Finally, Freddie was so sick and old that the Clays decided they would have the vet come put him to sleep. They didn’t like to see him suffer, and they knew he didn’t have a soul as a person does. But when the vet came, Mr. Clay changed his mind. He couldn’t part with Freddie yet.

Trouble in the Neighborhood

One Monday morning, Freddie was very weak and had to be helped even to get down the stairs. Mrs. Clay was so concerned about him that she really didn’t think about it when a neighbor told her that two strange men had been down at the corner looking up the hill at her house most of the day. People often waited at that corner for buses, so she didn’t think she needed to worry about it. However, the neighbor had lived in the area a long time and said she had never seen those men before. She warned Mrs. Clay that something didn’t seem right.

The neighbor left to go home, and Mrs. Clay got busy preparing dinner. She had heard Mr. Clay go over to the grove for oranges and knew that he would soon be coming in for dinner. Freddie was still lying under the table watching Mrs. Clay. As Mrs. Clay turned to glance at him, her eyes fell on something which startled her — the shadow of a man’s head on the open kitchen door. She softly called, “Dear, is that you?” But there was no reply. She moved quickly to close the door. She got the door almost closed, but as she frantically reached for the bolt, she realized that she was just a few seconds too late. A gun was pushed through the crack of the door and pointed at her head. She silently cried to her heavenly Father for help.

Gunshots

No one was nearby, but Mrs. Clay knew that God was watching over her and that He could save her from these wicked men if it were His will. As she stood there alone and helpless, the man suddenly lowered the gun, and a shot rang out! Mrs. Clay looked down in surprise, and then realized what had happened. Freddie, using all his remaining strength, had rushed out from under the table to attack the two intruders. Freddie lay dead at Mrs. Clay’s feet, shot through the neck.

Freddie’s bravery in giving his life to save his mistress gave Mrs. Clay the time to escape onto the high, balcony-type porch which ran along the whole length of the house. The gunmen followed her as she ran calling for help. She was doing her best to escape, trying to get to the end of the porch where it was not so high off the ground. If she could only jump over the railing at that point, she felt she would be safe.

However, Mrs. Clay’s thoughts were not God’s thoughts, and God knew what was best for her. As she looked back to see where the men were, she suddenly tripped and landed flat on the porch floor. Just as she fell, she saw Mr. Clay and one of the workers coming out of the grove in the jeep.

Mr. Clay had seen the men and realized that something was wrong. He was driving as fast as he could.

One of the gunmen shouted at Mrs. Clay not to get up. Her chest ached terribly from the fall, and she didn’t know if she could get up even if she tried. Mrs. Clay could do nothing to help herself, but she was thankful God was sending Mr. Clay to help her.

When the gunmen saw that Mr. Clay was on the way, one jumped over the railing and ran down the hill. The other one turned back into the house to see if he could find any money or valuables.

As Mr. Clay drove into the yard, Mrs. Clay managed to get up and over the railing, trying desperately to stop him from going into the house where she knew the gunman was. She was too late ... he did not see her.

Mr. Clay drove at top speed right up to the back gate. As he ran from the jeep up the walkway, the first thing he saw was the body of his faithful dog. He realized that Freddie was dead, but he did not know what had killed him. In his hurry to reach Mrs. Clay, he rushed on, not knowing the danger ahead. He loved his wife and was determined to save her.

Mr. Clay ran through the kitchen and down the hallway leading to the porch, but came to a sudden halt as the gunman stepped out of a doorway into the hall. There they faced each other — the gunman with the gun in one hand and a portable typewriter in the other, and Mr. Clay with no weapon, not even a stick. They stood looking at each other for several seconds. In those few seconds, Mr. Clay silently asked God to take over.

Without a word, the gunman suddenly dropped the typewriter, turned on his heel and ran to the porch. There he saw that workmen and neighbors had started to gather. He fired a warning shot into the porch wall as he climbed over the railing.

God’s Goodness

One of the workmen began to chase the gunman as he ran, but Mr. Clay called him back. He realized how good God was in preserving them all from serious harm. The body of Freddie, the brave dog, still lay in the doorway ... a solemn reminder of what could have happened to Mr. and Mrs. Clay and the workman.

Mr. Clay called together all those who had gathered in the yard. He asked them to bow their heads as he gave thanks to God for His goodness and protection. He reminded them that only God could bring about such a deliverance, and that if they were not born again, they were in danger of losing not only their lives but also their never-dying souls. “Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28).

Wouldn’t you like to be a Christian? You would then be able to say, like Mr. and Mrs. Clay, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me” (Psalm 23:4).

Mrs. Clay needed immediate help. Every Second Counts shows others with desperate and immediate need.

Glorious Gospel

’Tis a true and faithful saying,
Jesus died for sinful men;
Though we’ve told the story often,
We must tell it o’er again.

He has made a full atonement;
Now His saving work is done;
He has satisfied the Father,
Who accepts us in His Son.

Still upon His hands the nail prints,
And the wound upon His side,
Our Redeemer, Lord and Savior
In the glory does abide.

The Greatest Act of Fraud in History

Webster’s dictionary defines fraud as “intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value.”

In recent years, there have been several prominent fraud cases in the news, but which of them has been the greatest?

THERANOS

An innovative medical company called Theranos said they were close to perfecting a small, portable, blood-testing device. Millions of dollars from investors poured into the company. In 2014, the company was valued at $10 billion. In 2015 the company was investigated, and it was found they had made false claims about this product. It was judged that they had misled their investors. Investors in this company lost all their money when it went bankrupt. Is this the greatest fraud? No, read on to find out more.

ENRON

Enron, a company that sold oil and natural gas, was the darling of investors. It was even voted “America’s Most Innovative Corporation” by Fortune Magazine. In 2000 Enron was trading at $90 a share. Less than a year later, the truth came out that Enron had falsely claimed a $600-million profit that year. They made this false accounting claim to bilk investors out of more of their money. By the end of the year, Enron was trading for a few cents a share before the company went bankrupt. Is this the greatest fraud case? I don’t think so! Please read on to find out more.

FTX

In May of 2019, a crypto currency exchange company called FTX was formed. The company was touted by several politicians and celebrities as a great investment. In 2022, crypto-currency took a precipitous plunge. FTX ran out of funds to pay investors. An investigation took place, and it was found the company had misappropriated $8 billion. Much of the money had gone to pay for the lavish lifestyles of its corporate officers. John Ray III, a financial expert looking into the failure of the company, said, “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.” The money in this case may far exceed the money in any other fraud case, but is it the biggest fraud case ever?

No, it pales in comparison to the biggest fraud case ever — a fraud that is being perpetrated over and over again, which, if you are not careful about and if you don’t exercise due diligence about, will be committed against you. Please read on to find out about the biggest fraud ever.

THE BIGGEST FRAUD

The biggest fraud ever involves our most valuable asset — our souls. Our souls are worth more than all we could ever possess. A single person is worth more than the wealth of all the nations. Nations and all their wealth will last a limited time and then be no more, but we will last forever. Your soul, that inner part of you which cannot be seen, touched or measured, will never go out of existence.

“What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” the Lord Jesus asked (Mark 8:36). The answer is nothing. The whole world doesn’t equal the value of a single person.

There is a lot of intentional perversion of truth in order to induce others to part with their opportunity for an eternity with Jesus Christ. People who go through life and never come to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus will be lost forever in the darkness of hell. People in hell are there because they have bought into the fraud that they could leave God and His truth out of their lives and all would turn out right in the end. They believed the lie that they could invest themselves in the things of this life without a care for their existence to come and that such an investment might pay lasting dividends. Or perhaps they engaged in false accounting practices. Perhaps they bought into the notion that it doesn’t matter how they lived as long as they meant well. Or perhaps they thought the Word of God foolish, which clearly states that God hates sin and those who commit sin are worthy of eternal death. “The soul that sinneth it shall die.”

The main personalities that propagate all this fraud onto the unbelieving world are the Devil and his host of fallen angels. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speak[s] a lie, he speak[s] of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). He and his angels never cease to attempt to pervert the truth of God’s grace. In his malice, he does all he can to keep people in a state of unbelief so they end up spending eternity in hell with him.

Is there any fraud greater than the fraud being perpetrated on the unbelieving world concerning their eternal existence? I don’t think so. This will be, far and away, the greatest fraud because it affects the most people, and it will cost them an eternal destiny of suffering.

The only way to beat this fraud is to believe in the Lord Jesus. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” But if you fall for the fraudulent schemes of the father of lies, then the second part of this verse will apply to you. “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

Don’t be taken in by any fraudulent scheme to bilk you out of the most precious thing you have. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will share in the victory He won over sin and death at the cross. Your faith will pay everlasting dividends in the next life. You will receive the redemption of your souls which all the funds of this world couldn’t buy, but only the blood of the Savior could purchase. The Lord Jesus has done so much for each of us. Don’t let anyone or anything defraud you of the joy of the eternal life He offers!

Help for a Rare Disease

Imagine taking your child to the doctor for a regular checkup appointment and being told that your child has a rare genetic disease. Furthermore, there is no cure for the disease, and, worse yet, doctors do not expect your child to live beyond 10 or 12 years old!

This is exactly what happened to Mark and Jeanne Dant. Their only son Ryan, who was three at the time, seemed normal, active and healthy. But upon further genetic testing, they discovered that he had a rare disease called mucopolysaccharidosis type 1, or MPS 1. This disease is so rare that it affects less than 5,000 people in the United States.

People with MPS 1 do not make a digestive enzyme that breaks down large sugars, causing a number of serious medical problems. Ryan’s symptoms were numerous and severe. He had a constant severe headache, swollen internal organs such as his liver and spleen, which caused his stomach to be more than twice its normal size. He often lost his balance, and his hands and limbs were stiffening.

The human body is so amazing! Just one tiny thing or part that is missing can have such an impact on our health and daily lives. The Bible tells us that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14). It also tells us who made us and that we have our life directly as a gift from God. “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).

Desperate to Help

Desperate to help his son, Mark took out a book on fundraising from the local library. Their first effort was to have a bake sale, which raised $342. Encouraged, they started The Ryan Foundation to raise funds for research for Ryan and others with MPS 1. After many successful events, the family had raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to contribute to any research being done for MPS 1.

But there was a big problem. Ryan’s health was getting worse and worse. Time was running out, so Ryan’s parents desperately searched for someone who was actively researching MPS 1. Due to their dogged determination, they found Dr. Emil Kakkis, who was a physician/scientist working out of a lab at the University of California in Los Angeles. He had been researching MPS 1 and enzyme replacement therapy specifically, but he was running out of funds and on the verge of having to quit.

