Echoes of Grace: 2008

Was it an accident? No! It was truly sad, it was a terrible event, but it was hardly an accident. The three boys involved moved steadily past warnings and barriers to the tragic end.

A house was being fumigated to get rid of an insect infestation. The workers, who installed the airtight cover over the house, knew how deadly methyl bromide is and had taken all possible precautions. The tent over the house had been sealed against escaping gas and signs put up warning that methyl bromide was circulating inside.

It was not enough. “The boys just wanted to go into the house with the tent on it,” so why should a little thing like a warning sign stop them? As one parent said, “They were just being regular teenagers!”

So, ignoring the sign, they went in. Besides the signs, some clamps that held the tent tightly closed were removed. A screen on the front porch was pushed out, a glass window was broken, but they were in!

It was not a triumph! Barely in, and then out and rushed to the emergency room at the nearest hospital. They were deathly sick. Methyl bromide is an extremely toxic gas and can be absorbed (almost instantly) through the skin even if not inhaled.

All three boys were in intensive care-but for one it was too late. Two would have long-lasting effects from the gas, but one sixteen-year-old life was ended. So sad—so tragic—but so final. And there are still many, many “regular teenagers” (and old-agers too!) who are going on past many warnings, even many difficulties, but determined to gratify their own desires and achieve their own goals.

Will the end be “just an accident”? Or will it be the inescapable end of a determined course? You have been warned. You know that you must come to the end of your chosen way through life; you know (or have heard) that God wants you to come to Him while there is still time. There is no known timetable for this day of God’s grace; it could end today. If it should, do you want to be found still trudging along on the deadly way of your own choosing in spite of the warnings?

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).

All Sin

It seemed to me as if it were possible that most of my sins might be forgiven. They were bad enough, but then they were no worse than others. But there were some dark spots in my life—sins that I was ashamed to think of, and I could not believe that there could be forgiveness for such as those.

I spent many anxious hours over this, but at last light broke in. In God’s great grace, this verse was brought to my mind: “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from ALL SIN” (1 John 1:7).

Oh, what a wonderful verse! I just left all my sins, little ones and great ones, inside the word “ALL.” Thank God for this message of assurance! He would not leave us in doubt. That word “ALL” is large indeed, though it is made up of only three letters.

“ALL sin”? YES! Sin of every character and shade—“the little sins,” as some people speak of them, and the great ones too.

“ALL sin.” None is too dark or desperate. The soul that comes to the Savior is completely cleansed.

“ALL sin.” Oh, come to the Savior now. He wants to bless you. The door of mercy stands open wide. Soon the Master of the house of blessing will rise and close that door of salvation.

Think seriously of what it will mean to have missed that cleansing and to be joined forever with your sin and its doom. Don’t be a fool! “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow” (Isa. 1:18).

“ALL sin”? Yes, “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Are We Free?

The Greek philosopher, Epictetus, said, “No man is free who is not master of himself.” If we are free, how can we explain the addictions of drink and drugs, of chain-smoking, the slavery of passion and pleasure?

The devil promises us liberty while he binds us with chains of sin. Peter, in speaking of godless advisers, says, “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption” (2 Peter 2:19).

Christ said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” All are serving either God or the devil. Although God commands obedience, He gave us freedom of choice. No one will be in heaven against his will. Jesus said, “Ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life” (John 5:40).

People often think that accepting Christ as Lord means giving up all freedom, whereas Christ has promised that “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). And more: “If the Son...shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

Without the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, we subdue evil in one spot only to have it break out in another place. God’s solution to this universal human problem is Christ, the Savior. In Christ, God’s promise is: “Sin shall not have dominion over you” (Rom. 6:14).

Are We Going up or Down?

How strange it is to see the world making so much progress in science and industry, and making none at all in righteousness and morality! Some people persuade themselves that the world is growing better, but when brought face to face with the actual facts they are forced to admit that evil men and seducers (we call them “predators” now) are becoming worse and worse.

The records of jails, prisons, courts and the plain proofs of increasing crime in spite of all the increased learning and education fully confirm the truth of the Word of God. Sad to say, the world’s progress is not in or toward goodness. The wonderful advances and scientific discoveries of this day cannot bring a soul nearer to God or blot out a single sin.

The world’s only progress is down, always down, in casting off the fear of God and in rejecting His precious Word. In these things men are making swift and sure progress. The world is converting the professing church to its own atheistic views of worship of nature and scoffing at the Bible. God and His grace in Christ are being thrown aside by the fables of progressive theology, liberal views, and the teaching of the “modern school.”

Where do you find yourself today? Are you going on to eternity with the great multitude, through the wide gate and down the broad road?

“Enter ye in at the strait [narrow] gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because [narrow] is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).

The Lord Jesus Christ warns us about the end of this broad, easy way in which the world is traveling. It’s the easiest road in the world to find. You need only to follow the crowd, take the easy way, and be “broad-minded” and “tolerant” in your views. The unerring word of the Son of God tells you where it will end: “destruction.”

The narrow path, entered through the narrow gate, leads to life. Eternal life is the portion of those who follow it, for Jesus is the way. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

In this path there is a life of joy, peace, love, hope and daily blessing. In this path is found real progress, not the downward progress of the world, but progress in love, in faith and in the knowledge of God and of His grace. It is not the progress that ends in destruction, but progress that ends in the blessed presence of the Son of God in glory.

Are You Sleeping?

Drought conditions continue to prevail over North Georgia. The huge man-made reservoirs of Lake Lanier and Lake Altoona which supply the metropolitan area have become dangerously dry. Millions of people are reduced to getting their water for drinking from the little depth that remains in the bottom of these lakes. This water has a high concentration of pollutants and decaying organic matter. Unless this area soon experiences significant rainfall, the situation will grow extremely dangerous.

North Georgia might be experiencing drought conditions for the past several months, but from one end of the globe to the other this world has been experiencing spiritual drought for a lot longer!

When sin entered the world, humanity became separated from God, the one true source of spiritual refreshment. If we were without spirits, we might be able to live in a state of separation from God, but because we were created spiritual beings, we need God as much as we need the air we breathe and the water we drink. Without Him we will perpetually suffer from a drought in our souls.

The human race is needy by nature. Yet millions are in denial of their greatest need of all-a personal relationship with their Creator. The only way to end the drought in our souls is to come home to God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those who receive the Lord Jesus as Savior are able to drink from the fountain which will never run dry. Speaking of the water we need to quench our bodies’ thirst, the Lord said, “Whosoever [drinks] of this water shall thirst again,” but speaking of the spiritual water which He has to give, He said, “But whosoever [drinks] of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be...a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14). What a wonderful transformation takes place in the life of a person who turns by faith to the Savior and his parched soul drinks deeply of the living water.

The Lord Jesus alone can give us living water because He is both God and man in the same person. He was always, and will be always, God. But He became a man also, and from the manger to the cross we can trace the life of the only perfect, sinless man who ever lived. As man He could give His life a sacrifice for sin; as God that sacrifice has unlimited power to cancel out the guilt of sin. As man He might sit, weary from a long walk, on the edge of a well in Samaria; as God He has the power to give living water that springs up into everlasting life as a free gift to all who believe on Him.

He invites us all to receive this free gift. With Him we can drink from the well of living water freely. Since God Himself is the source, the supply will never run dry.

Without Him we can only drink the dregs from the dried-up pools of a world gone astray. These waters have a high concentration of soul-destroying pollutants such as atheism, moral relativism, skepticism, cynicism, and many more. The end will be as bitter as death. They have such a high density of these particles floating around in them that they could never give refreshment to a man made in God’s image.

The Governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue, realizes his state is headed toward a catastrophe if the drought doesn’t end soon. The Atlanta region will not have water for nearly three million inhabitants. As a “last resort,” he has called for a day of prayer to end the crisis. Those who live without faith in Christ are headed for an immense crisis too. If they pass out of this world without ever having come to Christ, their drought condition will persist throughout the ages of eternity. Cast out of God’s presence, they will never experience His goodness or mercy again. They will not find so much as a drop of water to quench their thirst in hell. The “last resort” of prayer will be ended forever.

Will you come to Christ so that you never have to drink from the dregs of this world again? “Let him who is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (Rev. 22:17). Only in Christ can a person find eternal life and quench the spiritual thirst we all possess. “This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3).

Be Prepared!

Bobby Leach was the second person to brave Niagara Falls and live. He performed his death-defying stunt when he was forty-nine years old sealed in a barrel.

Fifteen years later he met his end in a way least expected, as the following news release records: “Bobby Leach, who achieved fame when he went over Niagara Falls in a barrel, died today of injuries received in slipping on an orange peel. Leach, who made the perilous Falls journey without dying, broke his leg when he slipped on the orange peel. Complications set in following an amputation, causing death.”

The case of Bobby Leach is only one of thousands reported, with many more untold. An officer, hero of many battles, escapes the sword, only to die later from an infected pin. A sea captain, who had weathered many a storm and always reached port safely, was drowned in his bathtub at home.

Ahab, the king of Israel who disguised himself in a battle with the Syrians, was brought down by a bow and arrow-shot “at a venture”—by an unknown soldier (1 Kings 22). Israel’s King Abimelech’s head was crushed when a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon him (Judg. 9:53).

The safety or loss of our life often seems (and is treated by some) as a gamble. But if we could see as God sees, we would be compelled to say, “There is but a step between me and death” (1 Sam. 20:3). The moral is plain: Be prepared! Your time may be short―much shorter than you dream or think!

Choose

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

Someday make Him my choice;

Someday-someday, I will heed His word,

And answer the Spirit’s voice.”

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

Swiftly the seasons roll;

The present is yours, perhaps your last;

Choose for your priceless soul.

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

What will your answer be?

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

Is for eternity.

JULY

Christ Is Risen

In the early days of the Soviet regime a certain “comrade” lectured for an hour and a half against Christianity. His aim was to prove it to be a superstition without any basis in fact. As he concluded his attack against simple faith in the work of Christ, he offered time for an open discussion. However, he stipulated that no speaker take more than five minutes.

A young man in the audience leaped upon the platform, saying he would not require so long a period as that. Standing in front of the throng, he gazed at them for a moment. Then in a loud voice he shouted the well-known Russian greeting: “Brothers and sisters, CHRIST IS RISEN!”

The whole audience rose as one and the traditional response thundered out: “HE IS RISEN INDEED!”

The young man turned to the lecturer and said, “I have nothing more to say.”

Neither had the lecturer.

Oh, do turn to the Scriptures and believe God’s own “good news” concerning His Son!

“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

Crave

It wasn’t too easy to reach the cave. It meant a hike through the woods and then a scramble, helped along with ropes, to the mouth of the cave. But the little group of campers followed their guide manfully and at last they were inside.

Tom, one of the campers, surveyed the bats hanging upside down near the entrance rather apprehensively, but the group was moving further in and he went on with them. As they went further in, the daylight faded, and at last there was only artificial light.

The guide warned the campers that he was about to turn out the light. Suddenly, it was dark! Completely, totally dark! Tom tried to see his hand held in front of his eyes but failed. Though the rest of the group was near him and the guide was speaking just in front of him, Tom began to feel a loneliness creeping over his soul. It was strange it was eerie.

What was this the guide was saying? He was telling them of another dark place, a place of utter, outer darkness. A place called hell. He told them that one day there will be a departing from all light, all love and friendship, all hope, for those who are going into that place that is as black as the blackest night-that place of loneliness, loneliness forever.

What an object lesson! Tom will never forget it, and he has made sure that he will never go to that place of darkness. In fact, the Lord Jesus shed His blood on the cross so that “whosoever will” can escape that awful place. God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (1 Peter 3:9).

While it is true that “he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life,” it is equally true that “he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36). And that will mean the blackness of darkness forever. Oh, turn from darkness to light NOW, before it is too late.

Crocodile!

Little John wasn’t very big, but he had a man-sized job. As the oldest son in his family, he had to take his father’s twenty-five cows to the river to drink. Before he would let the cows into the water, it was his job to walk into the river and to scare any crocodiles away.

So far he had never even seen a crocodile near the cows, but one day that all changed. A six-foot crocodile “bit into his arm,” and, in crocodile and alligator fashion, tried to pull him under the water.

John never could say exactly how he was able to pull away from the crocodile, grab a tree limb and make it safely to shore. But he knows that God was caring for him that day! Far away from any help that might have been looked for, a lone driver was approaching. He saw John’s father frantically waving. He stopped and picked up the injured boy and drove three hours to get him to a hospital.

