Echoes of Grace: 2015

James Angleton’s desk was deeply buried in folders, case files and paperwork and bathed in the glow of a single lamp. He dug deeply into the material, constantly searching for answers, hunting for truth, yearning to know. He spent a decade hunting for the elusive truth he so desperately wanted, looking for the truth he’d been paid to find. The biggest vault in his office contained 40,000 files in a tall set of huge racks stretching 40 feet down the room. None of the records were computerized. Angleton didn’t trust the information out of his sight. Hidden somewhere in the haze of his ever-present cigarette smoke lay answers to his fervent quest — or did they?

James Angleton, born in Idaho and raised in Ohio, had spent time at a private school in England where he rubbed shoulders with the upper crust. He rarely talked about his middle name — apparently it illuminated a past he wanted to forget. Instead, he aspired to live like the British gentry. After attending Yale and Harvard Law School, he began training to sniff out double agents — people posing as friendly to U.S. interests but actually working for foreign governments. At the end of World War II, his interests began to focus on spotting Communist infiltrators. Before long, he found himself at the head of the CIA counter-intelligence efforts and working closely with his British friends. He developed a close friendship with a British MI6 agent in 1949 — a good Cambridge University man, in fact. They spent long lunch hours together gossiping, swapping agency stories and trying to out-drink each other. James Angleton’s handsome British friend, born, bred and formed in wealth and privilege, had been recruited, trained and working for Soviet intelligence for nearly 20 years.

When James found out the truth about his friend, he wouldn’t believe it — he couldn’t have been so wrong. When the proof finally reached the front page of every newspaper, James would never fully trust again. He never let go of his suspicions. Maybe you’ve been burned, betrayed, fooled and are not ready to trust again. So many have been deceived, but the worst effects seem to come when the relationship was deep — a mother, father, uncle, wife or religious leader. Maybe like James you want to retreat, watch with cynicism and never get caught again. Your brain carries a deep locked vault with racks of thousands of suspicions. Each little lift of the eyebrow, tone of voice and chance remark is triple-checked for meaning. Who can you trust? Not me. I’ve lied before. But there’s someone who hasn’t. Not once. Not ever. Peter wrote about Jesus Christ, “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). Guile, deceit, shaded truth and getting someone to believe a lie are pretty destructive — but everyone’s done it, right? Remember the time you hurriedly switched from the sports page back to the spreadsheet when your boss approached? After all, you had been working really hard and had your project done already. No need to leave the boss with the “wrong” impression. What about the time you looked your husband in the eye and told him you were late because you’d gotten stuck in traffic? True enough but not the whole truth. There was more he just didn’t need to know. What did Peter know about Jesus that you don’t?

In 1963 when Angleton’s British friend fled to Moscow and James could no longer deny the truth that his friend was a Soviet spy, he doubled down in his search for double-agents. As someone said, “Angleton’s behavior would increasingly reflect his deep mistrust of nearly everyone he encountered.” But we all have to put our trust somewhere, and James put his faith in Anatoliy Golitsyn, a Soviet defector who was passing on secrets to the CIA. Golitsyn insisted that all who came after him would be liars looking to discredit him. He had other grand claims about Soviet and Chinese relations. Some of what he said was true and verified — just enough for Angleton to put his full trust in Golitsyn. Golitsyn pointed to the secret hiding place of listening devices in the American Embassy in Moscow and to three different Soviet double agents in Canada and England. Someone who knew so much could be trusted! Couldn’t they?

Yuri Nosenko, a self-proclaimed KGB operations officer, defected and passed on a pile of information. Some of it was verifiable; some of it wasn’t. But Nosenko made one big “mistake.” He contradicted some of the things Golitsyn was telling James Angleton, and Angleton became convinced that Nosenko was a double agent. When Nosenko was brought to the U.S. in 1964, Angleton had him illegally imprisoned in an attic room near Washington D.C. There he was interrogated non-stop in a relentless search for truth. He was verbally abused by his guards. He was lied to. He was kept in a tiny room with no heat or air conditioning. He was cut off from a toothbrush and toothpaste. His teeth began to fall out. Despite interrogations that kept him in his chair for 24 hours while being hammered with questions, Nosenko stuck to his story.

Did Angleton give up? There was no way he was going to be fooled. He had a special concrete house built and transferred Nosenko to a 100-square-foot room with no pillow. The lights in the room were never turned off. He had very little to eat but instead was forced to smell the good food his guards ate nearby. When he made himself a little chess set out of threads, the guards found and destroyed it. He was given a “confession” to sign and pestered for hours to sign it. Finally he picked it up, grabbed a pen and scribbled on it. The guards looked down to see, not the words “Yuri Nosenko,” but instead “Not True.”

Corroboration of Nosenko’s information continued to trickle in. Did the mounting facts that Nosenko had told the truth change Angleton’s mind? Instead Angleton said “that Nosenko’s superhuman stamina only proved his point that the KGB was insidious and extraordinarily skilled in the art of espionage.” Sometimes the truth is just plain uncomfortable. It strikes at the heart of our cynicism. It challenges deeply held beliefs. It forces us to recognize that we just might be wrong.

So why believe what Peter said? Peter spent three and a half years traveling with Jesus, eating with Him, listening to Him speak, watching how he treated children, seeing Him in a glorious display of personal beauty, listening when He was put on trial. Peter also got burned by a fake, taken in by Judas like his other friends were. So who did he trust? Here’s what Peter said: “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened [made alive] by the Spirit” (1 Peter 3:18). He trusted Jesus Christ, not just as an honest and good man, but as One who had died for him. Peter calls Jesus “just” and himself an “unjust” one for whom Jesus died. Then he talks about how Jesus Christ had come back to life in the power of God’s Spirit. That’s a pretty ringing endorsement from a man who was willing to die — and in fact did die — for what he believed.

Eventually Angleton’s suspicions caught up with him. He illegally spied on U.S. citizens and was forced from his job. Few doubted Angleton’s loyalty to his country, but his deep fear of being fooled steered him in the wrong direction. He tried to bribe the reporter that was about to expose him but failed. The old British friend who duped Angleton was Kim Philby, perhaps the most famous Soviet double agent ever, and it was this incident that led James Angleton far from truth into a world of fear and distrust. He had been wrong — sincerely wrong. As he lay dying of lung cancer in May of 1987, one of the last coherent things he said to his wife was “I’ve made so many mistakes.”

Perhaps your search for truth has led you down some blind alleys. Maybe you’ve been “burned” by religious people. I encourage you to consider the words of Jesus Christ, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). You have to put your trust somewhere. Incidentally, James Jesus Angleton was ashamed of his middle name. It had been given to him by his Mexican mother. Perhaps the name quietly condemned many of his daily habits. Are you ashamed of or hiding from that name, the name of Jesus? Are you convinced of your own rightness and doubtful of His? Pick up His Word, the Bible. Read it with an open, eager heart. Search it and test its claims. It will show you that deep inside you have your own hidden secrets — we all have them. It will expose your rebellion against God, that He calls sin. But it will also show you His love for you. It will display to you “God, that cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). You won’t have to come to the end of your life and say, “I’ve made so many mistakes.” Instead, you’ll be able to say with full confidence, “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

You can find out a lot more about the certainty found in the Bible in The Soldier’s Book.

The Soldier's Book

We were stationed at the front lines under constant threat from the enemy. I was walking near my foxhole one day when I saw a young soldier — even younger than I — lying on the ground reading a book.

“What’s that you’re reading?” I asked.

“My Bible,” he answered.

“Oh,” I said, “I’ve read that Book! It never did me any good. Give it up, man, give it up.”

“Listen to what I’m reading,” he answered quietly. “‘Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.’ This is from John 14, and isn’t it wonderful? No, I could never give it up!”

I walked away, deeply impressed by his sincerity.

A few minutes later a bomb burst near the place I had just left — the spot where I had talked to my fellow soldier. Wondering if he was safe, I ran back as soon as the dust had cleared. He lay there motionless — dead. I saw, partly hidden by his jacket, his treasured Bible.

With a feeling of awe, I picked it up and put it in my pocket. A Book that could give a look of joy like the one I’d seen on his face a few minutes before was worth another reading — a thoughtful, respectful reading. I felt sure that the young solider had gone to that home that he’d been reading about just before the explosion.

In a very different frame of mind than before, I read that dead soldier’s Bible. Over and over I read that fourteenth chapter of John. As I read in it that Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” I began to understand the way of salvation. I found the same Saviour that the soldier had known and loved, and his well-worn Bible became my own constant companion and comfort.