When Ryan’s parents met Dr. Kakkis in 1995, four years after Ryan’s diagnosis, it was a perfect match. Ryan needed the research and Dr. Kakkis and his team needed The Ryan Foundation’s funds. All of a sudden, MPS 1 research had new meaning! Dr. Kakkis recalled, “Meeting Mark and Ryan and Jeanne gave me an inspiration as to what this was really about. It’s not a science project. It’s a human project to save Ryan.”

The Dant’s love for their son was so strong and powerful that they did not give up searching for someone that could help them, even though it took a lot of effort and time. In the end, they were rewarded. This is what every one of us needs to do when it comes to our soul’s salvation. We need to be in earnest, and we need to diligently seek the forgiveness God offers. God promises, “Ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). God wants you to know Him and to come to Him in faith and repentance because He “is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

In 1997, Dr. Kakkis’ team got another boost of funding from a biotech company which enabled them to press forward with clinical trials. Then, “on February 13, 1998, Dr. Kakkis, Jeanne and I pushed the button to change Ryan’s life forever,” Mark Dant told TODAY. Ryan was one of 10 children to participate in these clinical trials.

Five years later, the drug used in the trials, aldurazyme, would be approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration to treat most individuals with MPS 1. “We had great results in the first 10 patients. ... After only a few weeks we could see their livers and spleens were shrinking, and they started feeling better,” Dr. Kakkis said.

Twenty-two years later and 34 years old, Ryan still receives this life-changing medication once a week for four hours. It has enabled him to live a normal life, graduating from high school and college. He now has a job and has married the girl he loves. Ryan says that though there are still some medical challenges, he doesn’t allow the disease to hold him back, and he wants to live life to the fullest.

Permanent Cure

It is so natural to want to live life to the fullest. But life is so short and brief, whereas eternity is forever! God says, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Those who do not know Jesus as Lord will spend all eternity in hell because “the wages [payment] of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). But God so loved the world (each one of us) that He sent His Son Jesus to die on Calvary’s cross for our sins. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Although there is still no cure for MPS 1, the drug aldurazyme has changed many lives for the better. Much more research needs to be done. Dr. Kakkis credits the work of many scientists who worked with him on the project and made things happen. It is his desire to continue the work and save many more “Ryans” that are out there. He remains close to the family, attending every big event in Ryan’s life. “Without Dr. Kakkis, I wouldn’t be alive,” Ryan Dant said.

There may be no perfect cure for MPS 1, but there is a cure for our sins and a way to be made right with God. It is putting our faith and trust in the work that Jesus did on the cross for our sins. Because He was perfect and sinless, God accepted His sacrifice on the cross for our sins. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). Have you repented of your sins? This means to agree with God that you are a sinner and to receive His forgiveness for your sins. Then, by faith, accept God’s gift of Jesus’ death on the cross for your sins. “The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Highway of Death

In 1990, the country of Iraq, under the leadership of Saddam Hussein, invaded the neighboring country of Kuwait. His army brutally occupied Kuwait for months as many other countries prepared to come to their assistance.

The well-trained, well-equipped coalition forces quickly overwhelmed the Iraqis in battle. The Iraqi army was called on to surrender. They declined and instead decided to retreat. With hundreds of military vehicles, such as tanks, trucks, jeeps and cars, stolen from the Kuwaitis, the Iraqi troops attempted to escape out of the country on Highway 80. Highway 80 ran through a barren desert that provided no place to hide or take shelter.

On February 20, 1991, the coalition Air Forces bombed the vehicles along route 80 and completely destroyed mile after mile of vehicles. The attack lasted 10 hours, destroyed nearly 3,000 vehicles, and took thousands of lives.

Photographers captured the destruction along Highway 80 the day after the bombing. These images show the brutality of war. Photos show mile after mile of military vehicles bombed and burnt out. A journalist dubbed it “The Highway of Death.” The name stuck. Iconic photos of “The Highway of Death” have come to symbolize the First Gulf War.

Another Highway of Death

When people hear the phrase, “The Highway of Death,” they may think of this highway leading out of Kuwait, but there is another highway of death and you should know about it. It has implications for people from every region of the world. The Lord Jesus warned about it. He said, “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13). This broad way the Lord Jesus talked about is a highway that leads to death. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25).

“The Lord is ... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God wants all to repent and believe in the name of His Son so He might bless them in this life and give them a home in heaven in the life to come.

God calls out to those on the highway of death to stop, repent and be pardoned. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). Even if they have committed unthinkable atrocities such as those committed in war, God is ready to forgive them and wash away their sins. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). God is ready to receive sinners back to Himself and to make them His sons and daughters because Christ died for them.

Change Highways

Those who travel the broad way are doing their best to flee from God instead of coming back to Him. In running away, they are running away from the sinner’s only hope. They are running away from the mercy that might be theirs.

Sin leads to utter devastation. It leads to darkness and not light. It leads to death from which there is no recovery. Sin leads to the destruction of hell where all is barren emptiness. In hell, sinners will be given what they wanted on earth — existence without God.

If you are living like a stranger to God’s grace and traveling the broad way that leads to destruction, know that it is a highway of death. If you remain on it until you die, you will be lost forever. You will have the searing pain of loss forever. You don’t have to remain on this road. You can get off it and on the narrow way that leads to life through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. God will help you every step you take on the narrow way until you reach heaven. Don’t endanger yourself and stay a moment longer on the road that leads to death. Come to the Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is the sinner’s only hope.

Trouble comes in many sizes, and the Ukraine has experienced some very difficult times that have lessons to teach. Find one in Neutralized.

I Should've Died!

Matt Richerzhagen was speaking to a group of young people on April 30, 2022, and shared an incredible experience that had just recently happened to him. This is what he told them:

On March 8, I was at my house, and I was going to go to a meeting. I was going to go, and then I wasn’t going to go, and then I was going to go, and then I wasn’t going to go, back and forth. I wanted to be there with my brethren, and I wanted to be with my amazing wife. I finally decided, “Okay, I’m going to go!” I had paid my bills, which I never do on Tuesday — I always do it on Saturday — and so all my bills for the month were paid (which was a huge help since I was going to spend the next 21 days in the hospital). I then got in my car and drove to the meeting. We sat there and talked, and when I thought the meeting was over, I said, “Hey, let’s pray and we’ll go.” After somebody else spoke for a few more minutes and the meeting was truly over, I said “Good night,” got in my car and started driving on the highway to my house.

I then set the cruise control at 63 mph. I didn’t know that there was a drunk driver who was driving back and forth over that stretch of road. This man had been pulled over by the Washington State Patrol earlier in the day. He was driving a bit fast, so the officer just told him to tone it down. If he would have asked for his license and proof of insurance, he would have been off the road right then and there, as he didn’t have any insurance (which is required by law).

I was driving, um (you guys don’t know where it is), but anyway, partway home, and this guy was coming at me at 105 mph, he was driving sooooo fast! He came around the corner in front of me. It was so fast my brain couldn’t even comprehend it. I got almost even with him and he turned right into my car, head-on! I was going 63 mph. I’m thinking (I was still awake) and I’m like, “Why would you run into me?!??” I was just baffled, because it seemed like he did it on purpose, and I’m just like, “Why would you do that??!” So, I’m sitting there in my car and I was like, “Okay, I’ve been in a car wreck. Okay.” Because it was a pretty big crash and I was just trying to gather my wits, you know. I moved my leg, and I knew I had a broken leg, and I moved my hip, and I knew I had a broken hip. I remember unbuckling my seat belt (but the guy who pulled me out said he unbuckled my seat belt, so maybe I misremember that), but my car caught on fire, and I still hadn’t moved.

Surrounded by Flames

I was sitting there trying to figure things out. It was a huge impact, and it really shook me. My doctor told me later that most people wouldn’t have survived the impact. As I was sitting there, my engine burst into flames. It’s weird because I wasn’t scared even though I was trapped in a burning car. My mother-in-law was the third car behind me and she said the flames were 8-10 feet tall.

There were people that had stopped alongside the road, and this man who had just been passed by the drunk driver, he came around just a little bit down the road, and ... here’s a car wreck. He gets out of his pickup and comes over, and he climbs into a burning car. Do you get this ... he climbs into a burning car to help someone he doesn’t even know? This is kind of dangerous, to say the least. He doesn’t know me, and he says to me (he’d tried the driver’s door, which was broken), he said, “We gotta get out of here; your car’s on fire.” And I’m like, “Right! Yeah, that’s a great idea. I’ve got a broken leg and a broken hip. Anything else we should do?” I wasn’t trying to be funny.

He climbed into the back seat of the car and put his arms underneath my arms and tried to lift me and nothing happened. He couldn’t budge me because I was bigger and heavier than him. He tried my seat, and the power was out; the battery was burned up or it blew up in the car wreck or whatever. So, he put his arms back underneath my arms and he said, “Lord, help me get this man out of here!” And my guardian angel lifted me. I went up against the ceiling, over the seat and into the back seat. I have never in my life experienced anything like that; it wasn’t like somebody pulling on me. It was like a forklift moved me; it was SO powerful! I have been carried by angels. Psalm 91:11-12 Says, “He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands.”

A Race for Life

It hurt like crazy, because I was so broken up. He got me in the backseat and he still couldn’t get me out of the car. He had to go get help, and they came and dragged me outside. They got me out of the car and onto the highway pavement. I was bleeding to death because my femoral artery was cut, so they stopped the bleeding in my artery.

Then something blew up; it was really super exciting! It was like being in a movie, I’m not kidding you! I thought, “Wow, this is really cool, like a movie, and I’m the stunt man!” Anyway, then they dragged me down the road, and they got the bleeding stopped. The State Patrol Officer asked if he could get a statement, and I said, “Sure. I’m not doing anything else.” Pretty soon an ambulance was there, and I’m not watching my watch, but I’m like, “Wait a minute, you know it takes a while for 9-1-1 to respond, because we’re out in the middle of nowhere. It takes a while to send an ambulance.” Well, these amazing EMT people from the fire department, they were doing EMT practicing exercises, and they ended at 9 PM. They were all suited up, all ready to go, and they were just a couple of miles down the road. The 9-1-1 call came in at 9:10 or 9:13, so they sent an ambulance, and they’re there right away. And I’m like, “No possible way!”

The ambulance was actually just about to make the turn back to town from the airport where they were training when the call came in. Instead of returning to their station, they just turned left onto the highway towards me and were right there.