For five months Johnny was cared for in that hospital, and then he was returned to his home and his old job, but without his right arm. Later he was taken to the United Sates to be fitted with a prosthetic substitute for his own arm. Later there was another, and another. The man-made devices couldn’t grow but John did! Now at six feet and five inches tall, he uses English well and is using his language skills to tell of God’s love and care for him and for anyone else who will accept that love.

His father and mother have both died since that terrible day of the crocodile, and John could now step into his heritage as the witch doctor’s son: He is entitled to be the new witch doctor for the whole village. He refuses. As he says, “My father was the witch doctor, but he couldn’t even save me from the crocodile!”

Now he plans to enter a Christian college in Tanzania where he hopes to learn more of the God who saved him from the crocodile. He wants to tell them that His love is for everyone, yes, even the witch doctor’s son! He too can spread the “good news” that “God so loved the world” that He gave the most precious gift in the whole universe to save those who will accept that gift.

Will you?

“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Did the Alarm Go off?

It did! It certainly did! And what a racket it made! The hotel desk clerk couldn’t turn it off fast enough. There it went again! How annoying it was; there must be a malfunction in the system somewhere. He firmly turned it off again, and at last the alarm was silent.

Upstairs in the great hotel the fire smoldered on, and the deadly smoke rolled on into room after room in thick, suffocating silence.

Ten hotel guests died that night of smoke inhalation—died quietly, without alarm and without warning.

Would they have said, “Turn the alarm off; let us sleep!” Would they have said, “Oh, that awful noise! It should not be allowed to scare us so?”

Not very likely! But a greater alarm is sounding, a greater disaster is ahead, and too many people would like to hang a DO NOT DISTURB sign on their door, cover their ears against the warning, and go peacefully back to sleep.

But God’s warning is sounding out: “AWAKE, thou that sleepest,” and, “ESCAPE for thy life!” The alarm has sounded. The day is coming-the terrible, terrible day-when “the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

But an alarm would be useless if there could be no escape. The same writer (the Apostle Peter) tells us that “the Lord...is long-suffering... not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” In “long-suffering” and in love, God sent His Son into the world that “whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

There is the perfect way of escape from all the dark judgment ahead. There is no other way.

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

If we hide our heads, cover our ears, and try to sleep on in the midst of destruction, there can be no escape.

Direction for Life

Have you heard of the Global Positioning System? The system, simply called “GPS,” consists of receivers small enough to hold in your hand or put in your car, and twenty-four satellites continually orbiting the earth. It is an amazing system that can show your exact position on the earth anytime, anywhere and in any weather. Users can tell where they are and can easily get directions to where they want to go, whether walking, driving, flying or boating. Drivers need not worry about getting lost when they have a car equipped with GPS! Farmers, surveyors, geologists and many others do their work more efficiently and economically with the use of GPS.

Where do you get your directions for life? The only true source of directions for each person who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior is God’s Word. The Bible has truth to guide us through every stage of our lives. You can trust all the promises and instructions from Scripture.

The GPS can answer questions like, “Where am I?” “Where am I going?” “What is the best way to get there?” as long as the destination is a definite place on earth. That is as far as it can go. God’s Word, the Bible, goes far beyond that! It can give answers to all those questions, and not only answers for this life but for eternity too.

Are you going the right direction? The Lord Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6), so to follow Him is the right direction.

Are you going His way? “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Prov. 3:6).

His direction will keep you in the right way: “I have chosen the way of truth” (Psa. 119:30).

Those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior know there is only one way to get to where He is: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31). Are you following His directions?

The Global Positioning System provides information about location and direction here on earth. It can even be considered one of the greatest modern technologies, and no wonder! But God’s Word is the only sure source of directions for a Christian here on earth and for eternity.

“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye” (Psa. 32:8).

“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory” (Psa. 73:24).

Disintegrating Promises

A man using a fictitious name opened an account at Chicago’s Northern Trust Bank, and a few days later deposited a $4,000 check drawn on an out-of-state bank.

According to common practice, the Northern Trust would not allow a withdrawal on the check until a sufficient number of days had passed to make certain the check would not be returned because of insufficient funds.

Nine days after depositing the check the man returned and withdrew the entire amount from the bank. The bank, never having received a notice of insufficient funds, assumed the check was good and allowed the man to make the withdrawal.

What the Northern Trust didn’t realize was that the $4,000 check had been coated with a chemical which had caused it to disintegrate. Several hours after being deposited the check would have shown signs of deterioration, and within a few days it was nothing more than tiny, indistinguishable bits of confetti. The Northern Trust had never received notice of insufficient funds because the out-of-state bank had never received the check; it had disintegrated in transit. The check passer with a knack for chemistry stole $4,000 from the bank.

The check was a written promise to pay a certain amount. At a cursory glance it looked good, but only a short time later it had disintegrated.

Every promise this world makes concerning life (and it makes many) must, like the check, be a disintegrating promise. Why? Because sin and death have entered the world. Rom. 5:12 reads, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”

Apart from God’s Word, you cannot have any enduring promise of life; the fact of death being present has made it impossible.

This world promises life, but never keeps its promises. God promises life, and “all the promises of God in Him [Christ] are yea, and in Him Amen” (2 Cor. 1:20).

Unlike the promises this world makes, God’s promises of life will endure forever. Although God’s promise of life shall never end, His offer of the gift of eternal life to us will end. If you die without receiving Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, or should the Lord Jesus come to take those who are saved home with Him to heaven while you are yet unsaved, there will then be no further possibility of your receiving God’s gift of eternal life. No more will you be able to turn to Christ as the only Savior of sinners, but your eternity will be spent in the place of “outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 8:12). By passing the disintegrating check, the culprit cheated the bank out of $4,000. Don’t let this world, so influenced by the master-culprit, Satan, cheat you out of eternal life. The devil is a master-deceiver and a master-cheater. He knows that if a soul dies indifferent and unbelieving in God’s eternal Son, then that soul will spend eternity with him in hell.

Oh, be wise! Don’t be foolish! Take hold of God’s promise of life, offered through the Prince of life, recorded for us in the Word of Life, the Bible.

“Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live” (Isa. 55:3).

Do You Know?

It is a dark, foggy night, and a man is groping his way along the wharf when he takes a wrong turn. Another few minutes and he is over the edge! A splash, frantic cry for help, and silence.

Confused efforts are made to locate him, but in the darkness it is in vain. The next day his body is recovered, and at the inquest he is identified. A very able and skillful man is no more! He knew ten thousand things. What he did not know about docks and ships and navigation was not worth knowing, but the one thing of supreme importance in those critical five minutes he did not know. He could not swim!

None of us knows everything, but all of us know something. A few of us know a great many things. Some of us know the one thing of supreme importance. Do you know it?

To be right with God is the matter of supreme importance. It matters little what you are or what you know if you are not right with God. To have “all knowledge” of things that count in this life will not help you if you remain in ignorance of this one thing that counts in eternity. The question of questions is, Are you right with God?

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

FIRST: Justification before God cannot be earned. It cannot be deserved. If a soul is to be justified at all, it must be by the grace of God and that alone.

SECOND: The only way of having justification is through the redemption work accomplished by His atoning death. His death and resurrection alone can meet the guilt of your sins and put you right with God.

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

FOURTH: When you do believe in Jesus, you are justified freely. God justifies not only without charge, but also without grudging.

Trusting in Christ Jesus for yourself, definitely accepting Him as your Savior and Lord, you can say, “By faith in Jesus I am right with God.” Then truly you know the one thing of greatest importance.

You may not know much of the world’s wisdom and knowledge, but you will know how to “swim” if death’s waters should rise about you.

“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...that He might be just, and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24, 26).

Do You Need Sleeping Pills?

After a hotel fire in Miami Beach some of the survivors were talking together. One said, “I couldn’t sleep last night. No way!” Another said she hadn’t been able to sleep either. “I want peace of mind,” she said. “Where do you buy it?”

Probably the next step would be a trip to the drug store to buy sleeping pills, the great American panacea. Statistically, Americans take more than thirty million sleeping pills every day. Thirty million pills—the equivalent of six heaping truckloads of little tablets, to purchase a little sleep. But peace of mind cannot be bought.

A health officer, deploring the use of pills to cure sleeplessness, said, “Few persons realize that insomnia is largely a symptom of some underlying disturbance which should be corrected.”

In most cases the “underlying disturbance” is worry. We are living in such a fast and confusing age that it is difficult—if not impossible—to keep up and do all that is expected of us. Nor are conditions at home or abroad conducive to peace, confidence and safety.

The remedy is simple and certain, but it cannot be bought. The prophet of old said of the Lord, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee” (Isaiah 26:3).

The mind of the average person is so cluttered with philosophies, panaceas and cure-alls that he has not the faintest idea what it is to trust in the Lord. It sounds so strange, so foreign, to be told that the Lord Himself took a body of flesh, blood and bones in order to be seen, heard and handled by His creatures. In Christ Jesus we actually have “God...manifest in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16).

That is why He spoke as no other man ever spoke and worked as no other man has worked. His greatest work, of course, was His redemptive death on the cross. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”

We have all sinned, and sin is enough to make any conscientious person worry, but worry in this matter is of no avail. Forgiveness of sins is to be had by placing faith in Him who died for us. “Whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins.” He also rose again from the dead and now lives to care for us. He is vitally interested in every detail of our lives. He knows that the trials of the day are too great a burden for us to carry, so He says, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee” (Psa. 55:22).

Now by trusting Him, not only for the forgiveness of our sins, but also to carry our burdens, perfect peace can be ours. Taking everything to Him in prayer, with thanksgiving, will fill us with the peace of God—the peace which passes understanding.

Thinking of Him and trusting Him to take care of us is vastly superior to trusting to sleeping pills to make us sleep. Won’t you trust Him now—right now!—and let Him give you perfect peace?

Excuses

She was fifty-one years old, a mother and a grandmother, yet she stood before the judge convicted of poisoning one man and the admitted killer of three others. She defended herself: “I blame it all on drugs,” she said. “These things never happened in my life until I got involved with drugs.”

The judge did not say, “Oh, that’s too bad! We’ll have to excuse you for all those murders. Of course, it was all the fault of the drugs!” No, nothing like that! He sentenced her to be executed for murder. Her excuse was no good in court.

You too will stand before a Judge one day to answer for refusing to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. What will your excuse be? Will you claim to have been “not so bad”? Will you say, “I joined the church”? “I did the best I could.” “I wasn’t as bad as others!” God says, “There is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-23).

Will you blame God? But God “is long-suffering...not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Will you try to blame the Lord Jesus? “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15). He wanted to save you too!

You can’t say, “Nobody ever told me.” You are reading God’s warning to you right now, and this warning may be the last warning you’ll ever receive. You will be without an excuse! The responsibility of spending eternity in hell is yours, and yours alone.

“What wilt THOU say when He shall punish thee?” (Jeremiah 13:21). Won’t you accept the Lord Jesus today as your Savior? If so, you will never have to face Him as judge.

Five Minutes After I Die

Loved ones will weep o’er my silent face;

Dear ones will hold me in sad embrace;

Shadows and darkness will fill the place

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Faces that sorrow, I will not see;

Voices that murmur will not reach me!

But where, oh where, will my spirit be

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE?

Here I have feasted, worked and ranged;

Here I have flourished and grown estranged;

There, and then, it will all be changed

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

No way to change the good that I lack;

Fixed to the goal of my chosen track;

No room to repent, no turning back,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

Now, I can stifle convictions stirred;

Now, I can silence the voice often heard;

Then, fulfillment of God’s sure Word,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE.

If I am flinging a fortune away,

If I am wasting SALVATION’S day,

“Just is my sentence,” my soul shall say,

FIVE MINUTES AFTER I DIE!

NOVEMBER

The Fog and Smoke on Interstate 4

The highway is open again. Hundreds of feet of damaged paving have been replaced, the seventy cars and trucks have been towed away, the injured are in hospitals, and the dead are being remembered with shock and sorrow.

Lives of victims and their loved ones will be forever changed, and there is little comfort for the survivors in being able to say, “It was all the fault of the Transportation Department, the National Weather Service, the State Highway Patrol, the ‘Fish and Wildlife’ workers who were conducting a ‘controlled burn’ less than a mile away, or the seventy other drivers who continued at high speed past the warning signs and into the ‘wall’ of smoke and fog.”

On the Tuesday afternoon before the disaster, highway workers had put up reflective orange signs to warn motorists of the dangers of smoke and fog.

Early Wednesday morning there was an unexpected shift in the wind, bringing thick smoke over the highway. At the same time, fog rolled in, fog such as is a frequent danger on that low-lying stretch of road, and the combination of smoke and fog in the pre-dawn darkness just wiped out visibility.