Why was this the most wonderful event in my life? Because it brought me to believe on Jesus and in God’s wonderful Word — the Bible. It’s God’s message to me and it’s His message to you. It has given me the instructions I need to prepare me for a better and happier place when I leave this world, and it gives me daily help, comfort and courage to face the many difficulties on the way to the Father’s house.

Find out more of the certainty that simply trusting God brings by reading Ever Since the Wedding Day.

Ever Since the Wedding Day

“How long have you been lying here, Mrs. Brown?”

The old woman turned slowly on her bed to face her visitor. “Oh, a long time,” she replied, “and I don’t think I’ll ever get out again.”

“Are you a Christian?” asked the visitor.

“I’m trying to be one,” she answered hesitantly.

Her friend was thoughtful for a moment, and then she asked, “Do you ever try to be Mrs. Brown?”

“No! Of course not! I am Mrs. Brown.”

“How long have you been Mrs. Brown?”

“Ever since the wedding day,” she answered in surprise.

“And haven’t you any doubt about it?”

“None whatever,” she answered promptly. Holding up her hand she added, “I have known that I was Mrs. Brown ever since that ring was put on my hand.”

“That’s just how it is with me,” the visitor said. “I don’t try to be a Christian, but I know I am one and that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ ever since I put out an empty hand and received Him as my Saviour. It is not by anything that I have ever done or ever could do that I gained everlasting life, but simply by believing God’s record ‘that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us’ (Romans 5:8). It was just necessary to receive Jesus as my Saviour and believe that ‘being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him’ (Romans 5:9).”

It was a new light to the poor woman who had been struggling with doubt and trying to earn that everlasting life, which God won’t sell to anyone, but which He freely gives to whosoever believeth.

I'll Go to Him

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 sin and shame,

I’ll go to HIM, because His name

Above all names — is JESUS.

The Alaskan

Down the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, over a dangerous section at the mouth of the river where the big rush of water from the river meets the incoming ocean waves, and out onto the great Pacific Ocean steamed the Alaskan. The weather was fair and the barometer steady as the ship turned south. The voyage of several hundred miles to San Francisco, California, where the ship was to be refitted, had a peaceful beginning.

The Alaskan was a ship called a “side wheeler.” It had masts for sailing, but it also had two giant paddle wheels on both sides midships for its main type of propulsion. The paddle wheels were driven by a big steam engine. The boat was long, had low sides, had many portholes in the numerous passenger cabins, and had a shallow draft. It was designed for transporting people and goods up and down the Columbia River or the protected inland waters of Puget Sound.

The Alaskan was designed for a specific purpose — carrying passengers and freight on inland seas. It was not designed to travel the open ocean, especially not the rough seas of the Pacific Northwest. You, too, were designed for a purpose, and that purpose is to know and love God. You were not designed to go through life without Him. Your heart was designed to find its rest in Him, your mouth to proclaim His goodness, and your mind to understand His truths; your soul was created to love all things that He loves and to hunger and thirst after righteousness. The reason there is so much emptiness and bitterness in the world today is because so many people are attempting to make the passage through life without God.

Nature abhors a vacuum, and when people don’t give God the place He deserves in their hearts, the empty vacuum of their life fills up pretty fast with sin. Sinners might experience a period of “smooth sailing” in their lives, but sooner rather than later they run into storms.

After steaming several hours down the coast, a giant storm blew in. Big waves and high winds battered the Alaskan. The storm tossed and turned the Alaskan so much that its paddle wheels were often out of the water and the ship could make very little headway. The superstructure of the ship — the part of the ship built above decks — was smashed by a wave and much of it washed overboard. Water ran down into the hold of the ship through cracks in the damaged ship. Crew members desperately stuffed mattresses into cracks to stem the water rushing in. They thought if they could just buy some precious time, the storm might let up and they could make it to a safe harbor. But despite their best attempts, the mattresses didn’t stop the water from pouring in.

Do you know that going through this life without a relationship with God is full of pain and travail? The Bible says, “The way of transgressors is hard” (Proverbs 13:15). Multitudes of troubled souls who are alive today can attest to that fact. They realize something is wrong, but instead of coming to the Lord Jesus who can give them true relief, they try to apply quick fixes to keep the pain and emptiness out of their lives. They try to stuff all sorts of things like alcohol, immorality, drug use, greed, vanity and other similar things into the cracks in their lives, only to find that none of these things can keep out the inrush of emptiness and pain. Listen, there is a better way. That way is to repent of your sins and place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a quick fix, because it requires a change in the depths of the heart.

The captain of the Alaskan knew the ship was in danger because the hold was filling up with water. The four lifeboats were lowered over the side and most of the crew members got into them. The lifeboats were connected one to another and to the Alaskan by a tow line. Five of the crew, including the captain, the chief engineer and the steward, remained onboard in a brave attempt to keep the Alaskan afloat. Just as the crew abandoned the ship, the captain saw what appeared to be a tugboat pulling a barge behind it, attached by a long cable. The sight of the distant tug gave the captain a little ray of hope. He loaded his flare gun and shot two green flares high into the air. When they exploded, they illuminated the stormy clouds with a green light for several seconds. The flares were the universal signal that a ship was in distress. However, the tug, pulling a heavy barge, could only proceed very slowly. Men were working on the barge, and cutting it loose would have almost certainly meant their death. The tugboat captain changed course and headed towards the flares, but it would be hours before he could get there. Along the sparsely populated coast, it is doubtful anyone else saw the distress signal.

Are you in distress because of sin? Are you wondering if there is anyone in the world you can turn to for help? Then wonder no more. There is One who will always hear. Call out to the “Sinner’s Friend” — the One who gave His life on the cross that He might save you. Thank God there has never been a sinner in the history of the world who has ever sent up a heartfelt prayer to God for salvation who wasn’t heard. There has never been a sinner who was willing to turn away from their sins that He didn’t see and pardon. The moment there is the spark of genuine faith in the heart, the Lord Jesus will draw near to save them.

The men were in a dangerous predicament. They were far from shore in a raging sea, with winds and currents overpowering them, and no hope of immediate help. Danger was everywhere, and they didn’t have many choices remaining.

Perhaps you feel like you are running out of options or choices in life, too. When people run headlong into sin, their choices in life become limited. Sin exercises a narrowing, debilitating influence over the lives of those who are taken up by it. It limits their spiritual vision, making them dull of heart or even spiritually blind. In their blindness they may have great difficulty seeing the possibility that God loves them and is ready to receive them, if they turn back to Him. Please know that as long as you are alive, you may turn to the Saviour of sinners and make Him your choice. No matter how godless the life a person may have lived, if they fall at the Saviour’s feet, He will receive them to Himself.

Life is so uncertain. Don’t put off the decision to accept Christ until a more favorable moment. If you wait, it may become forever too late. Once this life is over, the opportunity to choose Christ will be forever closed. At death, God will confirm each person in the decision they made in this life, to either believe in or reject His Son. Those who have believed on Jesus Christ will go on loving Him for all eternity in heaven. Those who have rejected the message of His grace will be confirmed in the terrible hardness of their hearts and sent away to the outer darkness of hell.

For several hours the ship took a terrible beating in the storm. When it looked like it must sink at any moment, the captain cut the line to the lifeboats and let them drift away. There now was no way for the men onboard to get off the ship. About an hour and a half later, the Alaskan sunk to the bottom of the sea. Three of the four lifeboats made it to safety. The fourth one perished at sea. Of the five men who remained on board, three of them survived by clinging to floating debris for over 30 hours, until the tugboat searching for survivors found them. News accounts later reported 21 men died in the disaster.

The ill-fated Alaskan now sits in a watery grave at the bottom of the Pacific, along with many other ships that will never be raised or refitted for action. These ships may not be raised, but not so every person who has lived and died since the dawn of time. They will be raised again. Bodies will be made anew, and souls and bodies will be reunited. The righteous will be raised to a state of incorruptibility. They will be raised in their bodies to enjoy the glories of heaven forever. The Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25). What a wonderful refitting of our mortal bodies the resurrection will be for all those who believe! They need refitting because our current mortal bodies couldn’t handle the joys of heaven.

Not so the wicked and those who have rejected God’s grace. They too will be raised again. Their bodies and souls will be reunited to stand before God for judgment. Because they refused God’s offer of grace, they will be banned for all eternity from His presence.

God doesn’t want any to perish but all to come to Him and receive the gift of eternal life. Only by coming to Christ will your heart ever find the rest it craves. Don’t go through life a stranger to His love and grace, but come to Him by faith, He who said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). When you safely reach the shores of heaven, you will never be sorry you did!