So, they get me in the ambulance and drive me to town, and they ask me my name, my birthdate, my phone number, my wife’s name, my wife’s phone number ... didn’t ask me her birthday. I don’t know why! They cut my clothes off of me so fast that it actually scared me. They have to see what they are working on. The whole ride I kept telling them I wanted to go to sleep. It hurt so badly. They said no and kept questioning me. When I finally got to the hospital, I asked the doctor if I could go to sleep and he said yes. The next thing I remember was waking up in ICU five days later. They put me on some pretty heavy drugs. When I closed my eyes, I didn’t see the inside of my eyelids; I saw pretty red cartoons. Anyway, we get to the hospital, and they do a CT scan, and I had a broken talus bone, crushed in 17 pieces, a broken hip (iliac crest broken into seven pieces), a broken leg bone, three broken ribs, a burst small intestine, large intestine, colon and I had a hole in my left hip that you could put two fists through into my leg. They did a CT scan on my insides. I was completely full of blood and feces, so they cut me open to clean me up. The surgical team came together and prayed for me before the first surgery. The anesthesiologist came in and said, “He’s not going to make it.” Two or three times it took everyone on the team to keep me alive. I wasn’t just almost dead; I was mostly dead. They gave me six units of blood and my body only holds seven.

Struggling

I wasn’t stable enough to do the full surgery, because I was so beat up. They then put me on life support for a couple of days, until I was strong enough for the rest of the procedure, which happened on Thursday.

They put me in intensive care. They intubated me. I was on 14 IVs. They struggled with four medications at maximum doses to keep my blood pressure over 75/50 (which is horrible, by the way). My heart rate was 125 beats per minute. My ICU nurse never left my side all night long that first night. On Thursday they took me back into surgery to sew up all the damage in my internals the best they could.

I was in ICU for five days before they stepped me down to a regular room. I was in so much pain, it was unbelievable. I didn’t know you could hurt that bad. Day after day it was all I could do to hang in there. My mission every day was to make it to that night, and my mission at night was to make it to the morning. I don’t know why, but nights were especially bad. I was so uncomfortable that I barely slept. It took them about 10 days to get my medications figured out so I had some relief from the pain.

Painful Recovery

Physical therapy came and pushed me and pushed me. It hurt so badly. At times it felt like being tortured. They got me up and sat me on the edge of the bed, and that was almost more than I could bear. I just sat there. After a while, they had me standing on a piece of equipment called a Sara steady. I was standing with 90% of my weight on my right leg (broken leg and crushed talus bone in the foot). They asked me if it hurt and I said yes. They asked, Can you do it, and I said yes. My right leg became all red and swollen. Because of the swelling, they decided to get a CT scan and found the crushed talus bone. They put a cast on me and told me I couldn’t put any weight on it. THEN they wanted me to stand up again. Here I am with a fractured iliac crest (in seven pieces) on my left hip, I was standing with almost all my weight on my right leg, and now I’m somehow supposed to stand with my left leg? But somehow they got me to push through the pain and we got it done. Each exercise was a step in healing.

Loving-Kindness

My wife Brenda was there for me every day. On Sundays, she even dressed up. I can’t express what her love and care meant to me. Her love and care helped to save my life.

And all this time, the Lord watched over me. I shouldn’t have survived that accident — just the impact alone! And I should’ve bled to death right there. And I should’ve, I should’ve, I should’ve, I should’ve ... and I’m just like, “Okay, Lord.” I just want you guys to know, I don’t understand; this makes no sense to me. But I trust Him. I’m not through this; I’m way far from being through this! I can’t even walk on my own; I walk with crutches. But I started thanking the Lord — “Thank you, Lord, for this trial.” I cried when I thanked Him the first time — it hurts!

But you know, there’s blessing in what the Lord passes us through. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. If you have a little trial, there’s a little opportunity for blessing; if you have a great, big, huge trial, there’s a great, big, huge opportunity for blessing. And that’s what I’m looking for. Thank you guys so much for listening. I love you guys so much; you guys are the future. I know it, Jesus knows it, and the devil knows it. Every resource is there for you, so, follow after Him. God bless you all; I love you.

One thought that was shared by a friend was really a help to me in all this. “God never uses more force than is necessary.” He never uses 120 pounds of pressure if 75 will do. He doesn’t use a 12-inch crescent wrench if a 10-inch will do. As for God, His way is perfect ... it can’t be improved, even by 5 minutes. I say, “God, was this really all necessary?” and the answer is “Yes.” There is no waste in God’s economy. Everything gets used. This has been used in many people’s lives. I have a new favorite Bible verse: “We are more than conquerors through HIM that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

What About You?

Matt had put his faith and trust in Jesus as his Lord and Savior. He had a solid Rock to stand on in time of trouble. Many people think that if they have faith in being spiritual, or faith in faith (whatever that means), or they just naturally have enough faith, or faith in God, the universe, or whatever — that they will be okay. But this is just a lie of the devil, the greatest deceiver of all time. Faith ALWAYS has an object, whether it be in a thing, a person or an idea.

God wants all to be saved. That is why He sent His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus said, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). It is our faith in Jesus that pleases God. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

“These [words] 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).

“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).

The drunk driver was killed instantly on impact. He wasn’t wearing a seat belt and the front axle was in the front seat. In less than a moment he went from time to eternity. His eternal destiny is forever sealed. Once you pass from this scene, there is no second chance for you. His opportunity to accept Jesus Christ is now gone forever. What about you? It’s your move ...

It Is Finished

It is finished; what a gospel!

Nothing has been left to do,

But to take with grateful gladness

What the Savior did for you.

It is finished; what a gospel!

Bringing news of victory won,

Telling us of peace and pardon

Through the blood of God’s dear Son.

It is finished; what a gospel!

Here each weary, laden breast

That accepts God’s gracious offer

Enters into perfect rest.

It is finished; what a gospel!

Jesus died to save your soul:

Have you taken His salvation?

Have you let Him make you whole?

Jesus Saves

Jesus saves! Oh blessed story,
Full of love and peace divine,
Bursting from the realms of glory,
Echoing through this world of time.

Jesus saves! Oh, who can fathom
All the fullness of His love?
He once died for our redemption;
Now He waits for us above.

Jesus saves! O sinner, listen
To the call of love today;
There’s no other way to heaven;
Jesus is the only way.

A King Abdicates His Throne

On January 9, 2019, Sultan Muhammad V, in a rare and unexpected move, abdicated the throne of Malaysia. The word “abdicate” means that someone of their own free will steps down and relinquishes their official power. King Sultan Muhammad V was 49 years old at the time, and although nobody outside the royal family knew for sure, the speculation was that he abdicated because of poor health.

Kings and other ruling potentates may come and go on earth, but there is one great and powerful King who has never changed. Make no mistake: You need to know about Him. “The Lord Most High is terrible; He is a great King over all the earth” (Psalm 47:2). God is the great King on the throne and He has been and always will be in ultimate control. Against Him there is no successful rising up. His throne is spoken of as a throne of judgment and at other times it is spoken of as a throne of grace. He never abdicates, or steps down from, either the throne of judgment or the throne of grace.

All men who have ever lived will appear before God at the throne of judgment to be judged according to the things they have done in their bodies. “Who will render to every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6). It may seem that the wicked and those who forsake God may flourish on earth. But that flourishing will be short-lived because after death they will be brought into certain judgment. On earth people might scorn the idea of an almighty God who promises to give sin its due reward. In a day to come, they will be compelled to appear before His throne to receive the dreadful sentence against sin.

“I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it. ... And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God ... and the dead were judged ... according to their works. ... They were judged every man according to their works. ... And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:11-15).

Because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), we are, or were, all headed to this terrible judgment. The thousands upon thousands of impenitent people who appear before this throne will wish with all their hearts that God would abdicate so that He would not deliver sentence against their evil works, but He will never do this. People who do not repent and come to faith in Christ in this life will never escape the “lake of fire” and the just reward of their deeds in the life to come.

Good News

The good news to mankind is that before that day of judgment arrives, a Savior has come to earth. At the cross, the Lord Jesus suffered so that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15). He can save all those who come to Him in faith because He is both man and God in the same person. As man He could suffer death. His death has an infinite power to wash away sins. This is good news indeed, because it means the way has been opened so that sinners can be forgiven, cleansed and made suitable for heaven.

Because Christ was lifted up on the cross, God is now said to be seated on a throne of grace. Hebrews 4:16 reads, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Sinners, the world over, may come to the throne of grace when they humble themselves, repent of their sins and receive God’s forgiveness. He will then give them all the help they need to make it home to heaven.

Because God will never abdicate the throne of judgment, our hearts might be filled with dread. Because He will never abdicate the throne of grace, our hearts can be filled with peace and joy.

Will you continue on in your sins until you pass out of this world? Or will you be wise and renounce your sins and come by faith to the Savior?

The choice is yours. But know this for sure, God will never abdicate His throne.

There’s another important application of this concept of abdication. You’ll read about it in King Edward the VIII Abdicates.

King Edward the VIII Abdicates

In 1936, King Edward the VIII of England decided to step down from the throne so he could marry a foreign woman. He was a young man at the time and his abdication created quite a stir in England. He is probably the best-known example of a king who abdicated his throne.

Abdication from being a ruler of a country is relatively rare. But there is another kind of abdication from a high position which is all too common today. It is an abdication that every man or woman alive is in danger of committing, and it carries with it deep and lasting consequences.

ABANDONED HONOR

Let me explain. Each man or woman has been created with the highest dignity. This is true whether they are born rich or poor, black, white, red, brown, male or female. This dignity belongs to them because of who they are. Each individual human being is a person created in God’s image.

How can a person be said to abdicate? Because they are not living up to the privileges they were created for. They have chosen to act in a way less than what they were created to be. God made them living souls. A very noble thing indeed, but they have chosen to live on the level of animals who do not have a spirit, who cannot understand or love the God who made them. By living in a way that doesn’t come up to the capacities God has given them, they abdicate their true dignity. “Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish” (Psalm 49:20).

One of the reasons Jesus Christ came to earth is for men and women to realize their worth to God. He came to earth so that they might realize the immense value God puts on them. This is demonstrated by the truth that Christ was willing to give His life for them. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

RESTORED TO GOD

Another reason Christ came to earth was to bring people who have fallen into sin back to God. He wants to take those who have fallen into the abject slavery of sin and raise them up so that in a future day they reign with Christ and share in His glory. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). Because Christ suffered on the cross, all of us are given another opportunity to come back to Him and be made right with Him.