Driving past the warning signs at interstate speed of 70 (or above!), there was no time to react and nothing to see. They heard crashes and screams and, in many cases, felt an impact they could not see. One driver said that the first thing he could see was the hood of his own car “folding up” in front of him.

The first stunned shock gave way to terror as crashes continued on the highway and became panic as a red glow appeared as cars and trucks began burning, and all who could escape frantically tried to get away—far away from the many dangers that surrounded them.

It was such a familiar road, that highway they drove daily to work, so to cope with the boredom they talked on cell phones, listened to radios or to favorite music—anything to break the monotony!

It is broken now; no one who was involved in that morning’s disaster will ever drive that road again without a shudder. Such a tragedy in the early morning hours of what promised to be a “perfectly normal day” was incomprehensible to the dazed victims. Certainly, not one of them started out that morning with the thought that, “Today I’ll be in a horrible accident. My car will be wrecked, and I may die!”

Of course, there is always the chance of something happening on a high-speed highway, but we give it little room in our thoughts. If we only realized the dangers around us, really thought that this day this very ordinary day—could well be our last day of life on earth, wouldn’t we stop a few minutes before rushing out the door and off to the day’s work? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to pause for a moment and to think that there might be no return trip?

We are not asking, “Have you made your peace with God?” You can’t! But God, through the death of Christ on the cross, has forever accepted that tremendous sacrifice for sin. It is done, finished, perfect and complete in every way. Now you can, you must accept the gift, must receive the Lord Jesus and the salvation He offers for yourself, must “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” to be saved. The promise is sure.

Then whatever comes on your road today, you will know that all is well with your never-dying soul and a glorious future is before you when you leave this earth for one that is “far better”! What confidence that gives, no matter what “happens.”

The Funeral

“You say you’re going to a funeral? You’re going to drive all that distance just to go to a funeral? I wouldn’t! Why, I’m too lazy even to go to my own funeral!” And the speaker laughed loudly at his own joke.

But it was not such a joke as he thought. Truly, he will not go to that funeral though. His body will, but it is only the shell he has lived in all his life. His family and friends will look at that body in the casket and murmur would-be comforting words: “Doesn’t he look natural?” “He’s at rest now.” “He looks so peaceful!”

But the real, essential being of the man will not be there. He will have gone—gone where? He had an appointment to keep—“It is appointed unto men once to die”—and then what? Then “after this the judgment.” The question is, Where is he now?

There are two definite places. One is the “Father’s house,” where Jesus said “there are many mansions,” and added: “I go to prepare a place for you...that where I am, there ye may be also.”

The other place (there are only two) is “the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” That’s right, it was not prepared for people; God did not want to send anyone to hell. He is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” But if they refuse God’s love and mercy and reject His offer of life in heaven with Him, He will not force anyone to accept His wonderful gift of eternal life. No one will be in heaven against his own will.

When next you go to a funeral, think for a moment about the soul that once inhabited that body. Say to yourself, “Where is that person now?”

And then ask yourself one more question: “If I were lying there, where would my soul be?”

Think of it! Think of it now.

When your body lies in its casket, it will be too late to change. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2).

The Good Samaritan

It was more than 2000 years ago. Life was very different then, but some things just do not change. There was that man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho—and fell among thieves. They robbed him and wounded him and left him for dead. It could almost be today, couldn’t it?

Then along came the Pharisee (a religious, self-righteous person), and then a Levite, representing the law, and both of them looked at the man lying by the roadside and “passed by on the other side” of the road and went on their way. That sounds familiar too!

Last came the Samaritan-and how different he was. He went to the victim and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine (to disinfect and to heal) and lifted him to his own mule. He took him then to an inn. There he even paid the innkeeper and promised him that if he spent more on the victim, he, the Samaritan, would repay it the next time he came that way.

Reading the story carefully, it is easy to see that that “good Samaritan” is just a picture of the Lord Jesus. When He was on earth, He “went about doing good.” He healed the sick and even raised the dead. Wherever He met pain and sorrow, He showed His compassion and mercy to all who came. Then He returned to His Father’s house—heaven.

Coming down to our time, recently two men, a father and his son, took their boat and went out fishing. Suddenly they discovered that their boat was taking in water-and fast. With little warning, it “went down like the Titanic,” the son said.

The two had only time to grab life jackets; their flares were already too wet to use, and the cell phone was lost. Without flares and phone, there was one way to call for help: They said, “We prayed!”

Once in the water they had only the jackets and a fifteen-foot rope. They tied themselves together with the rope and began to swim toward shore. They swam for about four hours, but a strong current was against them and they feared they might be swept out into the open Gulf. At last they reached a buoy to hold on to, though it was encrusted with sharp barnacles and they were badly cut.

It was a cold night in the water and very dark, but at 6:38 a.m. they saw the sun rise. The father said, “I saw the sun, and said, ‘That’s it! We’re safe!’”

But as boats began pulling out from shore, the stranded men waved and shouted for two hours with no response. The boaters passed with their “motors at full throttle” on their way to a day’s fun or fishing.

At last a couple in a 32-foot boat pulled alongside and called on their radio for help. Then it wasn’t long before the fire and rescue team came and took the two exhausted men to a hospital.

Later they both said that the worst trial was watching boat after boat speed by without stopping. On Mt. Everest, recently, another man watched possible help pass by. A man sat by the trail in sub-zero weather, struggling to breathe. It was later estimated that at least forty climbers went by him that day-and kept going. One team stopped and gave him a little oxygen. That was all. Who could afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars for an Everest “Summit Expedition” and fail to “summit”?

Boating outings, mountain climbing, what could a little convenience store have in common with them? Well, people. Human beings, and human nature. They are still sadly the same. In the little convenience store a young woman lay on the floor, bleeding to death from a stab wound. The video camera was running, and later the film showed a tragic picture: At least five shoppers stepped over her to continue their errand to the store. At least one stopped-to help? No, to open his cell phone and take a picture of the dying woman.

Oh, where is that Good Samaritan who was such a picture of the Lord Jesus? The answer is surprising. We know that Jesus went back to heaven when His work of redemption was accomplished, but that did not end His love and pity for poor, suffering, failing humanity. Actually, He is more accessible than when He was present on earth. We do not think of Him as the Samaritan, a stranger, but as the good Shepherd, always near, always loving and tender.

As the Shepherd He speaks of His flock: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish” (John 10:27-28). The Lord Jesus gave help and healing to people during His time on earth, but now it is ETERNAL LIFE He is giving to all those who go to Him in faith. Have you done that yet?

The Gospel Through Geometry

Do you remember elementary geometry and studying about lines, segments, rays, circles, circumferences and center points? I would like to borrow these points from geometry to illustrate some very important truths about God, life and salvation.

To begin, I would like to use the idea of a line to illustrate in a very simple way God’s infinite power and love. There is an arrow at each end of the line. These arrows represent the notion of the line stretching out in either direction for an infinite distance. If somehow you could travel down the line at light speed for a thousand years, you would come no closer to the end of it than when you began.

God is infinite too. “There is no searching of His understanding” (Isa. 40:28). The breadth, length, depth and height of His love passes understanding. Nothing in this world happens without His knowing about it. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father” (Matt. 10:29). His love reaches out to each of the billions of people on the globe. In grace, He invites them all to receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

In order to make it possible for God to offer this tremendous gift, the Lord Jesus died in the sinner’s place. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). The death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross demonstrates as nothing else ever could the immense love God has in His heart for sinners. It is a love that saved souls will be able to search out and explore forever and never come to the end of it.

Furthermore, do you remember the definition of a line segment? Line segments come in various lengths. They have a dot instead of an arrow positioned at either end. The dots signify that the segment has a beginning and an end. A line segment with its definite beginning and end is a pretty good representation of our lives down here. Each of us was born into the world, which is when we had our beginning, and each of us will come to the end of our lives and not be able to proceed a single step further. Just as line segments come in different lengths, so people’s lives have different lengths. Some are long and others short. No one can say for certain how long a life will last. Most people desire a long life, but there are no guarantees. In fact, there is no guarantee they will live out the year, the month or even the hour. This is why it is so important to consider eternal things now, while there is time, and not put them off until the uncertain future. God gives us one lifetime, no less and no more, to decide for Christ.

We need the Savior because, although our physical life might be like a line segment that has two definite ends, our spiritual life is more like what is called a “ray” in geometry. A ray has a definite beginning point, but runs on forever without ceasing. Once it begins, it runs on forever like the arrow. Our souls were created in time but will continue to exist throughout the endless ages of eternity.

Finally, the concept of a circle can be used to illustrate God’s perfection. A circle is all the points in a plane that are the same distance from the center point. This distance never deviates. The rate of curve on the rim of a circle is perfectly consistent too. It doesn’t waver or change. These two characteristics of a circle remind us that God is consistent in all that He is and does. Whether in love, righteousness, or holiness, God’s consistency never fails: “I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal. 3:6).

Only at the cross can we see how God can maintain His consistency in righteousness, and at the same time reach out to guilty sinners in love. Justice demands the death of a sinner: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18:20). The Lord Jesus, in love, came to this earth and died for our sins. Are your sins “red like crimson”? God has found a way that you might be justified (or accounted righteous) in His sight. This righteousness is obtained by faith only. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness” (Rom. 4:5). You can count on a perfectly consistent God to keep His word: “The word of our God shall stand forever” (Isa. 40:8).

Won’t you carefully consider these truths, bow your heart in prayer, and ask the Lord Jesus to be your Savior? It is the only wise thing to do.

The Great Eastern

The Great Eastern built over 150 years ago, was hailed as one of man’s greatest successes: It was big-the biggest ship of its time. It was six times larger than any other ship then afloat.

Expensive? Construction cost more than twice the estimate, and it was launched in the midst of a recession that brought many of its investors to bankruptcy.

But what a sensation it caused wherever it went! Its first arrival in New York met with a wild reception. People traveled hundreds of miles to view this new phenomenon of the new age of progress. An Englishman living in America is said to have fallen on his knees and exclaimed: “This is the proudest moment of my life! God, I thank Thee that I am an Englishman!”

Unfortunately, it usually sailed more than half empty. Smaller ships were as fast and much less expensive to operate. At last a real use was found: It could carry huge amounts of cable. It laid the first successful cable link between Britain and America, followed by four more and one from the Suez to India. There was only a limited demand for cable, not enough to keep this ship in business. (Remember, this was long ago; now the oceans are crossed with an amazing spider web of communication cables.)

After being put to a descending variety of uses, the Great Eastern was sold for less than one eighth of its cost and was broken up for scrap iron. It became just one more in a large group of failures: (1) the “unsinkable Titanic”; (2) the largest airship ever built, the airship Hindenburg, which exploded and burned while landing; (3) the so-called “Spruce Goose,” which only flew one mile (and that only seventy feet high). Then there is the Concorde, grounded after costing France and England millions of dollars, ending as just a tourist attraction at a Long Beach pier, proof, as someone said, that man’s reach exceeds his grasp.

After seeing so many failures with things that are merely earthly and material, can we expect the minds and hands that failed to fly that wooden airplane higher than seventy feet to build a structure capable of reaching heaven? It was tried at the Tower of Babel; did it succeed? No, no, NO! It can never be.

There is only one way-a tried and trusted way for the millions who have believed God and have accepted His offer of the one true way. The Lord Jesus told us that “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.”

How do we come?

We believe, we trust, we receive. How simple it is! How profound!

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

He Is Risen

I saw not the hill,

nor the cross where they nailed Him...

Nor heard the words spoken

with His latest breath...

I bore Him not hence

to the tomb that received Him...

So silent and cold

in that chamber of death...

But stronger than sight

is the faith that believes it...

And greater than reason,

God’s witness to me...

For sin and uncleanness

the Christ made atonement...

I know that He died,

and His blood cleanses me.

I saw not the angel

that came at the dawning...

To roll back the stone

where the Crucified lay...

Nor saw Him arising,

majestic in triumph...

O’er death and the grave,

on that first blessed day...

But deep in my heart

is the peace that abideth...

And joys growing big,

like as streams near the sea...

Not dead my Redeemer!

He’s risen! He’s risen!...

I know that Christ lives,

and He lives now in me!

“Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

APRIL

"Help"

The mountains around Bellingham, Washington, hold the world’s record for snowfall. One year, nearly one hundred feet of snow fell on Mount Baker. All this snowfall made the area a beautiful place in winter.

One day a young man named Michael York strapped on a pair of snowshoes. He was going to explore some of that vast area. The snowshoes made it possible for him to walk long distances easily in the deep snow. He hiked for several hours, his soul just thrilled with all the beauty around him.