A good weather forecast fooled the crew of the Alaskan. But we’ve received Advance Warning of a coming storm. Read on for the details.

Advance Warning

If you are in the path of a tornado, you want to know about it as soon as possible so that you can seek appropriate shelter. Fortunately, meteorologists have gotten better at predicting these destructive storms that drop down from the sky and create swaths of destruction. In 1980, tornadoes were reported four minutes after they touched down, on the average. In 2013, due to Doppler Radar and high-powered computers, tornadoes were usually identified 13 minutes before they touched the ground. This difference of just 17 minutes is crucial. The ability to give more of an advanced warning has saved many lives.

If you live in the central or eastern United States, chances are you have first-hand, personal knowledge of these storms, and you respect and fear them.

What if you had advance warning right now that a dangerous tornado was headed your way? What would you do? The reasonable course of action would be to take steps to assure your safety. Well, there is a different type of tornado or whirlwind headed in your direction, and the reasonable thing to do is to seek safety. A storm of judgment, so fierce that it is compared to a whirlwind, is headed towards souls who have never repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. If they don’t humble themselves and take warning from God’s Word, this tornado is sure to disrupt their lives, obliterating everything they hold dear.

Jeremiah 30:23 reads, “Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.” And Romans 1:18 reads, “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”

God may let those who distance themselves from Him through sin and unbelief go on for a time, as if all is well, in the hope that they come to their senses and return to Him. But sooner or later, if they go on in their sins, His anger, fury and wrath will fall on them. It will certainly catch up to them. “Anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil” (Romans 2:9). Talking about the future the Bible says, “These shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46).

The thing to do is not to act as if this storm will never arrive, but rather to seek shelter now. The lowest part of a basement is a good place to take shelter from a tornado. But the only place to take shelter from the judgment to come is the Saviour of sinners. This is because no fault nor sin was ever found in Him. Yet, to save lost souls, He became sin for them and paid its awful debt while He hung on the cross. Because of His suffering on the cross, all who come to Him by faith will receive the forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

The Bible gives advance warning about the judgment that, like a whirlwind, will fall on sinners. Will you seek shelter in the Lord Jesus that you might be saved?

We really don’t know when our “storm” is coming. Being prepared, as Sudden Death shows, is essential.

Sudden Death

Manning Village is on the windward side of St. Vincent, and, as a result of torrential rains in December of 2013, a landslide roared down the mountain, crushing homes. Joy, who I know very well, loves the Lord, along with her two sons. She, her two boys and her husband lived in Manning Village in a home clinging to the side of the mountain. The night of the storm she and the two boys were in the front of their small house as the rain came down in torrents and lightning flashed continually for several hours. Joy’s husband was in the bedroom at the back of the house facing the mountain. Suddenly there was a great rumble as dirt, trees and rock came cascading down on their home. Several days later I visited Joy, who was by that time staying with her sister in a nearby village. She told us that the back of the home was completely flattened, and her husband probably died instantly. The saddest part of the story is that her husband wasn’t saved. He certainly had heard the gospel from his wife and sons. I with others had visited that family on a number of occasions and always left some gospel tracts. There were gospel verse texts hanging on the wall, but as far as we know Joy’s husband had no time for Christ. It’s essential that you are like Joy and not her husband. “Prepare to meet thy God” (Amos 4:12).

Pompeii

Pompeii was a beautiful seaside city in southern Italy. It was situated between Mt. Vesuvius and the Mediterranean Sea. In the year A.D. 79, this region was a wealthy, prosperous part of the Roman Empire.

On the morning of August 24, there was a sharp increase in seismic activity. Several times the earth rumbled like an upset stomach under the townspeople’s feet. Also, a good deal more smoke than usual issued out of the top of Mt. Vesuvius. The danger of living so close to an active volcano is that the people grow accustomed to smoke and rumblings. Most townspeople did not think that the increase in activity was anything to worry about. They continued on with their daily routines as if all was well.

We live in an age where people are failing to take warning too. For 2000 years, the gospel has been preached, telling of a Saviour who came from heaven and died on Calvary’s cross. The good news is that all who sincerely believe in the Son of God will be saved. The flip side of the good news is that those who never repent of their sins are under God’s wrath. If they pass out of this world unsaved, they will pass into the darkness of a lost eternity. Perhaps you have grown accustomed to hearing the warnings about the judgment to come. Perhaps you have convinced yourself that a place like hell couldn’t possibly exist. That’s a dangerous way to live.

On the morning of August 24, life went on as usual. The sun shone brightly. Some went to work. Others went shopping in the market. But early in the afternoon, with a tremendous explosion, Mt. Vesuvius erupted. With incredible force and energy, the top of the mountain dissolved into tiny bits and pieces and millions of tons of hot ash, poisonous gasses and pumice from deep inside the earth shot straight up into the sky, reaching a height of over 12 miles. Within minutes, pieces of pumice, or small volcanic rock, started to fall like rain on Pompeii. People in the streets took shelter in the doorways of stone buildings. What a choice the people had to make! Should they immediately flee the city with ash and pumice falling from the sky? Or should they seek shelter in the strong buildings?

When we come to realize that God is angry with our sin, we are presented with a similar choice. Do we flee from God’s wrath against sin? Or do we try to take shelter in places that cannot provide it? The Bible says to “flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7). “Flee” means to hurry as fast as possible. How we “flee” is to come by faith to the Saviour of sinners. On the cross, He gave His life as the one sacrifice for sin that God will ever accept. Take the warnings about sin seriously and flee to the Saviour! He is the sinner’s only refuge.

Many Pompeiians held something over their heads to protect them and fled to the harbor where they crowded onto boats and put out to sea. Others stayed behind seeking safety in the strong walls of their homes. But the safety they found in Pompeii was only temporary. Pompeii was a doomed city. In a short while, it was to become a city of destruction.

The world, in large part, has rejected the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and can be looked at as one great city of destruction. Individuals still have time to see their danger and flee out of it, but sadly, the multitudes that are living at ease as if they have nothing to worry about will be doomed. Don’t go on with this world that is headed for certain judgment. Make a clean break with it. Renounce its sins. Instead, place your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and begin to live a radically different life that is characterized by faith, love and obedience to God. Christ is the sinner’s only hope.

An eyewitness account of the eruption has been passed down through the ages. Pliny the Younger wrote:

“Ashes now fall upon us though as yet not in great quantity. I looked behind me; gross darkness pressed upon our rear and came rolling over the land after us like a torrent. ... Darkness overspread us like a room that is shut up and the lamp is put out. You could hear the shrieks of women, the crying of children, and the shouting of men; some were seeking their children, others their parents, others their wives or husbands ... many lifting up their hands ... imagining that eternal night was come upon the world.”

The total darkness that descended on the city probably was caused when the giant cloud of ash and gasses cooled and began to fall back to earth, covering Pompeii like an impenetrable blanket.

The darkness that rolled over Pompeii is suggestive of the darkness of hell that will engulf lost sinners. The Lord Jesus spoke more about hell than any other person in the Bible. In Matthew 24, He said, “Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30). In this verse, He calls hell the “outer darkness.” A word that is synonymous with “outer” is “utter.” “Utter darkness” conveys the thought of complete, total and absolute absence of light. If the idea of being lost in the darkness of hell doesn’t scare you, it should, because hell is a real place and utter darkness is its real condition.

Unfortunately, those trapped in the terrible darkness of Pompeii would never leave it alive. They would lie down in their homes, in the streets, or in their barns, and they would die. For long hours, the volcano continued to erupt and belch out a tremendous amount of ash. So much ash fell on the town that the entire town, buildings and all, was buried under it.

Life as we know it will not last forever. Someday will be your last on earth. It might even be a day when the sun is shining warmly. When you pass out of this world, will you pass into the eternal darkness of hell to hear other lost souls around you weeping in misery? Or will you enter heaven to be with the One who died and rose again, that your sins might be forgiven? Joyous sounds will only be heard in heaven. Crying and sorrow form no part of the place. In heaven there will not be the slightest agony, but only imperturbable peace and delight. Throughout the endless ages, nothing will ever disrupt the perfect joy and delight of souls in heaven. I want to be there, and I hope you do too.

Where you spend eternity depends on what you do with Christ. Don’t waste another second before you take to heart God’s warnings about sin. Flee to take Christ as your Saviour, and start down the road that leads to life everlasting!

Now is your opportunity. Find out about people unashamed to ask for help in Should You Make a Distress Call?

Should You Make a Distress Call?