“God is love,” the Bible says (1 John 4:8), and when men and women abdicate and act less than they were made to be, they miss out on knowing His love. Don’t let this happen. If you are living on the level of a beast, it is not too late to change. Tell God you are sorry for your sins and that you never want to live like He doesn’t exist again. “Therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. ... The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).

God in His loving-kindness wants men and women to come to Christ and become one of His children forever. “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26). Faith in Christ brings a person into a far higher position than the kings of the earth occupy. It makes those who were once children of wrath into children of God. Even kings and queens need to believe in the Savior if they are to make it to heaven.

Christ came to earth so that you could come to repentance and faith. He gave His life at Calvary so that those who were dead in sins might live with Him forever. Will you continue to live on the level of a beast that hasn’t the capacity to know God? Or will you realize you have a never-ending existence and look to the Savior by faith and begin to live for Him who gave His life for you?

You will learn more about the most important King of all in Royal News.

The Life Is in the Blood

James Harrison is known as “the man with a golden arm.” This is because the blood that flows in his veins is of such great value that it has saved the lives of over 2.4 million babies! He has donated his blood plasma from the age of 18 to the age of 81, when he had to stop because you cannot donate over the age of 81 in Australia.

He has donated an incredible 1,172 times all from his right arm, except for 10 times from his left arm. He has absolutely no regrets — in fact, he made the comment to the Blood Service that “I hope it’s a record that somebody breaks.”

So why was his blood of such great value? It is because he has a very rare antibody that can be used as a cure for mothers who have rhesus disease. This disease was a big problem in Australia until about 1967. Thousands of babies were dying and mothers were having many miscarriages. Babies were also being born with brain damage, and doctors didn’t know why this was happening.

Rhesus disease is a condition where a mother’s blood attacks her unborn baby’s blood cells. This happens when a mother has rhesus-negative blood and her baby has rhesus-positive blood, inherited from the father. When the mother becomes sensitized to rhesus-positive blood through an earlier pregnancy or miscarriage, she develops antibodies that attack her baby’s blood cells in subsequent pregnancies. This is what was causing so many deaths and brain damage.

Using James Harrison’s blood plasma, scientists were able to develop an injection called Anti-D. This prevents a woman with rhesus-negative blood from developing antibodies that will attack her baby. Because of this treatment, rhesus disease is a very rare problem today.

Blood Sustains Life

It is in the blood that we have life, for it is what sustains life. It was not until the seventeenth century that scientists and doctors discovered that the blood circulates throughout the body, bringing nourishment to it and purifying it as well. Thousands of years ago, the Lord spoke to His prophet Moses, saying, “The life of the flesh is in the blood ... for it is the blood that maketh an atonement [covering] for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11). This has both scientific and spiritual significance, the greater significance being spiritual. Medical science finally confirmed what God had said to Moses thousands of years ago!

James Harrison’s blood was of such great value that it was the salvation of the lives of over 2 million babies. But though it could save their lives, it could not save their souls. Only the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, can do that. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on Calvary’s cross by being crucified and shedding His precious blood there. Dying, He rose again the third day, thereby making peace with God for all those who by faith would believe and put their trust in Him.

There is power in the blood of Jesus because Jesus was sinless, pure, spotless and undefiled. God is righteous to receive Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross for our sins. “Ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18-19). There is power in Jesus’ blood to cleanse all those who will repent of their sins before God and fully trust in the work that was done on the cross. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

How James’ Blood Got Its Special Value

In Australia, every batch of Anti-D has come from James’ blood. More than 17% of Australian women are at risk, so you can see how very precious Harrison’s blood was. He is one of the very few people whose blood happens to have a lot of Anti-D in it in very high concentrations. When he donates his blood, his body very quickly produces another big batch of antibodies. He is one of about 200 people in Australia who produce this rare antibody.

Today, researchers are trying to reproduce this antibody in a lab. So far, the Anti-D treatment is only available through donors. A small number of people produce these antibodies because of receiving a wrong type of blood during a transfusion. Doctors think this is what happened to Mr. Harrison.

James explained that when he was 14, he had a serious operation where one lung was removed and he had to receive 13 units (nearly 2 gallons!) of blood in multiple transfusions. His life had been saved by total strangers, so he decided that when he was 18 years old, he would donate his blood. Now that he can no longer donate, he is hoping that others will take his place.

It has been easy for James to donate his blood, even though he couldn’t stand the sight of blood or tolerate pain. He just didn’t watch the needle go in, but would look at the ceiling or chat with the nurse. But, really, in his own words, it was no problem. “They give me a cup of coffee and something to nibble on. And then I just go on my way ... no problem, no hardship.”

Immense Cost for Our Immense Benefit

But it cost the Lord Jesus everything when He gave His blood for us. Leaving the palace of His glory, He came down to earth to live among men, being cruelly treated and mocked by the very ones He had created. He died an awful death of shame and sorrow on Calvary’s cross, suffering the punishment for our sins. “Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow ... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:5-11).

Christ died for our sins. While we have life, we can receive God’s forgiveness, putting our trust in Jesus’ work on Calvary’s cross. The choice of acceptance or rejection is made NOW. Once we die, our eternal state is fixed!

Living With a Deadly Brain Tumor

Israel Lemus should not be alive today, but he gives thanks to God that he is.

In 2016, he had a massive seizure and was diagnosed with glioblastoma stage 4, the most advanced and aggressive form of the brain cancer. Over the next few years, he had three surgeries and every kind of cancer treatment available to deal with his golf-ball-sized tumor. Six years later, he feels cancer free and is enjoying a normal, happy life. Normal life included getting engaged, married, buying a house and changing careers.

Doctors are baffled, as the typical prognosis for his condition is 14-24 months to live. Doctors told Israel, who was 29 years old at the time, that he had two months to live.

“It’s a miracle,” said Dr. Jay-Jiguang Zhu, UTHealth Houston/Memorial Hermann. “We can see the disease on his MRI. That’s why we don’t use the word remission.” Because there is no cure for this brain cancer, Dr. Zhu says it’s a mystery as to why Israel has lived as long as he has.

“To me, it’s 100% God. His mystery is my God,” Israel told KHOU-TV. “Honestly, I’m thankful to God for every day. The first thing I do when I wake up and the last thing I do before going to sleep is thank God for that day.”

God’s Patient, Loving Voice

God uses life’s circumstances to draw us to Him. “God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not” (Job 33:14). If we know Him as our Lord and Savior, they should draw our hearts out in praise and thankfulness to Him, as they did in Mr. Lemus’ heart. If you do not know God as your Lord and Savior, in His love and compassion, He is trying to reach you. Do not harden your heart and become bitter towards God, for He is “long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Every one of us must make a choice — to repent and place our trust in the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins, OR, to reject God’s only way of salvation. “He that believeth on the Son [Jesus] 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). Everlasting life equals heaven; the wrath of God equals hell. What will your choice be?

How God used a seeming disaster to bring life to millions can be found in The Life Is in the Blood.

My Savior Tells Me So

How do I know my sins forgiven?
My Savior tells me so;
That now I am an heir of heaven?
My Savior tells me so.

Away with doubt, away with fear,
When this by faith I know;
God’s Word shall stand forevermore:
My Savior tells me so.

Believe and you will surely live;
My Savior tells me so;
The Spirit’s witness God will give;
My Savior tells me so.

How do I know I’ll live again?
My Savior tells me so;
With Christ in glory I shall reign;
My Savior tells me so.

Neutralized

As of this writing, the fighting in the Ukraine has been raging for many months. Some words have become prominent in the news reporting done about the war. One such word is “neutralized.”

A news headline might read, AN ENEMY GENERAL HAS BEEN NEUTRALIZED IN A MISSILE ATTACK. Instead of reporting the General was killed in the line of duty, the news says he has been neutralized. It is possible to neutralize acidic or base solutions until you get a pH of seven. But what does it mean to neutralize another human being? I suppose it means to get rid of the threat that they represent.

There is nothing neutral about the death of a human being when immediately after death they will enter either the bliss of heaven or the agony of hell. There is nothing neutral about either of these two places. Heaven will be full of love and joy. Hell will be full of hatred and extreme misery. There will never be a neutralization of either the light of heaven or the darkness of hell. They will go on forever.

Those involved in war tend to treat other human beings, especially the enemy, like objects, instead of treating them as never-dying people on their way to eternity.

There is a real danger in acting this way because it diminishes the worth of a human being. The value of a single person in God’s sight is more than all the material goods in the universe. So that people could be saved, God sent His Son into this world to suffer and die on the cross. You can tell the worth of a person by what God was willing to pay to redeem them. The cost of the redemption of our souls was the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

On the cross He made the one atoning sacrifice this world will ever know. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14). Whenever we treat either ourselves or any other person like an object instead of a person, we seriously fall short of God’s truth.

How about you? You probably are not in a war zone, but are you treating yourself, and others, as if you have a soul that is precious in the sight of God? He didn’t send His Son into the world because you deserved it. He sent His Son because there was no other way to redeem you.

What Can’t Be Neutralized

God’s love will never be neutralized. Even people who refuse to repent and fail to receive His offer of grace He loves. They may die and go to a lost eternity, but they will never die unloved. And if they die in their sins, the pity of it all is that they had only to look to the Lord Jesus by faith to be saved. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22).

Nearly 2,000 years ago, men tried to neutralize the Lord Jesus. They conspired together to put Him to death.

The plan to neutralize the Lord Jesus didn’t work. He arose victoriously from the grave. He invites sinners to repent of their sins and to believe in His name in order to share in His victory over sin, death and the grave. The plan to neutralize the Lord Jesus was completely foiled, and any attempt today to neutralize the power and love of the Savior in any way, shape or form is also doomed to failure.

In this life there is no neutral ground when it comes to believing in Christ. If you are not for Him, then you are against Him. You can’t be neutral!

“He that is not with Me is against Me” (Matthew 12:30). To remain in a state of indifference towards the Lord Jesus, neither for Him or against Him, means on the day of judgment God will count you fully as an enemy.

Don’t try to be neutral. Come to Him by faith, if you haven’t yet done so. Then you can love the Lord Jesus with a burning, scorching love for all He has done and live so that you have no regrets!

War isn’t the only way trouble can come. There’s lots more covered in As the Sparks Fly Upward.

A Night of Terror

A preacher once told a story about a night of terror that happened in Africa. First he pointed out that when we meet Jesus, we will experience either the love of God or the wrath of God, and it will be for all eternity. “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).