Then...he started to return. He thought he was on the right trail, but when the heavy cloak of night fell around him, he slowly came to the conclusion that he was lost. He hadn’t brought the proper gear to sleep out in the cold, nor did he bring any food. The cold stabbed him with icy fingers, and hunger gnawed at his stomach. For the life of him, he didn’t know which way to turn to escape the wilderness. He desperately hoped someone was searching for him.

On the fourth day of being lost, a spark of hope came to him; he thought of a plan that might help him to be rescued. He climbed partway up the slope of the mountainside to where there was a big clearing of nothing but snow. Then carefully he trudged through the snow, spelling out, in giant letters, the word “HELP.”

The letters were written so large that they caught the attention of a border patrol helicopter pilot. He notified a rescue team of the location of the hiker and he was airlifted off the mountain by helicopter. The plan worked!

Do you know that the infinite, eternal God is searching for lost souls? In His great love He is seeking souls to come to Him and be saved. His eyes don’t miss a thing: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place.”

No one has to write giant letters in the snow or do anything to attract God’s attention. He knows exactly where one stands, and He also knows that, apart from the Lord Jesus, we are lost in sin. Because we are lost in sin, we desperately need HELP. By ourselves we don’t have a clue how to return to God. Sinners who never come to Christ will spend eternity lost in hell. Sin has weakened our hearts, impaired our vision, drained our strength, and puffed up our pride so that we could never find our way back to God by ourselves. When it comes to trying to find God in our own strength, “we grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men” (Isa. 59:10).

But praise God, He has not left us to ourselves. He knew we were lost and in a hopeless condition, and He had the one perfect remedy. “The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” The Lord Jesus left the glories of heaven and came to earth seeking lost sinners. In His life He perfectly revealed God’s love in all He said and did. In His death and resurrection He made the way lost sinners can return to God. Through Him alone, a sinner can receive all the help needed. He has healing for the sin-sick soul and salvation for the lost. It is His joy to bring the wanderers home.

The Hiker in the Desert

It was somewhat of an “Outward Bound” program-a survivalist experience carried to the extreme. A dozen hikers, with three experienced guides, were braving the Utah desert (in July!) to “test themselves physically and mentally.”

And they were tested! If you can imagine trudging along in the blazing sunshine in one hundred-degree heat for ten hours, with no access to food or water and only occasionally a little thin shade! It was a real test, and a very real danger.

It has been estimated that an average person walking in the desert should drink three gallons of water to replenish the water in his body. Failing this, his body water will slowly disappear and he will become severely dehydrated. But this extreme experience required the hikers to walk ten hours from one water hole to the next-ten long hours.

The one cup of water they drank at the start was soon only a memory. The Utah sun blazed hotter and hotter-and hotter. As the temperature rose in the air, it rose also in the hikers’ bodies. At first the temperature rose slowly. A hiker may feel only light-headed, tired, perhaps a little disoriented. He can be saved then if water is given. But once he goes too far, his temperature too high, pulse and respiration too slow—water can no longer save him.

David Buschow was one such victim. It had been a long, hard struggle in the fierce heat: trudge, trudge, trudge—stumble, stumble, fall—get up and stagger forward again. Now he had to be lifted up after the falls.

At last there was shouting ahead. The first members of the party had reached the goal: a cave that shaded a small source of water. Shouts of exhilaration carried back to the slower walkers, urging them on.

But Dave? He had fallen once more-face down in the desert dirt. The guide said, “I looked away for a moment, and when I looked back, he was gone.”

Gone. Dead. Dead in sight of the goal. Only three hundred feet ahead was the life-giving water, but Dave was never to taste of it. The goal was just ahead, but hopelessly out of his reach. It is a sad, sad story.

But far, far worse is happening every day, happening all around us. So many others have tried—have struggled—have suffered to reach a goal—only to fall short at the end. There are those who have worked for salvation, have spent a lifetime in doing “good things,” or working toward self-improvement, only to find at the last that it was not enough. One cannot reach heaven by climbing!

And it was all so unnecessary. The “water of life” was offered freely, without cost. The Lord Jesus Himself promised that “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).

That water of life is offered freely, not obtained by a long and bitter struggle through the deserts of this world, but by a simple acceptance of that wonderful gift that God offers to the thirsty.

Hold-up!

Malcolm was really worried. He was the owner of a service station, and there had been a wave of station robberies in his area. So he decided to outwit the thieves by taking his cash box home.

Finally the burglars did get around to Malcolm’s station, just as he had feared. But when he went to investigate, he was happy to find that they did not get anything more valuable than a few cases of oil.

He went home again, congratulating himself on his cleverness, and got the surprise of his life. The burglars had preceded him. They guessed that he had taken his cash box home, and when he left to check on the robbery at the station they entered his home and took his box of money, along with every other valuable they could see. Malcolm had not prevented the thieves’ success; he had only postponed it for a little while.

Like these burglars, death is making his rounds and carrying off people out of this life, and multitudes are losing their most precious possession-their immortal souls.

Some people think they can outwit death. Every time they have some little illness they rush to the doctor to be healed. They make every effort to ward off death, and for years they may succeed. But no matter how you work and plan, you cannot outwit death. The doctor may be able to help you this time, and he may help a dozen times, but when death finally makes contact, no doctor on earth can help you.

Death has a claim on every human being, because “the wages of sin is death.” As we have all sinned, so we have all earned those wages. “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb. 9:27-28).

Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ paid a fearful price for you when He died for you on the cross. Now, if you will turn to Him and really trust in His sacrifice there for you, then all your sins will be forgiven and put away from you forever. Then you can say, “Oh death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Cor. 15:55).

Why not trust Him now?

DECEMBER

A Horrible Pit

A few years ago, two teenage college girls were kidnapped and forced into a pit dug beneath a garage floor in Vancouver, B.C. The pit was then covered with cement, in which a small hole was left for air.

Five days later the police searched the empty garage, broke through the concrete slab and released the two terrified girls.

The million dollar ransom demanded for them was not paid, and the kidnapper was arrested a short time later.

The act of stealing and kidnapping people and hiding them in pits is one of the oldest of crimes. Joseph suffered such a fate, as recorded in Gen. 37, nearly 4000 years ago.

The practice of paying ransoms is also very ancient. It is referred to more than once in the Book of Job, which is perhaps the oldest book in the Bible.

The penitent sinner in Job 33 is delivered “from going down to the pit,” because God there declares, “I have found a ransom” (vs. 24).

No man can give to God a ransom for his brother, but God can, and has, provided a ransom Himself.

That stupendous ransom price was the lifeblood of His only Son: “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7).

In Psa. 40 we read of a “horrible pit,” filled with “miry clay,” out of which One was lifted by God, and His feet set “upon a rock.” Prophetically, this refers to the Lord Jesus, who, having died under the believer’s sins and been buried, was after three days and three nights in the grave (the “horrible pit”) raised again to the glory of God the Father.

As one having been raised together with Christ (Eph. 2:6), the believer can now sing with Him the new song: “He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet on a rock....He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God” (Psa. 40:2-3).

The two kidnap victims in Vancouver were rescued without ransom, but in the case of sinners held in their sins, this can never be. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:22), but believers are “redeemed...with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

Do you know for yourself the value of the death of Christ? Have you been delivered from going down into the pit...and saved from a lost eternity?

"I Want to Meet the Person Who Saved Me."

Anneke was born just months after the Nazis occupied Holland in 1940. Her father, Erich Kohnke, was a gifted musician and conductor. Her mother, Leni Leyens, was an artistic and capable student. As Jews they were in grave danger, so they decided to go into hiding. The parents dearly loved their child but knew they had to give her up. Sadly, a year later, her parents were discovered and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Dutch people had formed a resistance movement to help people in danger. The parents arranged to have baby Anneke taken to safety before they could hide themselves. They needed someone to take their baby to safety.

Cora, a young Gentile woman, knew the risks in taking the 18-month-old Jewish baby to a safe place. Smuggling a Jewish baby out of Amsterdam was a crime of the highest order to the Gestapo.

She explains simply, “They needed help.”

One night in 1942 Cora met the parents. She took the sleeping child, who was wrapped in a white blanket. She and the sleeping baby had to travel for an hour and a half by train and tram. Cora had been told to walk to the third light post past the end of the line. A contact person would meet her there. Arriving at the place, she passed the still sleeping child to a waiting man. Cora then had to walk home after curfew without encountering the Gestapo.

Over the years Cora wondered what had become of the child she had rescued. Eventually, after sixty-five years, by searching the Internet she discovered Anneke’s whereabouts.

When they met in August 2007 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, they both shed tears. Anneke, leaning forward in her seat, said, “What do you say to the person who saved your life?”

“What drew me here was not wanting to know more about me. It was, ‘I want to meet this remarkable person who risked so much.’ How could you not want to meet the person who saved your life?

“I haven’t become anything that was worthy of being saved. I’m just grateful to be alive.”

As a sinner saved by God’s grace, with no merit of my own, I have the same sentiments. I am an unworthy sinner. I too look forward to the moment when Jesus comes and I will meet my Savior.

What can I say to the One who saved me? “What but one loud, eternal burst of praise!”

Jesus saw my need. He knew the cost but He was willing to take my punishment for me. He, the perfect, sinless One, when asked, “Who will go for us?” replied, “Here am I, send Me” (Isa. 6:8). The Lord Jesus did not risk His life; He gave His life. He knew all that He would endure, but He went to that cruel cross to die for unworthy sinners like me.

“When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly....God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6,8).

Believers today are “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

I want to see “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

“We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

Is the Lord Jesus Christ your Redeemer also? If so, we’ll praise Him together. If you say, “No,” and reject Him, or neglect Him, you must meet Him as your Judge.

"In Jesus"

I’ve tried in vain a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise,

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only, JESUS.

My soul is night, my heart is steel―

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life, I must appeal

In simple faith to JESUS.

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

There’s love in all His words and deeds;

There’s all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in JESUS.

Though some may sneer and some may blame,

I’ll go with all my guilt and shame;

I’ll go to Him, because His name,

Above all names, is JESUS.

SEPTEMBER

Is God Punishing Me?

“Is God punishing me?” cried Eva as she searched for the big truck. She and Ray had arrived at the trucking terminal in California the day before they were to unload their truck. There were driver facilities there: restrooms, showers, kitchenette, parking for their truck and many other drivers to visit with and share stories of the road.

Eva enjoyed several hours of companionship with other driver team wives and friends. When she went out to get something from her truck, the truck was gone! She looked all over the parking area to see if Ray had just moved the truck to a better location, but no, the truck was nowhere in sight. Had he left? Would he do such a thing to Eva? Leave her and just disappear without telling her? Her purse and all her clothes were in the truck. She had her cell phone and nothing else. She tried to call Ray, but he was not answering his phone.

Eva became shocked, and then hurt. Soon she was angry. How could he treat her like that? She said that sometimes he got very jealous when she spent time with other people and he felt ignored. Could he have been offended when she had spent time with the others all afternoon?

It was becoming cool, and she had nothing to put on for warmth. No jacket, no sweater, nothing! And for the night: no comb, no toothbrush, not even a bed to sleep in! How could a person do that to someone he supposedly loved?

It was sad watching Eva, so hurt and upset. She sat in the break room and cried for a long time. One lent her a coat, as it was getting colder, then a blanket to wrap around her. Finally, a driver gave her money for a motel room, and another driver took her to a motel. She appreciated the kindness of the drivers but was very upset and wondered if Ray would eventually come back for her or would leave her there to figure out what to do and how to get home without her driver’s license or money.

Eva felt unloved and so very hurt. Do you sometimes feel that life is unfair and that God is punishing you in some way? Ever since Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, there has been heartache and sadness in the world. And there is always that little feeling that something is wrong, that we have not been all that we should have been, that God is not well pleased with us. That little sense of wrong is called “conscience,” and it may be that God is allowing things that hurt to remind us that we need someone stronger and wiser than ourselves. We need God! We need Him in our lives. He does love us and sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for your sins and mine so that we can be free of sin and clean to go into His presence someday.

“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).

Ray did come back the next morning after unloading the big truck. He had indeed been jealous of her. Sometimes our loved ones let us down and hurt us, sometimes even intentionally, but God sees and wants to be our solace and comfort. He says, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Heb. 13:5).

"It's Dark"

Bernard was the husky, native skipper of our 32-foot sailboat. He and two deck hands were the crew for a day of sailing on the lovely blue-green waters of the Caribbean. It was a beautiful day, and the sun was hot. Wind filled the sails, making little slapping noises, whistling through the rigging, and racing on to fling little clouds about in the sky.

Suddenly Bernard spoke to Don: “Do you believe in life after death?”

Now, Don loved to tell the gospel and speak to others of his wonderful Savior and of the great hope that lies beyond this life—of being with Christ in glory. He was startled by the directness of the question, but his answer was quick: “I certainly do!”