Twenty-six people aboard a charter fishing boat were enjoying their time of fishing when their vessel hit a rock, which put a bowling-ball-size hole in the hull. They were 15 miles south of San Diego when their vessel began taking on water. They were going down.

Realizing the trouble they were in, someone sent out a Mayday signal, the international signal for a distress call. The call for help was heard, prompting the Coast Guard and San Diego harbor police to respond with mighty rescue efforts. All 26 people were saved.

These people could be grateful because someone did the right thing when they realized they were in trouble. Someone made a distress call to the people who were both willing and able to save them.

The Bible has many stories of people who made distress calls when they found themselves in trouble. When they called on the Lord God to save them, He heard their cry for help and saved them. David is a good example. When he faced trouble with enemies who wanted to kill him, he sent out a distress signal to God through prayer. “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple” (Psalm 18:6).

What about you? If you’re living a life without Christ, then you are in trouble, and you need help. Your ship is sinking, and your life is going down. Your trouble exists because of sin and its penalty, which is eternal separation from God.

Perhaps you feel you’re okay and that you see no threat or imminent danger, but the Bible says we’re all sinners (Romans 6:23). This means that no one is perfect and measures up to God’s standards. Unless the sin problem is properly addressed, then you will face judgment with severe consequences (Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:15).

The only way to take care of sin is by believing on Christ alone to rescue you. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). God loves you and He wants you to be rescued. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

God is ready and eager to save you. He’s waiting for you to take action. He is listening for your distress call. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Make your call today, and let Him rush to your rescue. Trust in Him alone for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Then you will know the joy of having a brand new life.

People who don’t bother to come to Christ may not get another chance. Consider that possibility seriously in Her Fatal Choice.

Her Fatal Choice

Betty Heath was dying, but she would not believe she was near eternity. She kept expecting to get better and wouldn’t give up hope of life. When urged to come to Christ, she would only say, “I have to think about it.”

A Christian friend determined to tell her the truth. He came and found that her Bible had been thrown aside. Gasping for breath as she lay dying, she was still trying to drown the voice of her conscience.

The Christian said gently, “Betty, don’t you know that you are very near the end of your life? Has no one told you the truth, that the doctor has said your case is hopeless? You will meet God in a few hours!”

A despairing look came into her eyes. “Are you sure what you’ve told me is true?”

“Yes, I’m sorry, but it’s true,” he answered sadly, “and I came with a message of God’s love for the last time. Will you accept Christ now?”

Her final answer was given: “Not tonight.”

The next day she was gone. She died with bitter curses against God and herself. “Lost!” she cried. “Too late! I have thrown away my opportunity!”

Don’t wait. A deathbed is a difficult place for repentance. Come today! It may be too late tomorrow.

Come to Christ with your heavy heart, and He will give you rest. Come with your troubled, burdened conscience, and He will give you peace. He says, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

There is no true rest to be found on earth. Friends fail us, and the world cannot satisfy us. The harp of life has broken strings on it. Then come to Jesus and come now. He offers forgiveness, rest and peace.

Do you want a happy home in heaven? You must come as a bankrupt sinner to a rich and giving Christ, as one having nothing to the One who possesses all, as one guilty and lost to the One who pardons and forgives.

You must come with eyes of faith to see the living Saviour, with ears of faith to hear His welcome to you, with a heart of faith to believe unto righteousness and with lips of faith to confess His name.

“If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

The Divine Warning

There shall come a night of such wild affright,

As none beside shall know:

When the heaven shall shake, and the wide earth quake

In its last and deepest woe!

The children of day are summoned away:

Left are the children of night —

Sealed is their doom, for there’s no more room:

Filled are the mansions of light!

What an awful cry will rend the sky:

“Open to us, O Lord!”

O ye sinners, yet, ere the door be shut,

Let that cry in faith be heard.

And then, in that night of such wild affright

As none beside shall know,

Ye shall calmly rest on HIS tender breast,

Far off from the world’s last woe.

What a Dumb Way to Die!

Surrounded by huge twisted rocks, sagebrush and West Texas wilderness the cherry red helicopter lifted off the ground, tilted its rotors forward and struggled to rise into the air. The weight of Jeff and his four companions along with a full tank of fuel dragged it back toward earth. Then the tail section struck a scrubby tree and the helicopter staggered, caught one of its big toes in a mound of earth and lurched toward a creek. What final thoughts flashed through the founder of Amazon.com Jeff Bezos’ mind as the sounds of ripping metal filled his ears and flying dirt and rushing water filled his vision?

Few people have Jeff’s long-range vision, tenacity and relentless drive. In 1994 the Princeton graduate came across a shocking statistic: Users of the Internet were growing at a rate of 2300% a year. Working as a financial analyst with a healthy wage, Jeff spotted a unique opportunity. While traveling cross-country with his wife, he schemed up a way to turn the exploding new information pipeline into a tool to transform retailing operations worldwide. He’d start with selling books, since they were easy to store and ship, and then he’d grow from there into worldwide retail domination. Bezos worked on a “regret minimization” framework to guide his thoughts. He knew that if he stayed with his relatively comfortable career, he’d forever regret not taking this huge chance to win the future of retailing.

SIGHTS SET ON THE FUTURE

Moving cross-country to be near a major book distribution warehouse, working out of the garage in his house, using a desk made from an old door and with a website domain name of Relentless.com, Bezos set his sights on the future. In 1999, only five years removed from dragging books up the basement stairs and running them to the post office in his Chevy Blazer, Bezos’ company was already worth $1,000,000,000 but faced a difficult decision. They already planned on spending $240,000,000 to build four massive fulfillment warehouses, but what about an extra $60,000,000 for one more that all the critics and many top executives deemed unnecessary? But long-range thinkers don’t timidly bank on only the present, do they? Not only did they build 5 that year, but Amazon.com now has nearly 100 such centers and is steadily building more. One of the latest of these, opened in Maryland in September 2014, has 2.4 million square feet. That would house more than 1,500 identical replicas of my house — Jeff certainly doesn’t think small.

Not only does he not think small, but he also doesn’t think slowly. Amazon has a patent on technology that ships a product toward you before you know you want it. Their computers are busy watching what you’re shopping for, what you’ve already bought and how you’re likely to behave in the future. Armed with that knowledge, Amazon now can ship something you want to the nearest warehouse to your home even before you click the Buy button. And when you order, there are even jokes about Amazon’s Yesterday Shipping where a package arrives on your doorstep the day before you actually order. While that may be a joke, if you live in Manhattan, you may now select 1-hour shipping for a modest fee of $8. If you’re willing to wait two hours, you can get your product without any extra delivery charge.

While waiting 2 or 3 days to have your order filled seems like yesterday’s thinking, so does having UPS or the Postal Service drop the order off at your door. Just before Thanksgiving in 2013, Amazon announced it was testing the delivery of its packages using remote control flying drones. Regulatory bodies like the FAA in the U.S. haven’t signed off on the concept yet, but that doesn’t mean Amazon hasn’t gotten up to the eighth generation of its designs. Jeff seems to be looking past the slow-moving government bodies to the day when the little whirring rotors will whizz around your neighborhood. After all, who wants to wait in a day when books, music and movies are in our hands minutes after being discovered on Amazon.com? That sounds like impressive future vision to me. But is all that exciting focus on instant gratification subtly hiding something far more critical from your sight and Jeff’s?

A LONG-RANGE VISION

Jeff Bezos is famous for putting customers first in every discussion of company plans. In fact, his strategy sessions often include an empty chair which represents the Amazon customer. No long-range plan can leave the room if it hasn’t passed the inspection of the mythical customer in the empty chair. Jeff has a clear idea of what that person wants. That makes me wonder whether you have an “empty chair” at your table and a long-range vision as well. Do you relentlessly pursue the interests of the person you can’t see whose interests are absolutely essential to your long-term future? What place does Jesus Christ have in your life? None? An occasional Sunday service or a bowed head at a friend’s funeral? A general acknowledgement as a good Man who lived a long time ago? An occasional passionate reference when you stub your toe? Only a willingly ignorant person would deny the need to pay close attention to what God has to say. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 53:1).

Bezos has been known to shred executives that came unprepared to defend that unseen customer. According to Jeff Bezos, all of Amazon’s decisions flow from these fundamentals. In order to build durable plans, Bezos says, “What’s not going to change over the next 10 years is incredibly important. Ten years from now, customers will still want vast selection, low prices and fast, accurate delivery. In fact, it is impossible to imagine a world 10 years from now where customers will say, I love Amazon, but I wish your prices would be higher.” Jeff’s company turns 21 This year. If it were a male human, it wouldn’t even be able to get reasonable car insurance yet. His long term vision hasn’t yet built a fully mature adult. In fact, Jeff Bezos still refers to this as Day One of the Internet era. But he needs to see past the exciting changes in retailing, past his human customers and deeper into the future.