He explained that the Bible tells us that when God put the first man and woman on earth, they were created in the image of God. They were perfect, without sin, and had daily fellowship with God. But Adam and Eve rebelled against God and thus became sinners, separated from God spiritually. The children that Adam and Eve had were “in his [Adam’s] own likeness, after his image” (Genesis 5:3). We are all born with our parents’ nature, a sinful nature. We grow up personally responsible to God as child sinners and become adult sinners. Thus, we all face the wrath of God, unless we receive and accept the love of God.

But what is the wrath of God? It is the righteous judgment of God against sin. God is angry with sin and will not accept any who reject His love and mercy. God is not willing that any should perish in hell, but if you refuse His love and continue to live in selfish sin, God will certainly judge you. “The Lord ... is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

God describes what that judgment will be in 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9. “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.” To live in rebellion, ignoring God, will land you in the lake of fire, where you will be punished with everlasting destruction. This is the judgment that you will deserve when you do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fire and Brimstone on the Mountain

And now for A Night of Terror: “When I’m in Goma, Congo, Africa, some nights I can look out over Mount Nyiragongo and I can see the red glow of the Lake of Fire. On top of Mount Nyiragongo is a lava lake that is 2 km (1.3 miles) wide and 250 meters (820 feet) deep of molten, red-hot boiling lava. Lava is molten rock, which is more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 degrees Celsius). The rock is so hot that it turns into a fiery lake. Back in May 2021, the side of Mount Nyiragongo split from too much pressure of the lava building up inside, and the fire and brimstone flowed out the side of the mountain. Seventeen villages were destroyed. Four hundred thousand people had to be evacuated, and they were running for their life in fear and terror from the lake of fire as it was coming towards them. More than 30 people did not make it. The lake of fire flowed down the mountain, melting houses, animals and people. There was one lady named Ernestine, and she stayed with her invalid husband as long as she could because her husband could not walk away. The lava flowed closer and became very hot, and the sulphury air made it hard to breathe. Finally, Ernestine had to run, while the river of lava consumed her house and her husband. The screaming of the people who could not get out of the way of the lava flow was heard in the terror of the night.

“That night I received a
WhatsApp message from a Christian named Gideon. He lives near the bottom of that mountain, just 15 km (about 9 miles) away, and the lava was flowing towards their village. He wrote me a message, saying, ‘Hello, brother, pray for us. The volcano is erupting now. We don’t know what to do; we don’t know where to go. Only God can protect us.’

“I have in my hand a piece of hell. This was part of the lake of fire, that flowed down the mountain near the city of Goma. When the lava flows down the mountain and it cools, it turns into lava rocks like this one. Some of them are just small pebbles. Some of them are big boulders, but many of them are about this size.

“In February, I visited some Christians in Goma. I went to one of the villages that was destroyed. We spoke to the village head woman. She’s the chief, and she was standing on top of all the rocks that had cooled. As she stood on top of the pile of lava rocks, she said, ‘This is the spot where my house was.’ Only it was now 3 meters (almost 10 feet) down below the surface of all those rocks. The people were helpless! In her village alone, nine people had died in the lake of fire.”

The volcano erupted at night, and some people didn’t get up and get out of the way in time. Though the lava was slow moving, it didn’t stop, consuming everything and everyone in its path. Goma is six miles from Mount Nyiragongo. But God was merciful to Gideon and the city of Goma. The lava stopped in Buhene, a district on the outskirts of Goma, but not before burying hundreds of houses and even large buildings. When people saw the sky turn red and the lava flowing down the mountain, they grabbed whatever they could carry on their heads and in their hands and fled for their lives. Hundreds of children got separated from their parents in all the chaos. It was truly a night of terror!

Where Is Your Power?

I ask you: Did anyone have the power to stop that volcano from erupting or to stop the flow of lava from consuming their homes and loved ones? No, of course not! And so it is with God. Those who refuse God’s gift of salvation, through the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross for our sins, will experience being cast into the lake of fire for eternity, which is forever and ever. They will discover that God is indeed “angry with the wicked every day” (Psalm 7:11). Every day that you live in selfish sin and unbelief, ignoring God, you are treasuring up to yourself the wrath of God. You will know then that you made a mistake by not accepting the love of God.

But the wrath of God is not the heart of God! We read “God is love” (1 John 4:16). We never read in the Bible that God is wrath or anger. God’s love was so great that He sent His Son Jesus to bleed and die on the cross for our sins. The wrath of God fell on Jesus when He bore our sins on the cross for us. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). We entreat you not to reject the love of God, but to repent of your sins and put your faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross for your sins. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [God] a liar, and His word [truth] is not in us” (1 John 1:9-10).

No one knows when their day of death will come, and when it does, you will have no power to stop it. Do not let carelessness, selfish sin and unbelief keep you from the love of God! Receive Christ today!

Our Dangerous World

This world we live in is not safe.

The war in the Ukraine shows how quickly war can come into people’s lives.

Some have estimated that six million people have died in little more than two years from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nine countries of the world now possess nuclear weapons. Belligerent countries threaten their adversaries with tactical nuclear strikes.

Furthermore, crime is on the rise. Murder rates in big cities are rising at an alarming rate. Serious crime is going unchecked.

All these things make the world a dangerous place to live. But the greatest danger today doesn’t stem from the effects of war, pandemics, nuclear holocausts or crime.

The greatest danger isn’t even on the radar screen of many people. This is amazing because all other dangers combined do not begin to compare to it.

The Greatest Danger

What danger far exceeds every other? It is the danger of people dying in their sins and passing into a Christless eternity.

The greatest danger facing people today is the “danger of eternal damnation” (Mark 3:29) or, in other words, the “danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:22). Being cast out of God’s presence into hell is the greatest danger for every person that remains in their sin.

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

The Lord Jesus said, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). How many people in our world are leaving Christ out of their lives! Those who die in their sins will pass into an eternity where the intensity of suffering will surpass any possible on earth.

God knew the whole world was perishing in sin. Through the Lord Jesus and what He did at the cross, every sinner has the opportunity to come to God and receive the gifts of the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

Someone once wrote, “Pain is God’s megaphone to the world.” Perhaps one reason God has allowed so much pain in the world, like wars, pandemics, pestilence, and so forth, is that He is getting people’s attention. Perhaps He is getting them to hear His call to repent and believe in Christ.

The world is a dangerous place. Will you believe in the name of Jesus Christ that eternal life might be yours?

Pardo's Push

Four F4 Phantom jets revved up their jet engines on the runway in Thailand. Their engines sounded like hurricanes suddenly let loose. The noise was deafening. Long orange flames shot out of the back of the engines. One by one, the pilots released their brakes and shot down the runway. The warplanes accelerated unbelievably fast. When they reached 165 knots per hour, the pilots adjusted the ailerons on their planes and the jets leapt skyward. They set a course for their bombing target in Hanoi, North Vietnam. The weather was fair, and the sky clear blue and beautiful.

Serious Trouble

Soon they were nearing their target, a steel factory on the outskirts of Hanoi. The planes swooped down like eagles to their prey. As they neared their target, the tranquility of the deep blue sky suddenly erupted. Air defenses that ringed the city opened fire on the planes with anti-aircraft fire.

The pilots saw the explosion of anti-aircraft shells all around them. Pieces of shrapnel — sharp bits of metal — went whizzing in all directions like deadly fireworks when these shells exploded.

When they made the bombing run over the target, two of the F4 Phantom jets were hit by shrapnel. They were not major hits. Both planes remained in flying condition. Shrapnel had hit fuel lines in both planes. The jet flown by Commander Aman was losing fuel much faster. It soon became apparent that he wouldn’t have enough fuel to fly out of enemy territory. This was bad news because pilots and airmen were often tortured and killed by the enemy. If they could stay in flight long enough, perhaps an airborne tanker might refuel them and they could make it back to the base.

The two damaged planes turned towards Laos which was closer than Thailand. If somehow they could stay in the air for 20 minutes, they might make it. The two undamaged planes left them and flew off towards their base in Thailand. In turning back to the base and leaving their fellow pilots, they were simply following orders.

Courage and Tenacity

Captain Bob Pardo piloted the less damaged plane. Captain Bob Pardo could have flown off and saved himself and his plane, but he found it difficult to leave guys he had just fought a battle with. He was this other pilot’s wingman after all, and he felt a deep loyalty to him.

Pardo radioed Captain Earl Aman, “I’m gonna try to give you a push. You fly that plane smoother than you have ever flown before.”

Pardo maneuvered his plane behind the stricken F4. He tried to push the nose of his plane, which had been designed to fly at high speeds, into the opening at the back of the other jet’s fuselage, but try as hard as he could, the turbulence coming off the back of the plane made it impossible to get within ten feet of it.

Undaunted, Pardo had another bold idea. He would fly his plane under the other F4 and fly it piggyback-style to safety. This didn’t work either because of turbulence. As Pardo backed slowly away, he looked up and saw the landing hook at the back of the plane. F4s had been designed to land on aircraft carriers and were built with a landing hook that could be lowered to catch a strong cable stretched across the landing deck of an aircraft carrier.

Pardo radioed Aman, “Put your hook down.”

Skillfully Pardo flew his plane so the landing hook rested on his own windshield. In this way he could keep the other plane afloat in the air by pushing it. Spiderweb cracks formed in the windshield — still he courageously pushed the plane through the air. They flew this way for 20 minutes until Pardo’s plane also ran out of fuel. It was just far enough to push them over the Vietnam-Laotian border. When they couldn’t go any further, the four airmen ejected out of the planes and parachuted down into the jungles of Laos.

Laotian guerillas fighting with the Viet Cong fired at them. Tracer bullets flew around them when they hit the ground. The airmen hid behind a hill before a rescue helicopter picked them up and brought them back to safety. The incident became known as Pardo’s Push. The damaged plane never would have made it out of enemy territory otherwise.

Our Need of a Rescuer

In much the same way, we all need help to make it through this life and safely arrive at heaven. Ever since the sin of our first parents, this world has become enemy-held territory. From our first parents, we have all received a fallen human nature. We have been weakened in our will, darkened in our minds, and have passions full of turbulence. Because we have these injuries, we all need God’s help in order to live the way we should.

The pilot of the damaged plane had no way to make it out of enemy-held territory on his own, nor do you and I have any way to make it out of enemy-held territory either but by the grace of God.

What is grace? Grace is God’s undeserved favor that He gives freely to injured, damaged sinful people so they can be saved, turn from their sins and live righteously in this world.

“The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11-12).