“Let me tell you a story,” Bernard continued. “My friend and another man were out in their 14-foot boat doing some fishing. The other man leaned over the side to look down into the water. At that moment, a swordfish came, and the sword struck him directly in the eye. The man fell backward crying, ‘It’s dark—it’s so dark,’ and right there he died. Now, what do you think of that?”

We were all silent for a moment. Then Don replied, “He met his appointment. God’s Word says, ‘It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.’ Are you ready to meet your appointment?”

No one spoke as we sailed on, but God was looking down and waiting—yes, He was longing—to receive another sinner into His great family. Finally Don spoke again: “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

The water slapped noisily at the sides of the boat as it hurried on by, rolling off the stern, leaving a foamy white trail behind us. At last Bernard answered, “No,” he said, “I’m sure not ready for an appointment like that!”

Bernard was not ready for an appointment with death. The man who was struck by the swordfish may or may not have been ready, but what about you? Are you ready to keep that last appointment? Keep it you must! Why not prepare now for it and turn now to Christ, the only Savior of sinners?

Like a Mother Hen

When the Federal Building was bombed in Oklahoma City, Richard Nichols and his wife were nearby. They were strapping their little nephew into the car after picking him up at the nursery.

Nichols said, “There was a terrific explosion. We felt heat and pressure, and it kind of spun us around a little bit. I thought the boilers blew up! Then I saw this object coming straight at us, spinning like a boomerang. I grabbed my wife, and I grabbed Chad, and I kind of hovered over them like an old mother hen!”

It was a Ryder truck axle—250 pounds of jagged metal—that crashed into their car. All three were badly shaken, but they escaped with no serious injuries.

“Like a mother hen.” It was a good comparison. Mother hens do shelter their chicks under their wings, protecting them from cold or rain or any danger. Stories are even told of a mother hen being burned to death in a prairie fire to protect the little ones under her wings.

Even the Lord Jesus used the example of the mother hen. As He walked the crowded streets of Jerusalem, He looked at the throngs of young people, old people, little children—all that surging sea of humanity, and He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem...how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt. 23:37).

Now that He has gone back to heaven, He still looks at the masses of humanity with longing love. He is still “not willing that any should perish”—but how often must He say sadly, “But you would not.”

Human nature has not improved in the 2000 years that have passed since that sorrowful cry. Our generation is no better than theirs. Many today are still saying, “NO!” to the Lord of glory! Yet the offer of pardon is still open, and all who come in faith to the Lord Jesus are sure of welcome, sure of pardon, sure of an everlasting life with the Lord Himself.

How sad for those who “will not” and rush on in their own will and way to destruction!

Don’t be one of them. Say, “YES, Lord Jesus,” now!

Magellan Names the Pacific

Ferdinand Magellan sailed into the long body of water called a strait that would later bear his name. He was the Admiral of a small fleet of four ships. Five ships had originally left Spain months before, but one had been shipwrecked along the coast of South America. The Strait of Magellan is one of the stormiest parts of the world and connects its two largest oceans. The passage through the uncharted waters of this strait took thirty-eight days and was very difficult. It took all the skill the sailors could muster to navigate the ships along the dangerous coasts. At night, from the decks of the ships, the sailors would often see the campfires of native people. So they called the tip of South America, “Tierra del Fuego” or the “Land of Fire.” The going got so tough that one of the ships’ captains lost his courage, and without telling anyone, he turned around and headed back to Europe. This desertion really hurt the little fleet because his ship held a large part of the food stores for the entire fleet.

After thirty-eight days of constantly worrying about shipwreck because of contrary winds, rocky coasts, dangerous currents and bad weather, Magellan and his fleet entered into a broad expanse of calm water. The horizon stretched out endlessly before them. Every sailor in the fleet felt a tremendous sense of relief. The great water looked like easy sailing compared to the strait they just left behind. Magellan gave this great ocean the name “Pacific.” (“Pacific” means “peaceful” in Spanish. Perhaps if he had known the difficulties which lay ahead of him as he was to cross this ocean, he might have named it differently!) He thought he had no more than two or three days’ sailing before he would reach the fabled “Spice Islands.” Little did he know that he had just entered the world’s largest ocean that covers nearly one third of the globe. Crossing it, his ships would be pushed to the limit of their endurance. Scurvy and starvation would claim the lives of many of his crew before they would sight land again.

Even though Magellan died during the around-the-world journey and never returned to Europe, historians give him credit as the man most responsible for the first circumnavigation of the globe. We may never personally discover a great ocean and be given the honor and privilege of giving it a name, but God wants each one of us to make a great discovery which brings us true and lasting peace. He wants us to discover that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Creator of the world, God and Man in the same person, died for sinners and has obtained the gift of eternal life for all who would believe on Him. When souls lay hold of this great truth for themselves, they discover “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” (Philippians 4:7).

The Pacific Ocean is immense, and the peace that comes from knowing God is immense too! In this life every believer is entitled to know that his sins are washed away by the blood of Christ. “The blood of Jesus Christ His [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). This cleansing is so thorough that believers may have perfect peace with God. “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1). They are certain to face trials and difficulties as they travel through life, but they may face them with the assurance that God is for them and that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28).

In the life to come, every last thing that could ever cause sin, strife or distress will be forever removed. Those who enter into heaven through faith in Christ will enjoy never-ending peace. The Pacific might cover a third of the globe, but the “peace” in heaven will stretch out for eternity. Nothing will ever mar that peace. Believers will only be there because “He was wounded for our transgressions....The chastisement of our peace was upon Him” (Isa. 53:5) when He hung on the cross. The discovery that “Christ died for our sins” (1 Cor. 15:3) has the potential to bring so much good into a person’s life that it is the greatest discovery anyone journeying through life could ever make.

Nothing in the world can bring a lasting peace into your life except faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. People might think they will find peace if they obtain a certain level of financial security or recognition, but money cannot redeem a soul from eternal death, and the favorable opinion of other men will never keep them out of hell. The Lord Jesus is willing to do both for you the moment you believe on Him. Sinners can find peace in no other way. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (John 14:27).

Come to Christ by faith and accept Him as your Lord and Savior. When you stand on the shores of heaven and see an eternity of peace, love and joy stretched out before you, you will never be sorry you did.

None but Christ Can Satisfy

O Christ, in Thee my soul has found,

And found in Thee alone,

The peace, the joy I sought so long,

The bliss till now unknown.

I sighed for rest and happiness;

I longed for them, not Thee:

But while I passed my Savior by,

His love laid hold on me.

Now none but Christ can satisfy,

None other name for me!

There’s love and life and lasting joy,

Lord Jesus, found in Thee.

FEBRUARY

Only One Way

A freighter was moored to the dock at Mumbai (formerly Bombay), taking on cargo for Italy. The Indian clerks, “Parsees,” checking the cargo, were continually washing their hands in large pans of water conveniently placed in the warehouse where they were working. Talking to one of the clerks, I asked him why they were so diligent in this washing of hands.

He replied that it was part of their religion; they washed their hands whenever they had a sense of defilement. He added, “We worship the same God as you Christians, and it doesn’t matter whether the way to Him is by the Parsee road or the Christian road.”

I told him that the true knowledge of God, while revealed in part by the ordered creation all around us, is fully revealed by the written Word of God, and that same Word tells us that, though “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” yet there is only one way by which man can meet a holy and just God.

“Well,” the Parsee said, “if you want to see the captain of this ship, you walk up the ladder on the ship’s side and, arriving on deck, proceed to the captain’s cabin. If I want to see the captain, perhaps instead of using the ladder I may climb up a rope and so get to the deck and make my way to the same place. You go your way and I go mine, and we both reach our goal; we both get to see the captain.”

“No! No!” I answered. “You cannot apply that illustration in terms of a freighter. Consider rather that you and I want to see the commander of a warship, which is the very expression of law, government and order. I go up the warship’s ladder, and on arrival on deck I am challenged by the sentries guarding the only lawful entrance to the warship. I present my pass, the sentry says, ‘Pass on,’ and I am allowed to proceed.

“Now, if you climb a rope or attempt to gain an entrance by any other way than the appointed way, you are at once challenged by the marines on guard. You will be arrested, imprisoned, and will meet the captain only as a judge. There is only one way!” “He that...climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber” (John 10:1).

The Word of God says, “I [that is, Christ] am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

The way of reconciliation to God is by the death of His Son. The pass which fully satisfies the law is written and signed by the Spirit of God: “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).

MARCH

Out of the Darkness, Into the Light

Out of the horror of being alone,

Out, and forever, of being my own,

Out of the hardness of heart and of will,

Out of the longings which nothing could fill,

Out of the bitterness, madness and strife,

Out of myself, and of all I called life.

Into communion with Father and Son,

Into the sharing of all that Christ won,

Into the ecstasies full to the brim,

Into the having of all things with Him,

Into Christ Jesus, there ever to dwell,

Into more blessings than words ever can tell!

Wonderful Person, whose face I’ll behold!

Wonderful story, then all to be told!

Wonderful―all the dread way that He trod!

Wonderful end! He has brought me to God!

JUNE

Road Rage

“Road rage” is getting to be a familiar phrase in the news these days:

“Woman is arrested in road rage incident.”

“Police chase driver who waved hand gun in road rage incident.”

And how many accidents are blamed on “He cut me off!”, “He blocked my turn!”—anything that annoys and interferes with ME! It happens many times every day-many times more than we ever hear about.

The term may be new, but the facts are as old as humanity. We talk about “road rage” as though it were something new—something “never heard of when I was a child.”

Not so! It has been known from the time of the very first family on earth. Yes, the first family had two sons, and what happened? Cain, the older brother, was angry, and “Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.” And the human heart has never improved since; it is still subject to that sudden, uncontrolled rage.

Of course in this country, and in most of the more prosperous nations of today’s world, there is a fine gloss of civilization over our lives and a comfortable cushion of complacency. But sometimes the curtain slips a little, and we stare appalled at the chasm below. Can all that rage and fury really be in our hearts? Can we be guilty of those murderous thoughts?

It was summed up in the Bible many years ago: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer. 17:9).

Isn’t there a remedy? Isn’t there peace somewhere in the world? No. In the world, NO! “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” But there is peace in the Lord Jesus. It is freely offered to the individual, to the lonely, restless, overburdened human being who will come to the Savior with all his problems, his trials, his sins, and simply accept Him as his Lord and Savior. Then there can be peace, and rest, and a hidden well of joy no one can take away. It comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He said, “My peace I give unto you.”

He said, “Come unto Me...and I will give you rest.”

He promises those who come to Him, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

How wonderful! And it is available to anyone young or old, rich or poor-who turns to the Savior for salvation and forgiveness. Can you say, “Christ...loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20)?

The Rolls Royce of the Piano World

A look of dismay covered the faces of the professional movers as the rare concert piano they were transporting caught on the edge of the lift at the back of the truck, slipped out of their hands, rolled down a steep embankment and landed upside down on some stone steps. The workers stared in disbelief at the broken piano several feet beneath them. The Bosendorfer piano was valued at nearly $100,000 dollars. A finer instrument would be nearly impossible to find. Bosendorfer’s are the Rolls Royce’s of the piano world, but now this one lay ruined, shattered, smashed and broken.

A nearby farmer used some of his heavy machinery to lift the piano back to the top of the embankment and load it on the truck. The once elegant instrument was taken to the best of repair shops, but it was a lost cause. There was no possible way to restore it after its fall. The beautiful work of craftsmanship, built to bring delight to audiences, was now nothing more than rubble.

I, for one, might have trouble telling the difference between a really good piano and a great piano, but I find this story very interesting. It reminds me of another work of craftsmanship that was very valuable to the One who made it. He made it with incredible potential for good. He created it to the highest standards and, after it was finished, with His unfailing discernment declared it was very good. However, this special creation suffered a great fall which left it in ruin—a ruin so complete that, left to itself, it would never serve the purpose for which it was intended.

What is this most special creation? It is you, and I, and all of mankind. When our first father disobeyed God’s command, he, along with the whole human race which was to follow him, was plunged into sin and death. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). Along with sin came alienation from God. “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:18).

So deep into ruin has the human race fallen that God has this to say about it: “There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one....The way of peace have they not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom. 3:10-18).

Mankind has been ruined in the eyes of God because of sin. Men or women might be highly capable in sports, learning, or the arts, but in God’s eyes they are full of discord. They were created to bring pleasure to God, but through their self-will they have become unprofitable and full of bitterness and misery. Instead of remaining in a state God could freely bless, the human race fell into a condition that God must judge. And God in His holiness will judge!