WHAT DOES GOD WANT?

So what does that unseen person you’re supposed to serve — God — want? Amazon paws through mountains of data to figure out what its unseen customer wants, but you don’t need to let it get that complicated. God’s given us a book, the Bible, with answers that even a small child could understand to the most fundamental long-range questions that can be asked. There may be a mountain of questions tumbling around in your head, but some of the deepest ones have simple answers that aren’t going to change in 10 years, a lifetime or an eternity. There’s a loving God who has a personal interest in you. Your relationship with Him has been ruptured by your sin. There’s a way back to Him through the Lord Jesus Christ’s suffering for sin on a cross. If you fail to deal with that fundamental reality due to shortsighted focus, your long-term prospects are incredibly sad. Open God’s Word and see what He has to say. You’ll be amazed to see what He sees in you. You’ll also be amazed to discover what it does to your long-term vision. “The word of God is [living], and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the 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” (Hebrews 4:12-13).

“LIFE ETERNAL”

When Jeff Bezos’ cherry red helicopter spun out of control and rolled into the wilderness creek, did his life flash before him? Were there grand thoughts about what he was about to miss out on in life? With his signature monstrous laugh, Jeff answers that no, “I thought, what a dumb way to die!” Did he learn anything from his near-death moment? At least now he avoids riding in helicopters. But what about opening up his eyes to look past his very short-term life and into the unimaginably long eternity? I can find no indication that Jeff Bezos now views God as the important One he must serve. What about you? What lies after your death? If you allow the fog of daily life to block your vision about eternity, I could only agree with Jeff, “What a dumb way to die!” But if you open your heart to Jesus, the Son of God, you’ll discover “this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). Will you regret taking the short-term view and turning down “eternal life”?

Read about how to have your long-term vision restored in Staring Down Blindness.

Staring Down Blindness

My grandmother lost her sight to an inherited eye condition. I have a clear memory of her bumping into things as she slowly moved about my mother’s kitchen. Then my father also began to lose his sight. Eventually he had a corneal transplant. He had to wait several months first for a tissue match and then through a full year of healing.

Now I stared through my worsening eyes at the two options facing me — have a corneal transplant or go blind. Not much of a choice!

As my vision became cloudier, I realized what a precious gift sight is. The Lord Jesus opened the eyes of the blind on several occasions while He was here on earth. Matthew 9:28-30 gives one example: “Jesus ... then touched ... their eyes ... and their eyes were opened.” Jesus gave sight to the blind, yes, but more importantly He came to open our spiritual eyes to “see” our own sinful condition and our need for a Saviour. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

Modern medicine has improved the procedure since my father had surgery. Now only the diseased part of my eye would need to be removed to be replaced by healthy tissue from a donor’s eye. The tissues wouldn’t even need to be matched, and healing would take only a few weeks. So I went to the surgeon and submitted myself to the eye operation. It was done in a morning, and I was home by noon.

But let’s not forget the donor. Someone had to die to provide me with the healthy tissue I needed to restore my eyesight. Sobering thought! And Someone had to die to remove our sins — the Lord Jesus. He became our “donor” when He gave “Himself a ransom for all” (1 Timothy 2:6). It was His sacrifice, His bloodshed, that allows us to be free forever from the penalty of our sins, a lost eternity in the lake of fire. And what must we do to have this salvation? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

It’s amazing how wonderful it was to be able to see clearly again and to have the threat of total blindness all but removed. But this is nothing compared to what the heavenly Father through His Son, the Lord Jesus, gives us when “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ... [to] know the hope of His calling ... the riches of the glory of His inheritance ... and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe” (Ephesians 1:18-19).

Confess your sins to the Lord Jesus today, believe on Him and be saved! “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

The beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ can fill the eyes with tears and wipe them dry too. See how in Eyes Full of Tears.

Eyes Full of Tears

On a recent plane flight out of Chicago, I was reading a Christian book and taking notes when the lady next to me asked me if I was preparing for a sermon. “I see you’re reading Leviticus,” she said. I explained that I wasn’t preparing a sermon but just making notes on parts that were important to me and that I wanted to remember.

“You seem to know a little about the Bible,” I said, noting that she recognized Leviticus as one of the books of the Bible. It was not long before she gave me a short history of her life and religious upbringing, which left out many of the wonderful details of God’s love and the real value of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary.

As we began to discuss how God in His love gave His only begotten Son to save lost sinners and that He died, taking the wrath of God for the sins of lost sinners like me, I could see the tears begin to puddle in her eyes.

“What a wonderful story! I could start bawling right now, but I don’t want to embarrass you,” she said, as she waved her hand in front of her face to calm herself down. She was clearly touched by what we had been talking about. I told her that Jesus died not only for her present sins but for every sin she had ever committed, but that it could only be true of her if she accepted Him as her very own Saviour. She said that she believed in Jesus but had never heard these wonderful truths before and that now she had such peace in hearing them.

We talked for about an hour and shared many more thoughts from the Scriptures that she had never heard before and that gave her both joy and peace. It was beautiful to see the grace of God at work, as both the Word of God and the Spirit of God brought the full meaning of the work of Christ into a searching heart. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

Have, at least figuratively, tears of repentance filled your eyes? God promises that in the short term “He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness” (Psalm 107:9). In the long run He says, “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Revelation 21:4).

The Crash of the Costa Concordia

The cruise ship Costa Concordia, over three football fields long from bow to stern, glowed with lights. Some of its 4,252 occupants strolled the decks, others found the elegant dining rooms and ordered meals, while some checked out the schedules for the live performances of the evening. Its promoters called the ship “a floating temple of entertainment.” Passengers looked across the calm seas to the hilly Italian countryside. For about four hours the ship sailed across the Mediterranean, cruising peacefully at 20 miles per hour.

Carelessness

Captain Francesco Schettino thought he would provide the passengers an extra treat by sailing by the island of Giglio. He had firsthand knowledge of the waters around the island. But he grew careless and took his attention away from navigation. Suddenly he looked up and saw that the ship was passing dangerously close to the rocky island. Immediately he ordered the helmsman to turn the ship. This careless move made the ship swing about in the water and brought the back part of the hull even closer to the island.

Passengers in the dining rooms heard the grinding of the ship’s metal hull against the rock, and they felt a jolt as the rock cut deep into the ship. Chandeliers overhead swung wildly, plates fell off tables, waiters carrying food stumbled to the floor. Near pandemonium developed as passengers rushed to the upper decks. Sea water rushed into the engine room, swamping the engine and electric generators and putting them out of commission. The ship had hit an underwater rock, cutting a 230-foot-long gash in the hull. Within minutes, the head engineer notified the captain that the ship had been damaged beyond repair. Emergency lights switched on throughout the ship. The seawater entering the hull caused the ship to lean 20 degrees to one side. The ship, carried forward by its momentum, drifted away from the island.

The luxurious Costa Concordia was in trouble because of carelessness and negligence on the part of the captain. The captain had the solemn responsibility to protect the welfare of every person on his ship. You too have a solemn responsibility to look out for the welfare of your own soul. If you are living without faith in the Saviour, you are sailing in dangerous seas. Wake up to the danger of living without the Saviour and cry out for the Lord Jesus to save you! “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

Confusion, Panic and Lies

Frantic passengers made their way through the dark corridors to the lifeboat stations. Every second wasted could make the difference between life and death for the men and women on board. But Captain Schettino didn’t give the order to abandon ship. If he had given the order immediately after the crash, many lives might have been saved. Perhaps he was in a state of denial about what had happened.

Captain Schettino didn’t even call the Coast Guard and ask for assistance. The Coast Guard ended up contacting him. Worried passengers used their cell phones to call relatives on shore and tell them about the crash. These relatives then called the police, who in turn called the Coast Guard. The Italian Coast Guard immediately contacted the Costa Concordia by radio. Unfortunately the conversation went like this:

“Do you have any problems on board?”

“Yes, we have an electrical blackout.”

“We had a relative of a passenger say things were falling on passengers’ heads. Are you in serious trouble?”

“No, negative. We are working to fix an electrical problem.”