It is by the light of God’s grace that a sinner first comes to see their need for God’s salvation. By His grace, God is ready to forgive all those who believe in His Son. From the time a person first believes to the moment they die and enter into eternity, they need God’s grace in their lives. God gives grace freely, but we are taught to depend on Him for it.

Only God’s grace can bring any of us safely home to heaven. The enemy may shoot at us and seek to bring us down, but God will be a shield to those who trust Him. “Thou, O Lord, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of my head” (Psalm 3:3).

Thank God, He is the God of all grace and He is always ready to save sinners. “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). God is faithful and will never fail to save those who ask Him.

Captain Pardo maneuvered his F4 Phantom jet behind the damaged plane and helped push it over enemy-held territory. Will you believe in Jesus Christ and ask Him to save you by His grace? Only then may a person make it out of enemy-held territory and make it into heaven.

The Boom and Zoom Strategy gives another vital lesson extracted from the tragedies of war.

Please Love Me

A gentle giant of a dog was found wandering on the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee. She had thick white fur and the face of a German Shepherd. Her head hung low and there was the expression of fear and dejection in her big brown eyes. Who wouldn’t be sad and lonely, even if they were big, if they were deserted, in a strange place, away from their loved ones?

The person who found her also found a handwritten note crumpled up and tucked inside her collar. It read:

“Please love me. My name is Lilo. My owner is a homeless mom with two kids. She doesn’t have any money, and she can’t take care of me any longer. I am a good dog.”

The dog was brought with the note to the animal shelter. The people working there were deeply moved by the note.

Instead of putting the dog up for adoption like they usually do, they decided to search for the owner so they could reunite them. After several days, they were able to find the young mother. They told her they would try to help her find a place to live that would allow her to keep the dog. Until they found such a place, they would take very good care of the dog for her.

The mom came to the shelter to visit Lilo. As soon as Lilo saw her, the dog’s face brightened up, and she ran to meet her owner. The woman kneeled down, hugged the dog, and buried her face in the thick fur of the dog’s neck sobbing.

It was really nice of the dog shelter workers to reunite the dog owner with her pet and I hope they are successful in helping the family find a home where they can keep their pet.

The Longing of Our Hearts

“Please love me” was the heartfelt message on the note. Perhaps “Please love me” is the deepest longing of all our hearts. No one — dogs or human beings — likes to feel unloved. We all have a deep hunger to be loved and to love others. Love gives a genuine purpose to life. Without love, can anyone feel truly alive?

Since we live in a fallen world, there is a lot of failure when it comes to love. People look for love in the wrong places. They try to obtain love in the wrong way. They don’t always know love when they see it. They even try to live without love.

However, there is one Person that will never fail us. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved us so much that He left heaven to come into this world.

He knew that everyone had strayed into sin and shame. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6). To make a way for them to know His love, He gave His life at Calvary. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

We don’t need to say to God, “Please love me.” We might say, “Help me to know Your love,” or “Please forgive me,” or “Help me to love You forever.” But we never need to say, “Please love me,” because God has shown how much He loves us beyond all shadow of a doubt. He loves us so much He gave His Son to die for us.

Hopefully, a home will be found so Lilo can move back to her loved ones. The Lord Jesus has prepared a home in heaven where all those who come to believe in Him and love Him may spend eternity together. Those who have come to Him by faith will never be separated from His love again. Will you believe in the Lord Jesus so you can know the fullness of His love forever?

Royal News

The following is breaking news: That is, it should break into the consciousness of every person alive. Every person should become vibrantly aware of it. The King is returning.

He is coming with a vast myriad of resplendent attendants and with great glory! “When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory” (Matthew 25:31).

What does it mean to you?

Everything!

POWER AND GLORY

When He returns to the earth, it will be with great power. “As the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be” (Matthew 24:27).

If you are alive at the time, you will see Him. “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. Even so, Amen” (Revelation 1:7).

His return will be a time of mourning for most of the populace of the earth. “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matthew 24:30).

It will be a time of mourning because in His absence men carried on pretty much as they pleased. They rebelled against Him. They said He had no legitimate say over what they did. They cut all ties to Him and wanted nothing to do with Him. Instead of repenting and believing in His name for the forgiveness of sins, they lived as if they would never have to enter into judgment for their godless deeds. At the return of the King, they will be made to give an account of their lives. “The Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27).

The King is returning with irresistible power to judge the earth and set all things right. He will see to it that all the ungodly will receive the just and proper reward of their deeds. He will pronounce sentence against all those who hated Him and His right ways. “Those Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me” (Luke 19:27).

Such is the dignity of this great King that it will be given to Him not only to judge the living but the dead as well. “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the [living] and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:1). If you are going through this life without a care for your eternal destiny you are headed to judgment. “Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him” (Isaiah 3:11).

The Lord Jesus, who was cast out and put to death when He first came to earth, will return as King of kings and Lord of lords. No one knows exactly when He will return to reign. It will take all those who live on the earth by surprise. “Yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-3).

He will most certainly come the second time. We know this because He told us so, and what He said is true. “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).

Don’t think you will escape if you remain in your sins. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?” (Hebrews 2:3).

SOME ARE INDIFFERENT

Some people remain in their sins because they love the pleasure of sin and don’t want to even consider the option of life without it. Others remain in their sin because of laziness. For them it just takes too much effort to inquire into God’s truth and lay hold of eternal life. With a little honest reflection, they would see their need of God’s grace. But they decline to make the effort to look into these things. In either case, those who remain in their sins will learn firsthand about the wrath of God. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Before that terrible day of reckoning arrives, won’t you “flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7)? This you can do by finding refuge and shelter in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The royal news is that the King of kings is surely returning. Turn away from your sins, and turn to the Savior by faith. Only then you will never have to hear the fateful words spoken to you, “Depart from Me, ye evildoers” (Psalm 119:115). Those words will be spoken to all the wicked as they are sent away to the everlasting punishment of hell.

The King is coming. Won’t you put your faith in Him and have the joy of knowing Him personally forever?

Ship of Gold - The SS Central America

When we think of lost treasure, it might bring to mind legends of daring pirates who plundered the ships of conquistadors for the gold that they were carrying back to Spain. There is, however, the story of a great treasure trove of gold that was once lost — but has been found in modern times. It is the story of the SS Central America. It is also the story of sacrifice and toil, of dreams realized and lost, and of man’s insatiable greed for gold.

Before we begin this story, consider a most penetrating question that Jesus asked of those around Him: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

The story begins in the mid 1800s, when hundreds of thousands of men rushed to California to make their fortune in gold after it was discovered there. Many of them gave up everything they had, leaving their families behind for this once-in-a-lifetime chance to become rich.

Eventually, the gold dried up and the economic boom came to an end. A few banks in New York got together and decided to order a large shipment of gold from the San Francisco Mint to back up their reserves. The SS Central America was chosen to make the delivery after the gold was shipped from California to Panama.

Onboard were 477 passengers and 101 crew members. The ship was literally laden with gold, 30,000 pounds of it, which didn’t include the considerable amount of gold that the passengers were carrying. The SS Central America departed Panama on September 3, 1857, with a stopover in Havana, Cuba, before making its way up the eastern coast of the U.S.

On September 9, the ship was caught up in a Category 2 hurricane off the coast of the Carolinas. Two days later, the ship, battered by the 105 mph winds, was taking on water. The steamer’s boiler was threatening to go out. Then, she sprung a leak in one of the seals between the paddle wheel shaft and the ship’s sides. The steamer’s boiler could no longer maintain fire, which shut down both bilge pumps. By noon, September 11, Captain Herndon ordered the Stars and Stripes flag to be flown upside down as a sign of distress. But help didn’t come.

All the long night, the passengers and crew formed a bucket brigade, desperately fighting against the rising tide of water. During the calm in the eye of the storm, attempts were made to fire the boiler, but they failed. Then the storm hit in full force again, and the ship was blown along with the fierce winds. At this point, all hope was lost.

On the morning of September 12, two ships could be seen through the wind and storm. Lifeboats were lowered, and about 100 passengers, mostly women and children, made their way through the wild seas to safety. An additional 50 were plucked from the raging waters by the Norwegian boat Ellen. But by 8 o’clock that evening, the SS Central America sank beneath the waves with 425 people on board.

Again, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Gold, silver, all was left behind while they slipped into eternity!

Suddenly, their dreams for the future and all of their gold didn’t matter anymore! One of the surviving witnesses described the scene:

“A great many of the passengers were miners, having considerable sums of gold about them, the product of years of toil. But the love of gold was forgotten in the anxiety and terror of the moment and many a man unbuckled his gold-stuffed belt and flung his hard-earned treasure upon the deck, some hoping to lighten their weight, and thus more easily keep themselves afloat, while others threw it away in despair, thinking there was no use for it in the watery grave they were going to.”

Four hundred and twenty-five people had died. As soon as our soul and spirit leave our body, our destiny in eternity is settled. We can either “die in the Lord” (Revelation 14:13) or “die in your sins” (John 8:24). These are fixed positions after we die and do not ever change! To “die in the Lord” is to have put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus who died on the cross and shed His blood as a ransom for our sins. “Verily [truly], verily [truly], I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him [God] that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation [judgment]; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24). To “die in your sins” is to have rejected God’s free gift of salvation. Jesus said of these people, “He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

A Sunken Treasure

As you can imagine, many people hunted for this sunken treasure, including the U.S. Navy, but without success. It would take 133 years before the SS Central America was photographed and tons of gold were salvaged from the ocean floor. But many people were to be just as disappointed as those miners and bankers were in 1857, as they saw their hopes of attaining gold and riches slip from their grasp. There is a verse in the Bible that tells us, “Riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away as an eagle toward heaven” (Proverbs 23:5). God is warning us not to trust in riches and that we cannot take them into eternity with us! God reminds us of the obvious: “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out” (1 Timothy 6:7).

Tommy Thompson, a marine scientist, had become obsessed with finding the SS Central America. He designed an underwater robot with a claw for picking up items from the ocean floor, and with his considerable persuasive powers, he convinced no less than 161 individuals and companies to put up $12.7 million toward the venture.

Then, he formed his own company, bought ships, and hired a crew, including experienced divers. The ship was believed to have sunk with 10 tons of gold worth $292 million in today’s money. In 1988, he discovered the wreck, and within the next year he was able to pull up three tons of gold. Things seemed to be looking up for Thompson and his investors!

