8-12-24<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all have a way of anesthetizing ourselves about things in life \u2013 and not only the unpleasant matters. We \u201cgo through hell\u201d after this or that experience; and we describe a \u201clittle taste of Heaven\u201d when something sweet happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In truth, whether you think a bit, or read Scripture, we have no conception of how horrible hell will be, or how rapturous Heaven will be. Why do we humans want to avoid warnings and lessons, and under-appreciate the rewards and blessings that we will meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ah, skeptics may say: it is all metaphoric anyway. We don\u2019t believe, deep down, that there is a Heaven or a hell, they say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good luck playing those odds. You will find out; or maybe you won\u2019t. But those kinds of bets \u2013 about your life; your soul; your place in eternity \u2013 are awful tools with which to navigate your existence. The choices you make. The effects you have on others. The joy you may experience; or not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a God, of course. He did not create robots but children with free will, and with that freedom we choose to defy Him, resist Him often, and sin against His ways. He still loved us (while we rebelled, in fact) and offered His earthly Incarnation, Jesus, to be a sacrifice for sin on our behalf. And if we still rebel, He allows us to believe in that \u201csin offering,\u201d Jesus, who He overcame death as we can do, in order to be reconciled and deserve a place in that Heaven we mentioned above. Even more, He provides His Holy Spirit to work in our lives to enlighten our way and strengthen our faith. Using words like \u201cuncountable\u201d ways and \u201cmillions\u201d of excuses, I want to remind us that on the \u201cGod side\u201d of such discussions there are not myriad ways to Heaven. Salvation is not a multiple-choice quiz. All of God\u2019s great workings with humanity points to one Messiah. His revealed Word asserts that Jesus is the only way to eternal life. Jesus claimed it Himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are no loopholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People might seek in vain \u2013 they do<\/em>; they have<\/em> \u2013 and, well, we get back to Playing the Odds. How tragic. History is replete with people who think they have discovered a better way; who think, frankly, that they are smarter then God. Lots of folks are smarter than I am, but show me someone who is smarter than God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Is it arrogant for people like me to believe such things, and to plead with others to believe them? Naw, I just peek at the cheat sheets \u2013 the Bible; the testimony of saints (that is, average people who have met the Savior); the accounts of miracles; the smiles of babies; the eyes of the healed; the changed lives. My own<\/em> changed life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those are ways God \u201cproves\u201d Himself. To skeptics reading this \u2013 or Christians who might need fresh encouragement \u2013 don\u2019t believe me. That is the point!<\/em> Don\u2019t believe me, or other mortals or traditions or philosophies or those who sell beads and amulets or show lists of junior-gods and counterfeit doctrines. Put your faith in \u201csure things\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Believe Jesus, not any of them unless they embody, point to, reflect, and embrace Jesus against any other version of \u201ctruth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whether people have debated about (or with) Jesus\u2026 or avoided Him all their lives\u2026 or ignore Him at every turn\u2026 it is futile to say that you have not \u201cmet\u201d Him. He is, in fact, closer to you than a shadow. He is with you, whether you want Him there or not, because He wants to be with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The comedian Orson Bean abandoned secularism and atheism, he said, when he realized that the \u201chole in our hearts\u201d we all feel, deep down, can only be filled by Jesus. That\u2019s how God made us. And why He sent His Son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every person on earth already has a relationship with Jesus. It is just everyone\u2019s choice whether it is an empty, frustrated relationship, or a beautiful, fulfilling, joyful friendship with Him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n + + +<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The simple Gospel. What about that deal, how about those<\/em> odds?
Yet many people reject God and such a salvation (in spite of the alternative, the \u201chell\u201d that people risk). There are uncountable ways to reject God\u2026 or a million excuses. And there are uncountable options people cling too, ridiculously desperate to find the alternative to Jesus Christ. False gods; dashed hopes; pagan rites; bizarre rituals; broken promises; disproved theories; silly philosophies. And \u2013 of course \u2013 many plausible philosophies and logical-sounding \u201cfaiths.\u201d And let\u2019s not forget the many people who actually admit that their lives\u2019 standards are likely baseless but \u201cthey work for them.\u201d They\u2019ll wake up dead some day, having deluded themselves and maybe kept from being awful neighbors\u2026 but left the world no better. And, tragically, wasted their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n