In another deception, the captain sent a high-ranking crew member with a message of false hope to the passengers who were crowded together by one of the Lifeboat Disembarkation Stations. This crew member, in a calm and reassuring voice, gesturing with her hands to make her points, emphatically told the passengers, “We have an announcement from the captain. We kindly ask you to return to your cabins, or, if you prefer, you can stay in the lounges. Once we are finished addressing the electrical problems, everything will be fine. That is why we have these emergency lights. Everything is under control. If you want to stay here that is fine, but I ask you to kindly return to your cabins and stay calm.” A short time later many of those cabins would become death traps when the ship rolled on its side and filled with seawater.

Lies, Truth and You

Everything on board the Costa Concordia was in a state of confusion. Do you know that this world is in a state of confusion? Romans 5:12 reads, “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.” Since that time death and sin have wreaked havoc. Who can make sense of all the evil that has been committed in human history? Who can make sense of the evil even in their own heart? Why the stubbornness, the hate, the willingness to see others hurt? Why the insubordination to authority, the envy, the cowardice, the dishonesty? Because of sin, men and women are headed to eternal death and separation from God. It is not a future God wants for the people He made and loves. He wants us to come back to Him and look to Him for salvation. He says He “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). To save us, God sent His Son into the world. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The gospel proclaims a full and free salvation offered as a gift to all. “By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). But many won’t receive this gift. Since the Garden of Eden, the lie has been whispered, “Ye shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). And since that time deceit and misinformation has made people think they aren’t so bad as to need the forgiveness of sins and salvation. Many think that they should try to live as comfortably as possible and not to trouble themselves about spiritual things which they can’t really understand anyway. This lie takes many different forms and shapes and has many willing accomplices. Many people leave God entirely out of their lives. Will you fall for this misinformation? Or will you open up your eyes and see your need of the Saviour who can forgive sins and bring you to heaven?

Running From Responsibility

The momentum of the ship carried it about a mile away from the island. At this point Captain Schettino could no longer deny that the ship was sinking. He turned the ship back towards the island with the hopes of running it aground in the mouth of the harbor, but when he got close, he saw his plan wouldn’t work. The mouth of the harbor was far too small. So he turned the ship parallel to the island and ran it aground on a rock shelf in about forty feet of water. In a terrifying moment, the giant ship rolled over on its side, and a good portion of the interior of the ship flooded with seawater.

Life boats became difficult or impossible to launch. Captain Schettino, fearing for the safety of his own life, abandoned ship, leaving hundreds of stranded passengers behind him. In the harshest language possible, the headquarters of the cruise line called the captain and ordered him to get back onto the ship and see to the safety of his passengers. He refused.

How vast the difference between Captain Schettino and the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of abandoning us when we needed Him the most, the Lord Jesus endured the pain and agony of the cross so that we might be saved.

How Will it all End?

A desperate rescue operation lasted for hours, and the search for missing passengers trapped in the ship continued for days. In the end 32 lives were lost in the accident. The Costa Concordia, one of the most beautiful ships ever built, remained on the rock ledge partially submerged for over two years before being refloated, towed to a shipyard, and cut up for scrap.

What will be your end? Will you end up lost and ruined in hell or will you trust Christ for salvation? He is completely worthy of your trust. Those who trust Him will never be disappointed. “Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed” (Romans 10:11). Won’t you trust Him for salvation before another day goes by?

Captain Schettino abandoned hundreds while Jesus Christ showed His devoted love to the whole world. But does Jesus Christ have a personal interest in one individual — you? Find out more in The Amazing Rescue.

The Amazing Rescue

When the U.S. Navy rescued a captain held hostage by four Somali pirates, it left an Italian boat owner astounded.

Captain Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama had been taken hostage on April 8, 2009, and held on a lifeboat for several days. He tried to escape on his own but was soon recaptured. The U.S. Navy rapidly converged on the area. The guided missile destroyer USS Bainbridge with its crew of 270 and the frigate USS Halyburton with about 200 crew members arrived on the scene. A team of FBI hostage negotiators on board began working for the release of Captain Phillips. In the air overhead, P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft patrolled the skies. On the sea other small vessels lay just out of pirate gun range. As negotiations deteriorated, the amphibious assault ship, the USS Boxer, capable of carrying nearly 2,000 Marines moved into the area and Navy SEAL Team 6 parachuted into the water near the Halyburton. With an operation led by the Navy SEALs, the United States took swift action on April 12 and set the captain free.

Silvio Bartoletti, owner of a shipping company, marveled at the rescue, the Associated Press reported. Bartoletti said, “I’m marveling that they’d do that for one American.”

What God Has Done for You

Indeed, it was truly amazing to see the extent to which the United States would go for one person. This story, however, illustrates an event that is even more amazing: God, the creator of the universe, loved us so much that He took drastic measures and went through an extraordinary process to save us from our sins.

The Lord Jesus Christ said, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?” (Luke 15:4). God cares about the world, but He also cares about individuals. Christ said, “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

The Bible, God’s Word, declares that without God, we are all sinners (Romans 3:23). We, like the captain, are held hostage by the powers of darkness. We need to be rescued. We might try on our own to free ourselves through religion and good works. But such efforts would be worthless. Why? Because Christ is the only One who can free us. “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved [or rescued]” (Acts 4:12).

Christ, the Son of God, left heaven and all of its glory so He could come to this earth as a man and die for our sins. He rose from the dead to set us free and give us everlasting life. He did all of this for you, me and the entire world. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Because of His love and His great acts of kindness, nobody has to remain a hostage. What about you? Are you still in bondage? If so, then please turn to the Lord Jesus Christ today! He has promised that anyone who calls on His name will be rescued (Romans 10:13). Those who trust in Him will not be disappointed (Romans 10:11).

Call on Him today and experience real freedom. Only then will you know the joy of being saved and the thrill of having an amazing rescue.

When you reach out for the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, you aren’t looking for a religious experience but a living, personal Saviour. Find more in From Guru to Gospel Preacher.

From Guru to Gospel Preacher

Yoga, meditation, Eastern religions — Steve was deeply involved with all of them. He organized and taught classes in meditation and yoga to other college students. But there was something missing.

He finally decided to leave school to give all his time to studying the Eastern writings, as well as going more and more into yoga and “deep meditation.” A year later he still had to admit that something was missing. “I realized I still didn’t know God personally,” he said. “I believed in Him deeply, but I didn’t really know Him.”

Just then he received a message from a former classmate, saying, “Jesus is the only way!” How different from his religious search! Steve spent the whole day praying that if that were true, God would show him. When he went out that evening, he stood by the roadside with his thumb out for a ride, asking God to show him if he should turn to Jesus.

A van pulled over. Steve climbed in and was barely seated when the driver turned to him and said, “Have you ever asked Jesus to be your Lord and Saviour?”

Steve didn’t even hesitate. “No,” he answered, “but I’m ready to!” He immediately asked the Lord Jesus to come into his heart.

Steve says, “That experience has proved the reality. With Him living in my heart, I KNOW He is the way.”

He went back to his yoga classes and told all his students that “Mohammed didn’t die for our sins. Buddha never got out of the grave, but Jesus is the living Saviour who was crucified for us.”

No longer is “something missing” in Steve’s life. The Lord Jesus has filled that emptiness, and his time is spent in telling others of the One who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6).

What Are the Wild Waves Saying?

What are the wild waves saying?

They splash along the shore;

Their voice is full of meaning,

So listen — and adore.

They say the wicked, sinning,

Are like the troubled sea;

They restless are and raging;

At rest they cannot be.

They say the Lord is gracious,

For in the sea He casts

The sins of the believer;

He cancels all the past.

They speak of Christ the Saviour,

On whom the billows fell,

When on the cross He suffered

To save our souls from hell.

They sing of time that’s coming

When sea shall be no more,

When Christ shall come in glory,

So listen — and adore.

Just 1 Cup of Coffee

On February 25, 1955, a young mother in San Francisco made her doctor swear he would keep her secret. He would never reveal her name to anyone who came asking for the mother of the child he’d just delivered. But about thirty years later he was dying and the secret burned in him. He sat down to write a letter. The doctor finished his letter and then died with it still on his desk.

Steve Jobs, billionaire founder of Apple and mastermind behind the iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and so much more, was put up for adoption at birth. His adoptive parents, Paul and Clara Jobs, promised, no matter what the cost, to make sure he got a college education. They loved each other and developed a mutual respect. As Steve said, “I was eager to hang out with my dad.” He felt loved and understood. Steve later said, when referring to their understanding of his gifts and needs, “Both my parents got me.”