But ... when he arrived back home with the gold, he was immediately hit with a lawsuit from 39 insurance companies who were suing because they had paid out on an insurance policy on the SS Central America and wanted a piece of the loot. It took ten years of fancy legal wrangling before a judge ruled that 92.2% of the gold went to Thompson and his investors.

Then, in 2000, Thompson sold the gold for $52 million — without informing his investors! His claim was that he had to pay off expenses and his considerable lawyer’s fees. By 2005, his investors, by now perfectly furious as they had seen zero returns from their investment, sued Thompson. In 2012, Thompson’s company filed for bankruptcy, claiming there was no more money left for investors. But this was not quite the truth — there were still 500 coins unaccounted for.

In 2012, Thompson was ordered to appear in court to give an accounting of where the gold was. By now, thoroughly dodgy, Thompson fled to Florida and hid out for three years before U.S. marshals finally caught up with him. Six years later, he still remains in jail for refusing to cooperate with investigators. Thompson claims to be suffering from a rare syndrome causing short-term memory loss.

But federal judge Marbley does not believe this is true. “As long as you are content to be a master of misdirection and deceit to the court, I am content to let you sit,” he said.

It is clear from this story that the pursuit of gold and riches did not bring happiness and satisfaction to the many people who toiled for so long and struggled so hard to attain it. One day, every man, woman and child alive today will slip into eternity. The only thing that will matter then is our heart’s response to God’s great love towards us in giving His beloved Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. The only thing that will matter then is if we had “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21). For those who have repented of their sins and are trusting in the finished work on Calvary’s cross, Jesus promises, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself” (John 14:3). For those who refuse, ignore, or even just neglect and put off God’s way of salvation, they will be cast into “outer darkness” where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).

Once we yield our hearts and lives to the Lord, we are told what our priorities should be. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven ... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:20-21). This is where true happiness and eternal joy is. The things of this world can never bring lasting satisfaction. They will never satisfy the deepest longing of our soul. Only Jesus can do that. When we put our trust and faith in the Lord Jesus, we can say that we were “not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Find out more about lasting consequences in The Choices We Make.

Truth Is Fallen in the Streets

Bucha is a commuter town close to Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. After the withdrawal of Russian troops, journalists entered the town. They took photographs of the bodies of civilians lying in the streets, brutally murdered by the Russian troops. The bodies of the dead were left where they had fallen.

In 1994 a terrible genocide took place in Rwanda. Hundreds of thousands of people were murdered. In some places the corpses covered the streets from side to side as far as the eye could see. The murdered were left where they had fallen.

The prophet Isaiah wrote, “Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.” His words might describe Bucha in Ukraine or the streets in Rwanda.

However, the words of Isaiah 59:4 also might describe other streets in the towns and cities of our modern world. Truth is fallen in our streets too. Truths that were once virile and very much alive now seem like corpses that litter our streets.

Respect

Truths like respect are fallen in the streets. Respect includes the idea that the younger generation can learn invaluable lessons from listening carefully to older generations. However, today the values of our forebearers are despised. The truth they might have shared has fallen in the streets.

The Sanctity of Life

Truths like the sanctity of life are fallen in the streets. Approximately 930,000 babies were aborted in 2020. The number of assisted suicides and cases of euthanasia are rising. Where is the truth of the sanctity of life? It is fallen in the streets.

God’s Existence

Truth concerning God’s existence is fallen in the streets. Our colleges and universities are hotbeds of atheism. Prayer is taken out of schools. Man is exalted to take God’s place in people’s minds. The concept of an all-wise, all-powerful Creator God is absent from the lives of a great multitude. It lies fallen in the streets.

Human Nature

Truths like the nature of man are fallen in the streets. The idea that men and women are responsible for their actions seems to have died out. People view themselves and others as no longer responsible for their own actions. To many, the power to choose seems delusional. People buy wholesale into a terrible determinism. Those who buy into deterministic philosophies make men and women into something sub-human. In our day truths about human nature have fallen in our streets.

Respecting Other’s Property

Truths like respecting other’s property are fallen in the streets. Burglaries, thefts, smash and grabs, carjacking, flash mobs breaking into stores and looting — where will all this end? It seems to only get worse! Truths like respecting other’s property are fallen in the street.

Can you think of other truths fallen in the streets? Truths that are dying or close to dead? I bet you can. There are many of them. Our streets are littered with them.

A Long History of Truth Trouble

What happened back in Isaiah’s day when truth lay fallen in the streets? God called the people back to obedience through the prophets. But when they didn’t turn from their sinful ways, judgment came. The Assyrian army and then the Babylonian army invaded the land. They showed no mercy and brought terrible destruction.

What will happen in our day when so much truth is fallen in our streets? Will our modern world escape judgment? Surely not.

God is calling out to sinners through the preaching of the gospel to repent and to believe in His Son. What will happen to those who refuse? Some future day the Lord Jesus is going to come back to earth with the glory of His holy angels. With irresistible power He will judge the earth.

“The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9).

The first time He came, the Lord Jesus came in mercy. He was born as a baby, lived a perfect life, preached the gospel, and allowed wicked men to nail Him to the cross where He died for sinners. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3).

Through the death and resurrection of His Son, God made known His love for the world. Because Christ died, sinners can come by faith and be saved. By God’s grace, people who believe the good news of the heaven-sent Savior will receive an inheritance in heaven. Yet how seldom is the truth of the gospel heard in our day.

The second time He comes, He will come in great glory. He will judge the living and the dead and set up His everlasting kingdom.

Truth may be fallen in our streets. But He who is the Truth will come again. In glorious power He will return. He will be victorious over all His enemies. In the world to come, righteousness will reign gloriously through Jesus Christ.

Don’t be fooled by all the false truth-claims this world makes. It really has no regard for truth at all. Come to Him who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). God loves truth. Truth may be fallen in our streets, but God’s truth will win out in the end. Turn to Jesus to find forgiveness, an inheritance, and to be on the winning side for time and eternity.

Tampering with truth is very much in vogue, as The Greatest Act of Fraud in History shows.

Truth or Consequences

One of the first game shows in the history of television was called Truth or Consequences. This show featured contestants selected from the audience, inexpensive prizes, a catchy theme song, and a very friendly, charming and engaging host. The show had lots of laughs and clapping.

Contestants were put in situations simulating real life and then asked questions. The answers which conformed most to reality usually won the prizes.

Conformity to reality, after all, is an important part of truth, hence the name of the show, Truth or Consequences.

The game show was pretty lighthearted and the consequences were rather insignificant. But there is a serious side to Truth, and very significant consequences associated with it.

Real Truth

Nearly 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ walked the earth and said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

He came to this earth to show us the truth of God. In all that He said and did, whether it was preaching the sermon on the mount, healing the blind, or making the lame to walk, He revealed God the Father to all who saw Him.

After three-and-a-half years of public ministry, He was betrayed into the hands of sinners and crucified on a cross of wood. Disciples took His body down and wrapped it in linen and spices and laid it in a tomb. For three days and three nights, by Jewish reckoning, His body lay dead in the grave. Then early on the third day, Jesus, who came to earth to lead men and women to the truth, rose from the grave. He showed Himself alive to His disciples by many infallible proofs before ascending up to heaven to sit at God’s right hand.

Why did He come and give His life? So sinners like you and me, caught up in the falsehoods of a life of sin, might come to know the truth. He died so those of us who were deceived by sin might see it for what it really is — hateful and shameful. He died so all who believe in Him might be forgiven, pardoned, justified and cleansed from their sins. He died so we might know the truth and the truth might set us free.

Real Consequences

Jesus Christ is the truth. In the game show there were consequences, and there are consequences, too, when it comes to Christ.

Those who repent and believe in Him will have their sins washed away and be made fit for heaven. In heaven they will be rewarded for every good work they do on earth. “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Revelation 22:12).

Those who reject the message of His grace will receive consequences also. Their hearts will be darkened because of the sins they love. Then when this life is over, they will pass into eternity in the darkness of hell. In hell there will be endless weeping and gnashing of teeth. Also, there will be levels of consequences in hell. Those who knew God’s will and didn’t do it will receive more severe consequences. “That servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Luke 12:47). There definitely are significant consequences for rejecting the truth.

Our hearts were made to live on truth. They were made to know and love God and the One He sent into the world. He is the one and only begotten Son of God. He is gracious, loving and ready to forgive all those who come to Him in faith. But He won’t forgive people who cleave to their sins and don’t believe in Him.

In the goodness of His heart, God the Son became man and then gave up His life on the cross to save sinners. The eternity of each one of us depends on what we do with this truth.

Which consequence will you receive from Him? Will it be eternal life in the glories of heaven? Or will it be eternal death in the darkness of hell? Life is no game show. Choose life, choose truth, choose Christ!

Dig deeper into the subject of truth with Truth Is Fallen in the Streets.

Why Not Now?

While we pray, and while we plead,

While you see your soul’s deep need,

While your Father calls you home,

Will you not, my good friend, come?

Refrain:

Why not now? Why not now?

Why not come to Jesus now?

Why not now? Why not now?

Why not come to Jesus now?

You have wandered far away;

Do not risk another day;

Do not turn from God your face,

But, today, accept His grace.

In the world you’ve failed to find

Any peace for troubled mind;

Come to Christ; on Him believe;

Peace and joy you will receive.

Come to Christ, confession make;

Come to Christ and pardon take;

Trust in Him from day to day;

He will keep you all the way.

A Willing Gift

This is a story of contrast: of a man’s desperate need and how it was unexpectedly met, and of our desperate need and how God has the solution for each one of us.

Nicole McNeil has worked for years at the DuPont, Washington, Starbucks keeping customers happy while fulfilling their requests for roasted coffee of all descriptions and flavors. Being a good barista, she soon memorized what her regular customers wanted. Such was the case with one of her customers, Vince Villano; she knew his first name and what he wanted to order, but that was about all she knew about him.

One day Vince came in looking particularly sad and downhearted. Not even Nicole’s cheery, “What’s going on, Vince?” could make him smile. She asked him what was wrong, but he brushed her off with, “Oh, it’s a long story!” She told him that her shift ended soon and that if he could wait, she would like to hear his story. He agreed to this.

Vince had reason to be sad. He had a very serious genetic kidney condition called Polycystic Kidney Disease, for which there is no cure. He had reached the point of no return for having to go on dialysis, and he would have to spend hours each week hooked up to a machine which would clean his blood of toxins before returning it to him. Being diagnosed at 30, his kidneys had gradually filled with cysts and had swollen to the size of footballs, even beginning to adhere to other organs.