Ruined sinners have a hell waiting for them at the end of this life. But, unlike the piano which could not be restored after its fall, humanity has a way to be redeemed. This is because the Lord Jesus, “the Man of Sorrows,” came to this earth and gave His life on the cross. Afterward, His body was placed in a grave, but death, which has an iron grip on the rest of us, couldn’t hold Him, and He arose from the grave. Later He ascended into heaven to sit at God’s right hand. Now God has “highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9).

“Man of Sorrows,” what a name

For the Son of God who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim!

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood―

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Guilty, vile and helpless we,

Spotless Lamb of God was He!

“Full atonement,” can it be?

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

The Safety Net

Picture yourself hanging out over the water, hundreds of feet up. You’re working to get heavy steel beams in place, welding, riveting, stringing cables, building a bridge. You’re swaying back and forth in the wind, trying to hold on with one hand and get something done with the other. A bank of fog rolls in, coating all the surfaces with water droplets. Wouldn’t it give you security to know that a strong net was hanging underneath you?

It was in June of 1936, and work had been going on for more than three years on the “unbuildable super-bridge.” Across the mouth of San Francisco Bay for ten years city officials had argued the need of such a bridge, its cost and design, and if it was even possible to build a bridge that would stand up to the ocean currents and high winds at that mile-wide “Golden Gate.” Finally, they had awarded the job to Joseph Strauss, who’d promised to build the bridge for around $30,000,000. It would take a little over four years to complete.

Mr. Strauss is called the builder of the Golden Gate Bridge, but the striking design and complex plans for the final bridge were actually done by others. Three years into its construction, the project had set some records for its time: The two towers, at 746 feet tall, were the tallest bridge towers ever built. Its suspension cables were the longest used. More important to our story, no lives had been lost during its construction: injuries and close calls, yes, but no deaths so far. Why was this considered such a surprise?

“A man’s life wasn’t worth a nickel,” recalled Lefty, a bridge worker. “They figured one life for every million dollars on any job, no matter what type of work it was.”

There were many men needing work, and no laws yet about job safety, so contractors tried to save money by doing without basic safety equipment. It seemed there was always another man to replace any lost during the day.

How does God feel about the value of a human soul? He says, “The redemption [price] of their soul is precious” (Psa. 49:8), and asks, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). God loves you. He values your soul much more than you will ever know. Life isn’t just a random accident. You were created in the image of God and have a special purpose here on earth.

In June of 1936 Strauss ordered an enormous movable safety net installed underneath where the men were working, high up on the span. This was the first time such a net had been used for bridge work. Maybe Mr. Strauss didn’t want to be remembered as the man whose project was built at the terrible cost of human lives. The net was an expensive but worthwhile investment for Strauss. It would allow his men to move more quickly and confidently on the job. If anyone slipped, they would land unhurt in the woven rope mesh, much like a jump onto a trampoline.

And men did fall into the net, nineteen in all, and were saved from certain death. Instead of thanking God for saving their lives, they formed the “Halfway to Hell Club,” mocking the judgment they must have known they’d avoided that time.

But, “God is not mocked” (Gal. 6:7). Although He is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9), a rejector of Jesus is not promised a second chance. God graciously speaks “once, yea twice,” but at some time by repeatedly ignoring God you may stop hearing His call to repentance.

Wake up! If you are spared in an accident, think about the One who holds your very breath in His hands. We hear onlookers say after a near tragedy, “Someone was watching out for them.” That Someone is God Himself. Don’t let your friends be like these men who fell from the bridge, laughing at their brush with death.

Hell is a dark and lonely place, a place of endless thirst. When Jesus suffered on the cross for your sins, He thirsted. There were three hours of darkness, when the sun was hidden while the Lord Jesus bore the penalty for our guilt. He was alone. Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Always He was sinless and holy, but God had to turn away from Him while He bore our sins.

Don’t turn your back on such love! You will have to leave this world someday, and you don’t know when that will be. Eleven workers did perish in tragic accidents during the last, busy months of work on the Golden Gate Bridge. God only knows where their souls are now.

Where you go when you die will be decided by what you do with Jesus. You probably won’t fall off a bridge, but there are lots of other kinds of accidents that just as suddenly will send people of all ages into eternity today. Don’t put off this decision any longer; take Jesus as your Savior now! “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

Sandler & the Sleepers

Marylin Harvey and her twenty-six-year-old son, Brent, were sound asleep in their house in Pullman, Washington. They were alone. Mr. Harvey was working late at a local restaurant he owned. A little flame began to glow in the house. Authorities later guessed a candle had been left burning, which probably started the fire. No one can say for certain how the little flame spread to the house. Like a silent invader, the fire grew and passed from one thing to another, filling the living room and kitchen with leaping orange flames and smoke.

Still, the two slept on peacefully in their bedrooms upstairs, unaware of the deadly danger that was about to confront them. More and more smoke and superheated air billowed through the house. The smoke and heat set off alarms, but the two heavy sleepers never heard the warning devices.

The family had two dogs. One was a seventeen-year-old Australian Shepherd named Lewis. This dog had creaky joints, moved with difficulty, and was losing its ability to hear, see and smell. The other, Sandler, was a six-year-old border collie in the prime of his life. Border collies are a breed of dog used to herd sheep. Seldom do they bark, but they have a strong instinct to take care of others.

Many dogs would have hidden under a couch or a bed to protect themselves; not Sandler. When the fire woke him, he made his way through the burning house to Marylin’s bedroom. He pushed open the door, entered the room, and jumped on the bed with a crash, waking her up. Immediately she knew something was desperately wrong because of the intense heat and smoke. She ran down the hall to her son’s room and woke him up too. The way through the front door was blocked with flames, so they made their way to the basement and out through that door. Soon the entire house would be enveloped in flames.

As they opened the door, the cool night air hit them with a rush. Sandler, the Border collie, stopped in his tracks and turned back into the burning house. Later, Marylin looked back on the night and thought that the dog’s protective instincts had kicked in again. She firmly believes that Sandler remembered the other family dog, Lewis, and ran back into the house in order to save it.

Sandler did not come out of the house alive. The smoke and the heat overcame him. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, they found the two dogs in the fire-gutted house. Sandler was in the room next to where the older dog had been sleeping; he had almost reached Lewis.

Sandler risked his life to save his owners, and then gave his life in an effort to rescue the other dog. His courage and faithfulness were truly heroic.

Hopefully, you will never experience the tragedy of a house fire either for yourself or those you love. But many people in the world are in the middle of a deep sleep about another imminent danger. This danger is real and drawing relentlessly closer. With every tick of the clock souls are brought closer to the time when they will face the terrible wrath of a sin-hating God. Sinners who die apart from Christ will be sent away to the everlasting punishment of hell, and many people in this unbelieving, unawakened world are in a deep sleep about it. Peacefully they pass their time on earth as if they will never come into judgment for what they have committed...as if they don’t have a care in the world.

The tragedy of hell is that souls don’t have to go there. No matter how far they have fallen into sin, there is a way of escape. The Lord Jesus came to earth and went all the way to death to make a way that sinners might be delivered. On the cross He bore sin’s awful load for those who would later believe on Him. The wrath that should have fallen on them instead fell on Him in awful stroke after stroke. Because Christ suffered on the cross, He can offer salvation to all who will believe on Him. “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

Won’t you wake up and realize the danger you are in because of sin? Won’t you hear the alarm warnings found in the Bible? Or will you sleep on with your head on a pillow of careless indifference until death and judgment overtake you and it is forever too late to escape?

Seed Time

The new seed catalogs are out. What gorgeous flowers! What luscious vegetables! What appealing pictures and descriptions! Giant beans, amazing lilies, super colossal tomatoes; one would think that all that is necessary is to drop the seeds in the ground and stand back to watch them grow.

It doesn’t work quite like that, does it? The new giant beans may turn out like last year’s and be stringy as well. The bugs may feast on the flowers, and the super tomatoes may prove to be hard and tasteless.

But one thing is sure: Not one tomato seed will sprout into a stalk of corn; not one bean will produce tomatoes. The kinds of seeds you plant are the same kinds you will pick; the harvest was determined when the seed was produced.

God says it this way: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7). If you plant corn, you will reap corn—not tomatoes.

You understand that, but do you know that what you sow in your life you will as certainly reap? Can you hear evil, read evil, think evil or watch evil without it becoming a part of you? “They that plow iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8).

There is more: “He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8).

Life everlasting! Not death, not corruption, but life—everlasting life!

Every little seed that sprouts into a living plant is a marvel, but the greatest marvel is how a little seed of faith, planted securely by the grace of God, will sprout and grow and bear the “fruit of the Spirit,” which is “love, joy, peace” and at last—life everlasting! What a harvest!

What will your harvest be?

"Something That Had to Be Done"

It was midsummer, and very hot. In the steamy afternoon the whole apartment complex seemed to be dozing, but Damon, 13, and Emerson, 11, were playing ball in spite of the heat. Inside, in a first-floor apartment, five small children sat or sprawled on the floor, their eyes fixed on the make-believe world of the television screen. Seeing them so absorbed, their mother slipped out to the neighborhood store. She “would only be gone a minute!”

Outside, the ball game came to a sudden stop. Was that smoke pouring out of a window? The boys hesitated only long enough to be sure, and then the game was forgotten as they rushed into the apartment.

There were the five children, still transfixed by the unreal world they watched while smoke and fire spread toward them.

“Those kids didn’t even know there was smoke in the room,” said Emerson. “They just sat there watching television. The fire was coming right at the baby. I grabbed her and ran outside.”

The apartment was destroyed, but the two boys got all the children outside, uninjured.

Later Emerson said, “I was scared something was going to blow up...but I guess I thought more of their lives than I did my own.”

And Damon said, “It was just something that had to be done.”

The boys ran a terrible risk, but they saved the children without losing their own lives. Over two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus gave His life to save us. He came to a world absorbed in its own plans and pleasures, to people that had forgotten God and were ignoring the destruction that was coming on the earth.

There was no hope that people would see the danger and flee from the wrath to come. Satan, the God of this world, had “blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ...should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

As Damon said, “It had to be done”-if the children were to be saved.

The Lord Jesus had to come, had to die, and had to rise again—if we were to live.

And He did! “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:6, 8).

There was no other way.

"To Be or Not to Be?"

“To be, or not to be: That is the question” is probably the most famous line ever written by an English playwright. The line was spoken by Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, in the play by the same name. The line sounds awesome, is easy to remember, and is very dramatic.

But here is the rub with this famous line. There is absolutely no question about ever ending our state of “being.” “Not to be” is simply not an option. This is so because, although God created our souls in TIME, He destined them for ETERNITY. In other words, we will never cease to exist. Our souls will continue “to be” on past the grave.

For sinful men and women to share His goodness forever, God opened His heart and sent His Son into the world. For three and a half years Jesus Christ, God’s Son, did works of incredible power: The sick were healed, the blind saw, and even the dead were raised. No man, before or since, did such works of grace and kindness. When He spoke, people said, No man ever spoke like this! His many miracles proved He was someone very special!

Then He was taken and nailed to a cross. A Roman soldier thrust a spear into His side. The blood which flowed from His side has the power to wash a sinner clean and make him fit for heaven. “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanses us from all sin.” They laid the body of the Lord Jesus in a grave where He remained for three days before He arose from the dead. A short time later He ascended into heaven to take His place at God’s right hand.

He is the only Redeemer our poor souls will ever know. Looking for redemption, or even for answers to life’s most pressing questions, apart from Him, will only lead to despair.

Our existence doesn’t end at death. Our bodies may crumble into the dust, but our souls will remain forever. The Lord Jesus hung on the cross so that sinners deserving God’s wrath might have a way to spend eternity with Him in heaven. Only through faith in Him can we escape the darkness, remorse and horrors of hell.

Will you believe on the Lord Jesus as Savior? As the endless ages of eternity roll on, you will never regret that you trusted in Christ. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).

The Toddler, the Train, and Robert Mohr

Tila Jo Marshall was on her hands and knees planting spring flowers in her yard about a block from the railroad tracks. She thought her toddler, 19-month-old Emily, was in the backyard playing. She heard the rumbling of the Norfolk Southern freight train coming down the tracks. The train ran on a schedule as regular as clockwork. Usually the engineer sounded a short blast with his horn when he approached the town as a way of saying, “Look out, the Norfolk Southern is coming through.”

She lifted her head to listen. Sure enough, she heard the short blast, but then the short blast was followed by long blasts and the harsh grating of train wheels braking. Something was wrong! The engineer kept blasting his horn; something must be on the tracks. A shiver ran down her spine. She ran to the backyard to see her children. Her little son was playing there, but where was Emily...?