But when Steve reached his thirties, he had a hunger to know more. Where did he come from? What part of his history was he missing? He spent years hunting for answers, but each clue ended in a dead end. He hired a detective but got nowhere. Finally he was given a clue, the name of a doctor. Steve headed to the doctor’s home, but the doctor told him that he knew nothing about Steve’s birth or adoption.

Do you know where you came from and where you are headed? I don’t mean genetics or genealogy. Dig deeper than that. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them” (Genesis 1:27). God not only has created us, but He wants to enjoy a loving relationship with us. However, our rebellion against Him has ruptured that relationship. Like one of the first people to ever live, Cain, we’ve decided we don’t want to be around God and His authority. “Cain went out from the presence of the Lord” (Genesis 4:16).

Missing Clues

Steve Jobs went home without hope. Weeks later a letter arrived from the executors of the mysterious doctor’s estate. They had found it lying on his desk — clearly meant for Steve Jobs. In the letter lay the clues he’d been searching for. Before long he had discreetly contacted his birth mother, Joanne Schieble Simpson, and found out about a sister, Mona Simpson, who’d become a successful novelist. But Steve didn’t like what he heard about his father, Abdullfatah “John” Jandali. Steve had no desire to meet his birth father. According to Steve, “He didn’t treat me well. I don’t hold anything against him — I’m happy to be alive. But what bothers me most is that he didn’t treat Mona well. He abandoned her.”

Mona went to see John Jandali with the express instruction from Steve that she not tell John anything about him. Mona and John sat down for a few hours’ chat at the small restaurant he managed. John’s a good storyteller and the conversation flowed. He casually mentioned he’d had a baby boy that was put up for adoption before Mona’s birth. Mona asked, “What happened to him?” John replied, “We’ll never see that baby again. That baby’s gone.” Later, when talking about a restaurant he managed near San Jose, he said, “All of the successful technology people used to come there. Even Steve Jobs.” Mona sat stunned while John continued: “He was a sweet guy, and a big tipper.” Mona never told John who Steve Jobs really was.

But many years later, through a blogger, Jandali discovered his link to Steve. In 2006 Mona confirmed the truth to him but told him Steve Jobs had no interest in meeting him. The years slipped quickly away and Steve refused to connect. John Jandali sent a few unanswered birthday emails but never tried to call his son. As Steve’s pancreatic cancer dragged him into the shadow of death, John told reporters, “Now I just live in hope that, before it is too late, he will reach out to me, because even to have just one coffee with him just once would make me a very happy man.”

Waiting for the Phone to Ring

John Jandali did very little to restore his relationship with Steve Jobs. But God, who isn’t at fault in our ruptured relationship with Him, has done everything He possibly could to reestablish contact with us. “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world” (1 John 4:14). The Lord Jesus Christ as a baby entered into the world He had created. He grew up. He was hated for His purity and crucified. But when He died, He died to pay the price to remove the sin barrier that blocked our relationship with Him. He says, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). If we receive His love and forgiveness, then our relationship to God can be restored. But some people are too proud to admit they need to be forgiven.

As Steve Jobs’ death approached, John Jandali said, “This might sound strange, though, but I am not prepared, even if either of us was on our deathbed, to pick up the phone to call him. ... The Syrian pride in me does not want him ever to think I am after his fortune.” On October 5, 2011, Steve Jobs entered eternity. John Jandali’s iPhone — yes he carried an iPhone — never rang.

Will pride keep you from responding to God? At some point your last chance will have slipped through your fingers. It would be so much better for you to say this: “As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me” (Psalm 55:16).

John Jandali will never sit down over coffee with Steve Jobs. Find out about another famous son and father that have a wounded relationship that can still heal in 51-Year-Old Wounds.

51-Year-Old Wounds

I’m pretty sure you’ve bought something from the man whose birth certificate reads Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen. No, really, you probably have. But I doubt you’ve heard of Ted Jorgensen, the teenager who fathered him.

Ted has a monster laugh that rocks his whole body. The customers at his bike shop love his prices and fabulous service. His current wife of 25 years says he has a deeply compassionate nature. But Ted had a deep secret that he’d never told to his four stepsons. His wife knew it, but they’d never told the kids. As Ted’s theory went, he would never hear or see anything about his son again, so what was the point? That was before a reporter walked into his bike shop late in 2012 and delivered the shocking news on where to find his son.

Ted was a senior in high school when he and his sophomore girlfriend Jackie crossed just over the border into Mexico to get married. Not that many months later, on January 12, 1964, their son Jeffrey was born and they brought him home to their apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jeffrey stayed with his grandma during the day while his mom finished high school.

But by Ted’s own admission, he was a pretty lousy dad. He drank away their meager income, stayed out late and did his own thing as a talented, but poorly paid, unicyclist. His new father-in-law tried to help. He paid for college, but Ted merely dabbled at it for a while before dropping out. His father-in-law tried again by lining up a job for him, but Ted wouldn’t follow through. That’s when Jackie left and went back home. When Jeffrey wasn’t quite one and a half, she filed for divorce.

The divorce settlement required Ted to pay $40 a month in child support. He did ... sometimes. The divorce settlement didn’t require him to visit his son. He did ... sometimes. A couple years later Jackie married a kind, hard-working Cuban immigrant named Mike. Ted signed over his parental rights, and Mike became Jeffrey’s adoptive father. Still drifting, drinking and aimless, Ted forgot his son’s new family name — one you may have heard dozens of times.

Jeffrey’s new father worked hard, siblings came along and the family moved to Houston. Their home was warm, competitive and the family bond was strong. For fun, the family, as adults, descended on Amelia Island’s Flash Foods for a commando-style raid. Jackie stayed at the wheel of their vehicle with the engine running while timing the attack. With walkie-talkies, the others, with code names such as Ffej Sozeb, stormed the store. One raced for the dairy cooler, another seized the coveted spot at the cash register while yet another kept the door open for the getaway. Hey, how else do you make an adventure out of buying a quart of milk for your morning cereal? So it’s not too hard to understand that Jeffrey said a few years ago that he only thinks of his birth father when he fills out medical forms.

Unforgettable Names

Meanwhile Ted had finally stopped drinking, bought a bike shop and became a loving father to four devoted stepsons. But the face of the young boy he’d fathered remained in his memory and kept surfacing. His wife Linda and he would talk over the subject from time to time. His wound had never healed. Then one day a reporter walked into his bike shop to give him Jeffrey’s new name, and his feelings gushed out.

Unlike Ted, God has never forgotten our names, been unaware of where we are or been indifferent to our needs. We’re the ones who’ve walked away from Him. “Your iniquities have separated between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:2). His longing to have us reconciled to Him is captured beautifully in this graphic figure: “How often would I have gathered [My] children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matthew 23:37). Could His wishes be any more clear? Even if you’ve never been on a farm, you can feel in the image of the mother hen the tenderness of God’s desire to shelter, protect and be close to you. Is it true that you won’t let that happen?

Ted’s stepson Fala describes the family meeting Ted called to deliver “his news” this way: “My wife calls me unemotional because she has never seen me cry. Ted is the same way. Saturday was the most emotion I’ve ever seen out of him, as far as sadness and regret. It was overwhelming.” Ted asked Fala to help him get in touch with Jackie and Jeffrey. But so far it seems that Jeffrey has no interest. The clock is ticking. Ted Jorgensen has heart problems and emphysema. And the son he fathered ... it appears that Jeff Bezos (a.k.a. Ffej Sozeb), founder of Amazon.com and with a net worth of 34.9 billion dollars at this writing, has no interest in meeting Ted. He has a wife, Mackenzie, that he loves, a father, Mike, that he respects, a caring mother and no need for help with a mortgage on the house. The wound hasn’t closed yet.

I don’t know what will happen between Jeff Bezos and Ted Jorgensen, but I’m more interested in what will happen between you and God. Are you too satisfied with your current life to really care what He has to say? God says that He “is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). That’s what He wants. Are you willing to be reconciled?

In The Hawksbill Turtle, find what happens when asking, pleading and urging are stubbornly ignored.

The Hawksbill Turtle

Out on the sea in a small sailboat, a father and son were on the lookout for turtles, especially hawksbill turtles, since their shells brought in a lot of money. Soon they saw one clearly visible in the beautiful, transparent waters of the Bahamas.

But the turtle eluded them, hiding under sunken rocks, and all their efforts ended in frustration. They went out again the next day, and the next, but they didn’t see any more of their wished-for prize. Finally the father gave up.

The young man, however, decided to continue the search alone. He told his father that if he stayed home and the turtle was captured, the father would lose his share of the money it brought, but the father was adamant. The boy pled with his father: “You know, Dad, very often the day you stay home is the day you’d succeed, so you’d better come.”