As far as he could remember, the disease had been in his family as far back as his great-grandmother. Many family members had not developed serious complications until their 50s or even 60s, which was what he was hoping for. But already at 41, his name was on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. The prospects were not good at all, as the usual wait time on the list was four to five years. Most people died while waiting for a new kidney!

“When I was first diagnosed, I felt like, ‘Well, I’m dying,’ ” he said. “It was not my first encounter with mortality. I had some situations in [the] military. But this was really out of my control. There’s nothing you can do. It’s kind of [a] black cloud that hangs over your head all the time.”

Searching for a Solution

Vince had decided to be honest with Nicole in telling her his story. His situation was a hopeless, desperate one. There was not one thing that he could do to save himself. He needed help outside of himself. Every one of us is born into this world with a desperately sinful nature. Our sins separate us from a holy and just God. With our sins witnessing against us, we are on our way to a lost eternity. Jesus described it as “outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30). We, too, needed help outside of ourselves! There is not one thing we could or can do to save ourselves. Without salvation, sin and death are the black cloud that hangs over every one of us!

Later that night, Nicole told her husband Justin all about Vince and his need for a new kidney. Justin’s immediate response was “I have a kidney. He can have mine.” This was his immediate reaction upon hearing Vince’s story. They did, after all, have some things in common. They were both Army vets and they were both dads. While they waited to see if Justin was a match, the two families visited each other and shared a lot of time together, becoming very close.

While Vince waited for a new kidney, the pain increased as well as his exhaustion. It was all he could do to drag himself to work every day. “I can’t sit around,” he said. “It drives me nuts to admit that this thing can beat me.”

You know, it is that way for every one of us. Sin and death and an eternity separated from God will “beat us” if we don’t accept God’s way of salvation. God sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus bore the punishment for our sins on the cross. He died that we might live and have eternal life. “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). We cannot possibly save ourselves by doing good works, religious or otherwise, because “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).

God’s gift of salvation is by grace. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). God’s gift of salvation is ONLY through His Son Jesus. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father [God], but by Me [Jesus]” (John 14:6). All we have to do is accept God’s gift of salvation by faith in our heart. “He that believeth on the Son [Jesus] hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth [remains] on him” (John 3:36).

A Non-Question

The chances of Justin being a perfect kidney match were slim, but when the final results came back, doctors told him that he was as close a match as he could be without being related to Vince. Both families were thrilled with this news, and a date for the kidney transplant was set, which actually fell on Justin’s thirty-sixth birthday.

Vince could hardly wait for this life-changing event to take place. There were so many things that he wanted to do afterwards, like eat steak and watch his children have families — not to mention that a new kidney would give him another 20 good years to live. Vince’s nephrologist, Dr. Partha Raguram, said that a person on dialysis three times a week has a kidney that functions at about 30%, while a person who receives a new kidney will function at about 100%.

Dr. Raguram had some shocking facts to share. At any given time, about 80,000 people are on the kidney transplant list in the U.S.A. Only about 16,000 or 20% actually get a new kidney each year. Because the same genetic kidney disease runs through his own family, he has seen family members die while waiting for a new kidney. Kidneys from live donors are by far the best, and the number of live donors from people that are unrelated has risen from 1% in 1996 to 26% now.

Being a very kind and compassionate person, Justin did not hesitate to offer his kidney. It would cost him a couple of months of recovery and he would be down to one good kidney. But for Vince, the stakes were much higher. Justin realized the gravity of the situation by commenting, “In the end, it really is a life-or-death question. And so, it makes it a non-question.”

The Life-or-Death Question

It is the same with our eternal well-being. The life-or-death question is whether you will accept God’s free gift of salvation. There will be no questions when you stand before God. You either repented of your sins and by faith believed on the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross and His shed blood to save you from a lost eternity, or you didn’t. That is the ONLY choice that will matter when you stand before God!

The kidney transplant was a success for both men. In fact, a month after the operation, Vince’s new kidney was working better than expected! Appetite, energy and normal living were returning to Vince, and Justin was making a full recovery as well. It was a new beginning ... two men, two families who were total strangers were now close and like best friends. It was a beautiful ending to what could have been a tragedy, and both families were grateful and thankful for how well it all turned out.

Accepting God’s gift of salvation goes far beyond our very brief lives here on earth. It has eternal consequences — and we are brought into the family of God. There is a beautiful verse that says, “As many as received Him [Jesus], to them gave He power to become the sons [children] of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12). Instead of being a stranger to God’s grace and salvation, you have the chance today to be brought into His family!

Loving persistence and its wonderful result can be seen in Help for a Rare Disease.

A Woman Clings to a Tree

Around Yuma, Arizona, the desert seems to stretch on forever. Because of a lack of water, the trees don’t grow very tall. The cacti are big. The trees are short and scraggly. What passes for a tree in the desert near Yuma would probably be called a shrub anywhere else.

It was one of these short, scraggly trees that saved the life of a woman and her dog. The two were walking alongside a canal that brings water to the town of Wellington. Out of curiosity, the dog went to investigate the canal. It misjudged the steepness of the embankment. The dog’s feet slipped on the concrete and “splash”— it fell into the swiftly-flowing water.

The dog tried to escape the water by digging his toe nails into the embankment and climbing out, but the steep sides made it impossible. It would get a little bit out of the water and then slip back in. Every time it fell back in, the current would carry the dog further downstream towards a scary-looking tunnel. The mouth of the tunnel was black and ominous and by looking you couldn’t tell if what flowed into it would ever flow out of it.

A Scraggly Hope

The woman saw the tunnel and thought if the current carried the dog into it, she would never see him alive again. The situation was desperate. A short distance ahead, a short, scraggly tree grew near the side of the embankment. The tree stood no more than a few feet high. A few light branches flopped over the embankment and went right to the surface of the water.

The lady ran to it. She thought she could hang on to the branches and lower herself out over the water and grab her dog as the current swept him by. She was just able to grab the dog in one arm when she, too, slipped into the water.

“Ow,” she cried out in pain when her ribs hit hard against the side of the concrete canal. Her head went under the water but still she managed to hold onto the dog and the branch of the tree.

She spit out water and cried, “Help!” Nobody was near enough to hear, and the place was so isolated that it was very unlikely anybody would pass that way.

As hard as she tried, she could not manage to pull herself up out of the canal.

At last she decided just to hang on in the hope somebody would see her. The Arizona sun beat down on her. Still she hung on. Train tracks ran near the canal. Hope that someone might see her rose in her heart every time a train rattled down the tracks. For 18 hours the woman clung to the tree with the dog in her arms. Seven trains sped by. Nobody noticed her struggling for life in the canal. When the eighth train rolled by, the conductor just happened to be looking out the window in the right direction and spotted the lady. He called the police and told them what he saw. Sergeant Salcido from the Wellington Police station was the first to arrive. Then a K-9 unit from Yuma also arrived.

Rescue

The lady was no more than several feet below the top of the embankment, but it was almost impossible to reach her and she was exhausted. They were able to reach down and grab the dog and pull it out, but the lady was too heavy to rescue in such a way. The K-9 officer went to the trunk of his car and got a long 20-foot leash he often used in training his dog. He made a long loop at one end and threw the loop over the lady.

“Put it under your arms,’’ they told her. Then the officers dragged her up out of the water and over the embankment to safety.

The lady couldn’t stand, she was so physically exhausted and she could barely talk. She told Officer Salcido, “You got here in the nick of time. I almost just gave up.” An ambulance took her to the hospital where she received medical attention. And when she returned home, she found her dog waiting for her.

Officer Salcido told reporters after the rescue, “The only reason this lady was able to hang onto the tree for 18 hours was that she had a strong will to survive.”

Your Way to Safety

You may never fall into a canal of swiftly-flowing water with steep, slippery sides that make it impossible to get out, but each of us has fallen into a different type of current that is carrying us away from the God who loves us. The lady in the story survived by hanging onto a tree for 18 hours. The tree was short, scraggly and insignificant. It never would have been made into fine furniture. Few birds, if any, might have made their home in its branches. Nobody seeing it would have ever thought, “What a beautiful tree.”

There is another tree that folks consider insignificant these days. Yet this other tree is the only way for anyone to reach out and grab to avoid being swept away to the endless darkness of hell. It is the sinner’s only hope. It is the cross on which the Lord Jesus died. Its beams were made out of timber, and then crudely fitted together to make a cross. Back in Roman days, the crosses were a symbol of shame because criminals were nailed to them and left to die.

Unbelievers who saw the Lord Jesus hanging on the tree might have despised Him and wondered what evil He had done to deserve such a death. But to those who have had their eyes opened, nothing reveals God’s love and glory like the Savior dying on the tree. “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3). It wasn’t a criminal dying on the tree; it was the Son of God.

The only way sinners who are being swept away from God by the current of this world may be saved is by looking to the cross and Him who gave His life on it. They need to receive the truth of it by faith, and then they can treasure it in their hearts all the way home to heaven.

Have you believed in Jesus Christ? Have you told Him you need Him and the grace He has to give? Have you said, “I am sorry for my sins; please forgive me”? Or will you let the current of this world sweep you along until you disappear into the darkness of a lost eternity from which you will never come out?

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians 3:13). The Lord Jesus paid the supreme price that we might be redeemed — delivered from the consequences of our sins.

The world despises the cross of Christ, but only by faith in the One who gave His life on it will anyone ever be saved. “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:15).

Reach out to Him in faith. Believe in His wonderful name, and He will never let you go until you reach safely home to heaven.

The police officer didn’t need to risk his life to rescue the dog owner. But in our next story, Eva nearly died to save Erin. Her act of intense bravery can be found in Eva, the Belgian Malinois.

Echoes of Grace: 2023

Table of Contents

21 Teens Die Mysteriously

Ambush Predator

As the Sparks Fly Upward

The "Boom and Zoom" Strategy

The Choices We Make

Cows CorralCarjacker

Doctors Couldn't Explain It

Eva, the Belgian Malinois

Every Second Counts

Freddie's Final Lunge

Glorious Gospel

The Greatest Act of Fraud in History

Help for a Rare Disease

Highway of Death

I Should've Died!

It Is Finished

Jesus Saves

A King Abdicates His Throne

King Edward the VIII Abdicates

The Life Is in the Blood

Living With a Deadly Brain Tumor

My Savior Tells Me So

Neutralized

A Night of Terror

Our Dangerous World

Pardo's Push

Please Love Me

Royal News

Ship of Gold - The SS Central America

Truth Is Fallen in the Streets

Truth or Consequences

Why Not Now?

A Willing Gift

A Woman Clings to a Tree