The big, green locomotive, weighing 130 tons and pulling 96 loaded freight cars, lumbered down the tracks. The train had slowed to 24 miles per hour to pass through the town of Lafayette, Indiana. Engineer Rod Lindley was at the controls of the powerful train when he saw an object on the tracks in the distance. He thought it was a stray dog and let go another blast of his horn to scare it off the track. But it wasn’t a dog. As he got about a block away, the object stood up and he saw the shape of a small child. The child stood stock still in the middle of the tracks.

Engineer Lindley lunged for the emergency brakes and pulled the lever hard. He knew the brakes would never stop the train before hitting the child, but it would slow the train and maybe some miracle might happen in the extra seconds to save the child’s life. Pulling the emergency brakes was a terrible risk too. The strain might cause the entire train to slip off the tracks and derail. He kept blasting the horn, hoping someone might see the child in time.

Standing in the control compartment of the locomotive was a conductor named Robert Mohr. He too saw the small girl and knew there was not a second to spare. He climbed out the cabin door of the moving train and stepped onto a narrow walkway at the side of the locomotive. He ran down the walkway toward the front of the fifty-foot car. The air rushed past his face. The train, braking hard, had slowed to ten miles an hour. The toddler was still on the tracks; she had moved slightly to the edge, but she was still in the path of the train.

The conductor sped down a short flight of steps at the front of the locomotive and then jumped out onto the grill at the front of the train. One slip and it would have cost him his life, but he had no time to think about that danger. One foot found a toehold at the bottom of the grill on a slim piece of steel. His hands grabbed another piece of steel above his head. He swung his free leg out in order to get ready to kick. He timed the kick and swung his foot gently forward. The kick caught the little girl’s body and sent her tumbling to the side.

Did she make it? It had all happened so fast Robert Mohr couldn’t tell if the train had missed the child. His heart was pounding like the pistons of an engine as he pulled himself to an upright position and then off the moving train. He ran along the tracks to the little girl. The train continued to pass him as he ran. There she was—lying all bunched up in the gravel beside the tracks. A wave of relief washed over him as he heard her terrified crying. If she was crying she must be still alive! Bending over he saw that she was bleeding from a gash on the side of her head, but he could see no other injury. Quickly he felt for broken bones; finding none he picked her up and cradled her in his arms.

Little Emily’s mother ran up to the scene a few moments later, weeping hysterically. Paramedics also arrived and took Emily to the hospital. The doctors there closed up the gash with twenty stitches and kept her in the hospital for overnight observation. The next morning she was allowed to go home.

Emily’s life was saved by the brave action of Robert Mohr, who risked his own life to save hers. Later he received a medal from the office of the President of the United States for “outstanding bravery.” Risking his own life to save the life of someone he didn’t know, he certainly deserved it!

Do you know the One who came from heaven, at great cost to Himself, and made a way that we might be saved? He is the Lord Jesus Christ, and He deserves all the honor every human heart can give Him. He is the One who made the world and all things in it. He saw that mankind had gone astray into sin, and He also knew that because they loved sin and darkness they were headed for judgment. This judgment is nothing less than death and everlasting separation from God. He knew there was no way they could avoid sin’s awful penalty if left to themselves. So the Creator of the universe humbled Himself and became a man and went all the way to the cross where He died for us.

“Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:8).

Through His death on the cross every man or woman, boy or girl on the face of the earth may be saved if they believe on His name: “Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15).

Love made the Lord Jesus willing to die on the cross for sinners. Greater love you could never find. Can’t you find it in your heart to love Him in return?

Tomorrow

“Tomorrow,” he promised his conscience,

“Tomorrow, I mean to believe;

Tomorrow I’ll think as I ought to;

Tomorrow the Savior receive;

Tomorrow I’ll sever the shackles

That hold me from heaven away”;

But ever his conscience repeated

One word and that only, “Today!”

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow―

Thus day after day it went on;

Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow―

Till youth like a vision was gone;

Till age and his passions had written

The message of fate on his brow;

And forth from the shadows came Death,

With the pitiless syllable: “Now!”

Put off your repentance until tomorrow, and you will have a day more to repent of and a day less to do it in or it may be too late. “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:15).

MAY

Trapped in a Coal Mine

Deep in the coal mine the two Meng brothers were encouraged as they listened to the sound of digging above them. It was late August 2007, and the two men were still alive in one of China’s dangerous coal mines after the tunnels had collapsed. The illegal mine had no ventilation or emergency exits and, if it hadn’t been for the encouraging sound of rescuers above them, the two brothers would have lost all hope.

Their cell phone lit up their dilemma faintly for two days, but then they were in complete darkness. At the same time the sound of digging stopped. Officials above ground had decided that there was no chance the two brothers had survived, so they halted all rescue work.

The Meng brothers needed a rescuer—but nobody was going to come. Their families grieved helplessly for them now, while down below the two men sobbed through cracked lips as they were racked by hunger pains.

I am so glad that in the darkness of our sinful situation God has not given us up. He knows where you are and what you are doing. He has seen your distress of mind. Perhaps a little light from the Bible has given you a glimpse of the great need you have for a Rescuer. I well remember how the light of God’s Word made me realize my sinfulness and the impossibility of saving myself. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

The two brothers dug three horizontal tunnels, but they stopped because they were afraid they might be going in the wrong direction. Then they started digging a vertical tunnel, taking turns because it was too narrow for two to work at one time. They clawed their way through seventy feet of rock and coal, and ate coal to make themselves feel full.

After nearly six days underground they finally emerged, hardly able to crawl in their weakness. Of course, they surprised everyone and were rushed to a hospital for needed treatment.

You can’t work your way to God, but you can surrender to Him where you are. Maybe you are trying to be a better person. That is good, but it won’t purchase salvation. Maybe you intend to pray more or join a church. These actions also cannot purchase salvation.

Would it surprise you to hear that the Bible says that the price of salvation is paid? The Lord Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” He paid the price. He died for my sin. My friend, the Lord Jesus is a Savior. He wants to save you where you are, no matter how deep down in distress or problems you are. Will you come to Him? He’s right there near you, wherever you are.

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

True Love Goes to Jail

The headline told the whole story. The young wife had been caught dealing in drugs, arrested, tried and sentenced to a prison term. Then “True Love” stepped in. Her husband asked to be allowed to serve her term in jail so that she could go free.

The judge said that it was the first time in his sixteen years on the bench that he had seen such an agreement. He said, “He didn’t have to go to jail. He volunteered to go!”

What a picture this is of Another who came in love to us to bear our sentence and set us free! “He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6).

This is true love, the truest, the greatest love that ever was or ever will be. How we should respond with love and gratitude for that great sacrifice!

But what happened to the young wife? The husband looked forward, when the prison term was up, to a happy reunion with the wife for whom he had given up so much. But he learned that she “would not be waiting for him when he got out.”

What a heartbreaking disappointment! How could she reject the love that had saved her from the penalty of the law she had broken?

We can condemn her ingratitude, but have we been as guilty? The Lord Jesus Christ bore all the penalty of our sin when He died on the cross, when “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” that we might go free. What response have we made? What thanks have we given?

“What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord” (Psa. 116:12-13).

Think of it! All He asks in return for His great sacrifice is that we should accept it. What love could ever equal this?

Twice Saved

MISSING PART

presence of all the watch was to fall on my knees and humbly and heartily thank God that my life was brought back from the dead. No one mocked; the men all stood in respectful silence, feeling that I was doing that which it was right to do.

The Lord had said, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me” (Psa. 50:15). And since then I have always prayed; my prayers have been to the One who was out upon the wild waters that night with me and whose loving, pitying hand snatched me from water and from fire and has led me safely home. I was not saved only from the sea that night; I was saved from going into the “blackness of darkness forever,” and death has no more terrors for me. I know my Savior!

“Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord” (Psa. 130:1).

“They called upon the Lord, and He answered them” (Psa. 99:6).

The Warehouse

The warehouse worker looked doubtfully up at the stacked shelves above him, at their thin supports, at the narrow aisles where he stood between them, and thought of the possibilities of an accident. He did a little mental arithmetic: “So many pounds to a case, so many cases to a shelf, so many shelves overhead” and hurriedly printed and posted a sign for the other workers:

“Be careful! Do not bump! 100,000 pounds overhead.”

The next morning his sign was still in place, but with additions: “Wow!” “Man, that’s heavy!” And finally: “So what?”

Death overhead, but: “So what?”

The street preacher stood on the street corner, warning of a greater danger hanging over the world we know, the judgment of God and the eternal night to follow. He offered his tracts with the good news of salvation freely offered to all who would accept God’s great offer. What were the reactions? “No, thank you.” “Not tonight.” And again, “So what?”

Death and judgment ahead, but still, “So what?”

No, the shelves haven’t fallen—yet.

And the Day of Judgment for the world has not come-yet, but it absolutely will. The workers in the warehouse may just escape if the stacks come cascading down, but who can escape death and judgment? “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

Was It Luck?

A tornado had swirled through the little town, leaving death and destruction behind it.

“We had a lucky escape,” said one homeowner as he surveyed the small amount of damage his property had received.

“We’re to be congratulated,” said his neighbor, who was also relatively untouched.

“Oh, yes!” added a third. “Just a little closer and my home would have been demolished.”

While the relieved neighbors congratulated themselves on their good “luck,” could it really have been just a blind chance that saved their houses?

NO! Behind all the miraculous escapes human nature is only too willing to boast of, there is a God who loves them and wishes them eternal blessing. Preservation from danger is just one of the many ways which God uses to speak to men.

If you have had such an experience, do not be deceived by the suggestion of the devil as to “chance” or “luck” or “fate.” If God Himself in His infinite mercy has spared your life and perhaps your home, then let that mercy be acknowledged and God be thanked.

This raises another question: Why has God spared you? Why did He allow your soul to tremble at the thought of being within a split second of eternity, and yet brought back from it? Why then, you say, does God use so drastic a manner of speaking to me? Is He demanding something from me?

NO, again! If God preserved your life, it is that He might secure your precious, everlasting soul; it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. This is still the day of His grace, and He waits that He may be gracious. God alone knows the shortness of the time that remains. Take your true place as a repentant sinner before God and by putting your trust and faith in Jesus, claim the eternal blessing that God is still so freely offering.

“The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm” (Nah. 1:3).

Watch Out for the Deer!

The doe and her two fawns stood at the edge of the highway, wanting to go across but afraid to do so, seeing so much traffic. There were six lanes of traffic, and the little deer family had somehow gotten into the median. They had to cross traffic sometime, sooner or later, to get to safety. We had heard on the CB radio (“Watch out for the deer!”) that they were there on the edge of the highway, and to be ready in case they started to cross.

Just about the time the doe was ready to make a run for it, a big truck roared past, and the noise made her hesitate. Could her fawns run as quickly as she could? Were they ready to go, or were they hesitating, getting one last mouthful of grass? They were not worried, although they would be in deadly danger if their mother did try to cross the interstate.

What about you? Are you trusting in someone or something that is not really safe? In Psa. 40, we read, “Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust.” And, “The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust” (Psa. 18:2).

Traffic swept everyone on, and I do not know if the doe and her fawns did dart out into traffic. I would like to think that all the drivers saw the situation and stopped, letting the mother and her babies cross to the other side and safer ground. I love animals and hate to think that one or more were killed because they did not realize their dangerous course.

Have you considered your course? Are you headed in a pathway of self-destruction and heartache? Come to the Lord Jesus! He is waiting for you to confess that you are a sinner, and let Him wash away your sins and come into your heart.

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

“Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

Water

We are hearing a lot about water these days. Pure fresh water is harder and harder to obtain. Wells must be drilled deeper, restrictions on use are more severe, and drought conditions seem to be increasing almost all around the globe.

What can we do about it? All kinds of suggestions are made, from simple, little ones like “harvesting” water from rooftops by funneling rain into rain barrels (a really good idea in great grandpa’s day, but he didn’t have to provide for modern cities and industries and agriculture) to grandiose schemes that look wildly impossible.

A prince of Saudi Arabia was once reported to be in consultation with a French firm with a plan to bring fresh water to the Persian Gulf by towing icebergs to the Red Sea Port of Jidda. When the bergs reached Jidda, they would be cut up and allowed to melt in floating aqueducts. Then the fresh water would be pumped into onshore lines.

The backers of the scheme figured that “trains” of icebergs could bring back fresh water at “economical prices.” The distances the icebergs would travel would be about 5,700 miles—a long way for a tug! The cost would be in billions, and it would also wreak environmental havoc.

Just as water is absolutely necessary to physical life, so is the “water of life” necessary to our souls. But who could estimate the distance that Jesus, the Son of God, came to save—and make the gospel available to us?

“As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country” (Prov. 25:25). Today the “good news,” the gospel, carries the good news of salvation to the four corners of the earth, and thousands are drinking at the stream.

But will the river of God’s grace, the water of salvation, flow on forever? No. God has said, “My Spirit shall not always strive with man” (Gen. 6:3).

Oh, come to the One who cries to you even now: “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink” (John 7:37).

Do not delay, or when the day of salvation ends with the coming of the Lord, you will be left behind.

I heard the voice of Jesus say,

“Behold, I freely give,

The living water-thirsty one,

Stoop down, and drink, and live.”

I came to Jesus, and I drank

Of that life-giving stream;

My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,

And now I live in Him!

The Way of Heaven

Joy! and your Lord joys with you;

Weep! and He sees your tears;

You may drink of His love all measure above;

Not a cry of distress but He hears.

Sing! and the heavens echo it;

Sigh! it is caught by His ear;

For you are His treasure wherein He finds pleasure,

So cast on Him all your care.

Feast! for you may live by Him;

Fast! He’ll fill up the void;

Ten thousand times lovely, His glory’s above me;

His banner is love unalloyed.

OCTOBER

The Way of the World

Laugh! and the world laughs with you;

Weep! and you weep alone;

For this sad old earth must borrow its mirth;

It has troubles enough of its own.

Sing! and the hills will echo it;

Sigh! and it’s lost on the air;

For they want full measure of all your pleasure,

But nobody wants your care.

Feast! and your halls are crowded;

Fast! and they’ll pass you by;

Succeed! and give! and they’ll let you live;

Fail! and they’ll let you die.

E.W.W.

What Is Your Life Worth?

Two young men entered a fishing tackle store in a small town in eastern Washington. They walked down aisles loaded with fishing poles. After a brief search, they found what they were looking for: shelves of brightly colored flies of every imaginable color and shape. They discussed the merits of different types and selected a good quantity of them. They didn’t want to run out in the long day of fly fishing that they had planned.

They had taken the flies to the counter to pay for them, when one of the young men, Mark, saw a bright orange PFD hanging from the wall. PFD stands for personal flotation device, and this one looked like an ordinary fishing vest. It wasn’t bulky like normal life preservers; in order to inflate the vest in an emergency, one had only to pull a little ripcord, and presto! The device would fill with air and expand.

Mark looked at the price tag. He said to his friend, “Travis, you think I should buy this? It isn’t cheap.”

Travis thought for a moment. He knew his friend didn’t know how to swim. He replied, “It might cost a whole lot, but what is your life worth?”

The terse reply made sense, and Mark purchased the PFD.

Do you know that when a person sees trouble ahead and takes steps to handle it before it arrives, this is called prudence? Mark was prudent when he purchased the PFD. God wants us all to be prudent when it comes to the salvation of our souls. He wants us to look ahead to the time when we must face Him and give an account for our sins. This will be a time of trouble indeed, because He must bring every sinner into judgment. Heb. 9:27 reads, “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” God cannot wink at sin and pretend it never happened. He cannot sweep it under a carpet and forget all about it. As God, He must judge it and see that it gets its just reward. What is the just reward for sin? Rom. 6:23 reads, “The wages of sin is death.”

Death always includes the idea of separation. Physical death is the separation of body and soul. Spiritual death is the separation of God and a soul forever. Souls who die with their sins unforgiven will be separated from God’s presence and sent to the place of darkness and continual sorrow called hell.

Are you ready to face God with your sins? Of course not! God wants you to exercise prudence before that time of judgment arrives. He wants you to take steps right now to avoid it. He wants you to repent of your sins and to take the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. Here is prudence. Here is sound judgment. Here is the way to escape death and hell.

Travis encouraged Mark to purchase the PFD by asking, “What is your life worth?”

Let me encourage you to look to the Lord Jesus for salvation by asking, “What is your soul worth?” Is hanging on to sinful pleasures for a few more weary years worth an eternity of suffering in hell? Is keeping the good opinion of godless friends by never coming to Christ worth losing your soul in the blackness of hell? Even if you were to gain the whole world, would it be worth losing your soul?

Mark made the right decision when he bought the PFD. The day after the purchase, the two men were floating down the Yakima River on an inflatable raft, fly fishing as they drifted along with the current. They dropped anchor near their favorite fishing hole but the anchor wasn’t heavy enough to hold them in place. It dragged along the bottom for a while before it suddenly snagged on some object under the water.

The sudden jerk on the anchor line tilted the raft until it was nearly vertical, and Mark was thrown into the cold mountain water. The current moved him swiftly downstream. Then he disappeared beneath the surface. For thirty seconds he was under water.

In his panic he altogether forgot that he was wearing his new PFD. He was thinking he was going to drown, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to prevent it. Then he remembered his new vest. He pulled the ripcord, and it immediately inflated, taking him right to the surface. He coughed up the water he had swallowed, and then gulped in a deep, life-giving breath of air. He was alive!

To his surprise he found his fishing rod was still in his hand. He floated downstream for a short distance until another fisherman pulled him ashore.

Someday each one of us must pass out of this world. Those who have turned to God in repentance and faith will find incredible relief and joy as they are buoyed up on the dark waters of death and find heaven on the other side. Those who reject Christ in this life will sink beneath death’s dark water, never to surface to life and happiness again. Do the wise and prudent thing and accept Christ today! You will never regret it!

"What Must I Do to Be Saved?"

Nothing, either great or small,

Nothing, sinner, no;

Jesus did it, did it all,

Long, long ago.

When He from His lofty throne

Came to earth to die,

Everything was fully done;

Listen to His cry―

“IT IS FINISHED!” Yes, indeed!

Finished every jot;

Sinner, this is all you need;

Tell me, is it not?

Weary, working, burdened one,

Wherefore toil you so?

Cease your doing; all was done

Long, long ago.

Cast your deadly “doing” down-

Down at Jesus’ feet;

Stand “IN HIM,” in Him alone,

Gloriously complete.

What the World Needs Now Is Love

“What the world needs now is love.” The headline in two-inch-high letters proclaimed it and then went on to list twenty ways to “love the world”: recycle newspapers, car pool, plant a tree...you know the list. It is well to practice thrift and save resources, but is that the only kind of love the world needs?

There is no doubt the world needs love; sorrow, grief, tragedy and heartbreak are all around us. Daily we see such sadness and desperation that it can hardly be borne. Even our young people, who, we think, should be enjoying happy, carefree childhood and youth, are becoming so confused and depressed that they are in some cases taking that last desperate and irrevocable step: suicide. Lonely, discouraged and despairing, they turn away from life, from light, from love.

There is love, real, true, everlasting love, and Jesus Christ came to bring it 2000 years ago. There has been love for the world of humanity in all the wonderful works of God for us. His power shows in all of His beautiful creation, but that cannot compare with His wonderful love in sending the Lord Jesus Christ into the world to save all who will accept that love.

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

A man was walking along the street when he saw ahead of him a friend, an old Christian missionary. He was about to catch up with him when he noticed the old man was talking to himself, so he stayed to listen. He heard the old missionary saying, “God so loved the world...” Then he would pause, shake his head and start over again. “God so loved the world...” Again the pause, the wondering head shake. He had been preaching God’s love for most of his life, and yet he could not get beyond the miracle of love that embraced this poor world.

The whole verse says, “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). Believe it! Receive it! And learn what love really is!

When the Savior Came My Way

You ask me why I love the Lord;

Well, friend, just let me say

My life was not worth living

Till the Savior came my way.

You say I lose so much in life;

Yes, friend, praise God, I do!

I lose the sin and sorrow

Which was all I ever knew.

I lose the days spent seeking joy,

The long nights full of tears;

I lose the heavy burdens

Which I carried through the years.

But, friend, I would not have them back

For all that you could pay!

My life was not worth living

Till the Savior came my way.

AUGUST

The Woman of Tel Aviv

There was a woman in Tel Aviv who was a very tidy housekeeper. Everything about her house had to be very neat and clean, and when she noticed a junk dealer driving with his truck in her neighborhood, she hurried to sell two old mattresses to him.

Fifteen minutes later she remembered that her life’s savings were hidden in one of the mattresses! She dashed to the police, who found the dealer, slit open the mattress, and pulled out 1300 Israeli pounds in cash, besides gold rings and other jewelry.

While the actions of this thoughtless woman make news, and people everywhere may shake their heads at her carelessness, they fail to notice a far greater mistake that takes place every day.

We refer to the millions who sell their priceless souls for nothing-like Esau who sold his birthright for a “morsel of meat,” never to regain it.

The Tel Aviv woman succeeded in retrieving her earthly fortune from the old mattress she had sold for a song, but when death closes the door upon a lost soul, it is lost forever.

“What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” is the question asked by the Lord Jesus. Or, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Be warned! Perhaps “this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” Come to the Savior now, while there is time.

To lose your wealth is much,

To lose your health is more;

To lose your soul is such a

loss

As nothing can restore.

Would You Be Happy in Heaven?

People who don’t know the Lord Jesus as their Savior will say that “they want to go to heaven.” A little thought would convince them that they are wrong. They dread the thought of meeting that holy God. They are not even happy in the company of a Christian who is living a consistent Christian life; they much prefer the company of those, like themselves, who are absorbed in the business and pleasures of this world.

No unsaved person would ever be happy in heaven. He would be there, fully conscious of all his sins, exposed by the light and glory of that place. He could not stand the searching light of the presence of a holy God, but would find no place to hide from Him.

How is it with you? Have you received the Lord Jesus as your own Savior? Have your sins been washed away by Him through His atoning death? If your answer is “Yes,” you are fully fitted for heaven and will be one of that happy company there.

If you must say “No” to those questions, then you cannot enter heaven, for Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” You are lost, and your destiny is the blackness of darkness forever.

But it is not too late! Our time, this little moment of time we are living in, is called the day of God’s grace, and He pleads with you to change your doom as a lost sinner to the happy life in heaven, His home, as a true child of God.

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

“TODAY if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Heb. 3:15).

You Are Being Watched

Are you comfortable with that? You may have been “caught on camera” a dozen or more times today without even noticing it. Enter an airport, a post office, a hospital, an office building, a school—even a school (especially a school!)—and you will probably have been electronically noticed and remembered.

How about sending an e-mail, using the Internet, or just making a call on your cell phone—is someone keeping track? Are you comfortable with that?

It is scary enough to think about that, but how small that is compared to the all-seeing eye of God! There is a God who sees and knows all about you, about me, about every one of us. He is the God who knows even the thoughts and intentions of your heart, “neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do”!

All the electronic marvels of today or the future will never equal that—or frame a defense against it. Are you comfortable with that?

Let’s look at the other side: “The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death....The Lord, He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name” (Psa. 33:18-21).

Comfortable? Absolutely! To trust in Him is the most comfortable feeling on earth. No, beyond a feeling, it is a fact, an almost unbelievable fact that the eternal God, the maker of heaven and earth, has a special care for every individual who believes in Him. “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).

Think of it, if you can! We become sons of God—eternally secure—and are “kept by the power of God.” We may worry and fret, but if we have believed in and received Him, our very human fears and doubts can change nothing. We are safe, we are kept—we are loved!

Yes, we are very comfortable with this!

Echoes of Grace: 2008

Table of Contents

The "Accident"

All Sin

Are We Free?

Are We Going up or Down?

Are You Sleeping?

Be Prepared!

Choose

Christ Is Risen

Crave

Crocodile!

Did the Alarm Go off?

Direction for Life

Disintegrating Promises

Do You Know?

Do You Need Sleeping Pills?

Excuses

Five Minutes After I Die

The Fog and Smoke on Interstate 4

The Funeral

The Good Samaritan

The Gospel Through Geometry

The Great Eastern

He Is Risen

"Help"

The Hiker in the Desert

Hold-up!

A Horrible Pit

"I Want to Meet the Person Who Saved Me."

"In Jesus"

Is God Punishing Me?

"It's Dark"

Like a Mother Hen

Magellan Names the Pacific

None but Christ Can Satisfy

Only One Way

Out of the Darkness, Into the Light

Road Rage

The Rolls Royce of the Piano World

The Safety Net

Sandler & the Sleepers

Seed Time

"Something That Had to Be Done"

"To Be or Not to Be?"

The Toddler, the Train, and Robert Mohr

Tomorrow

Trapped in a Coal Mine

True Love Goes to Jail

Twice Saved

The Warehouse

Was It Luck?

Watch Out for the Deer!

Water

The Way of Heaven

The Way of the World

What Is Your Life Worth?

"What Must I Do to Be Saved?"

What the World Needs Now Is Love

When the Savior Came My Way

The Woman of Tel Aviv

Would You Be Happy in Heaven?

You Are Being Watched