The old man said, “No,” and he meant, “No.” The boy urged and coaxed, but finally had to go alone.

And as it turned out, that day he caught the turtle! The news of the catch beat him back to shore, and so, when he landed his catch on the wharf, quite a few villagers were there to see the prize. Among them was the old man. If he’d only gone that morning — but it was too late. His share of the prize money was gone.

“Son,” he complained, “why didn’t you take me with you?”

“You know I asked you, Dad.”

“Yes, but you should have urged me to go,” replied the disappointed old fisherman.

“I did Dad — you know I did.”

“But why didn’t you plead with me?” the old man insisted.

“You know I tried as hard as I knew how to get you to go, but you just simply wouldn’t.”

“But, Son,” wailed the old man, “you should have made me go!”

The loss of the prize money hurt the old man —money didn’t come easy for him — but after all, it was only money. Have you ever stopped to think that you are in danger of losing something far more valuable?

You are in danger of losing forever the happiness of really living — of knowing eternally the joy of life, divine life, a life of perfect joy and peace. Jesus said about all who trust in Him for salvation from sin, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Instead, you are risking eternal death, eternal grief, weeping and wailing. In the day of judgment, you may think of us who are Christians, as you stand before the judgment throne of God, and say, “Why didn’t you ask me to come to Christ? Why didn’t you urge me? Why didn’t you make me go?”

I can’t make you go, but I can plead with you. I urge you to come to Christ. Come just as you are and trust Him as your Saviour. He died for you so that He might bear your sins on the cross in order that you might live forever with Him. Come to Him now; don’t delay. “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Caught in a Mudslide

Bob Coyle was awfully proud of his logging truck. The top of his cab was over ten feet high, the engine powerful enough to pull a heavy load of timber up steep logging roads. He kept his truck in tip-top condition, polishing it and waxing it until it shone. The truck had plenty of chrome: chrome mufflers, chrome gas tanks, wheels and mirrors. His truck was a beauty!

Bob was driving home to Forks, Washington. It had been raining for days, but people are used to lots of rain in the Pacific Northwest. It’s one of the reasons the trees grow so tall. He was driving along the edge of Lake Crescent on a narrow, winding road squeezed in between the lake and the steep mountains covered with dark green forests. Every so often a small waterfall tumbling down the side of a mountain splashed the shoulder of the road. The road had lots of twists and turns, and driving was slow. It took a lot of concentration for Bob to keep the big rig upright on the S-curves.

Bob was close to Barnes Point when the mudslide hit. Suddenly the face of the mountain came sliding down with countless tons of rock, trees and dirt. It blindsided him, taking him completely by surprise! The mudslide crashed against the side of the truck, pushing the vehicle sideways into the lake. The mudslide pushed the truck through the guard rails at the edge of the road as if they were made out of tin foil and not thick steel, and then down the short embankment and into the lake!

Bob Coyle could do nothing against the overpowering force of the mudslide. Lake Crescent is fed by glaciers, and the ice cold water from the lake flooded into the cab of the truck. When the water got chest deep in the cab, Bob decided it was time to make his escape out of the truck. He cranked down the window and climbed out into the water. He didn’t know how to swim, so he waited till a drifting log approached, then pushed off with his feet, reaching out his arms and grabbed onto it. All the while, the mudslide kept pushing the truck farther and farther into the lake. Clinging to the driftwood, Bob kicked and paddled his way around the mudslide, which was about a hundred feet wide, and back to shore.

Soon his beautiful rig disappeared completely beneath the water! It would stay in the lake until the next day, when, after a lot of work with heavy machinery, a path was cleared so the truck could be towed up out of the water. The truck was severely damaged by being submerged in the water, but thankfully Bob wasn’t injured in the ordeal.

Do you know that we are all travelers down the winding road of life and are headed towards eternity? All of us are looking for happiness. At the end of this life, God has promised endless happiness and joy in a place called heaven to all those who love and obey Him.

The problem is that each one of us has been knocked off the road to heaven as if hit by a mudslide. Sin has pushed us off the road that leads to heaven, and the debris from the mudslide has left the road impassable. Romans 3:11-12 reads, “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.”

Bob had to grab a floating log to help him return to shore. And each one of us needs to grab onto something too, to escape the consequences of our sin. That something is the salvation that is offered freely through the Lord Jesus Christ. This alone can keep us afloat when the entire world around us is sliding deeper and deeper into sin.

Jesus Christ can save those who trust Him because of who He is. From all eternity He was God, equal in power and wisdom with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Then just at the right moment in history, He became a man also, so that from that time forward He will forever be both God and man in the same person. As a man He went to the cross and gave His life for sinners, and as a man He arose from the grave. His death has infinite power to cancel out the guilt of sin and make you and me prepared for heaven.

Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, people can find salvation through faith in His name.

The way to get to heaven is to realize that we are ruined sinners, unable to save ourselves, and then to reach out by faith to the Lord Jesus, the Saviour of sinners. Those who put their faith in the Lord Jesus will have their sins forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).

Not a single one of us could ever deserve the salvation God offers by our own endeavors. But He is pleased to give the free gift of salvation to all who believe on the name of His Son. Someday all those who believe in the Lord Jesus will experience the never-ending joys of heaven. Will you reach out and take hold of God’s salvation through faith and be saved?

God saves repentant sinners. But He does far more than salvage broken lives to try to make them better. Find out how in The Salvage of the Costa Concordia.

The Salvage of the Costa Concordia

The once beautiful cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, over 290 meters long, lay on its side, dwarfing the mouth of the small harbor of the Island of Giglio off the coast of Italy. About two-thirds of the cruise ship was submerged in saltwater. The portion of the ship that could be seen above the water still towered over its surroundings. The ship, which cost over a half billion euros (560 million USD, United States dollars) to build, had been declared a total loss.

It now lay rusting and rotting, an environmental risk and an eyesore for the people living on the island. The American salvaging firm, Titan Salvage, won a contract from the cruise ship line to remove the giant hulk. First, they would refloat the ship, which required the construction of underwater platforms and large floats, called sponsons, on both sides of the ship. Then the ship would have to be towed a considerable distance to a shipyard in Genoa, where it would be cut up for scrap metal. The cost of the entire salvage operation would be more than a billion euros (1.12 billion USD), which was approximately double the cost of building the ship in the first place.

Salvaged or Saved?

The word salvage comes from the Latin word “salvare,” which means “to save.” It is the same Latin word that the words “salvation” and “savior” come from.

But how different the idea of salvage is from salvation! To salvage a wreckage at sea means to save whatever has not been completely ruined of the ship or its cargo. In the case of the Costa Concordia, it was precious little. But God’s salvation through Christ saves all that has been ruined by sin and brings it into a much better state than ever before.

To make the salvation of sinners possible, God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, gave His life on Calvary’s cross. It cost over a billion Euros to salvage the Costa Concordia, but to redeem souls from death and destruction, it cost far more. It cost the life of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

And what a salvation He provides for all those who believe on Him! Please consider these immense blessings that come to ruined sinners when they believe on the Lord Jesus for salvation.

Three Huge Blessings

First, for guilty sinners, the stain of sin is forever removed. A stain is a blot, or ugly mark, that ruins what is bright or beautiful. After the act of sin is completed, the stain of sin remains. The stain of sin mars a person’s life and wrecks all chance of ever entering into heaven. That stain is washed away the moment a soul places his or her faith in Christ. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanse[s] us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Second, because all have sinned, all have incurred a debt of eternal punishment. Ezekiel 18:4 reads, “Behold, all souls are Mine. ... The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” The death referred to includes the eternal separation of the soul from God in hell. The debt of eternal punishment is a horrible debt to carry through life. Those who carry it run the risk of passing into a lost eternity at any second. However, no one needs to carry this debt through life because of what the Lord did on the cross. When a person believes on the Lord Jesus, that debt is completely discharged. Only through faith in the Lord Jesus can a sinner ever be rid of this terrible debt.

Third, the Costa Concordia was raised from a partially submerged state to later be cut up for scrap metal. The bodies of believers will be raised again, too. Although their bodies may be lying in the grave, at some future moment, God will raise them from the grave and reunite them with their souls. The resurrection bodies will be far more wonderful than our earthly bodies. They will be free from pain and suffering. These resurrected bodies will be able to enjoy the glories of heaven and the presence of God forever. “I am the resurrection, and the life,” the Lord Jesus said; “he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

Knowing the Saviour

What a Saviour! How marvelous that He should give these immense blessings to all those who believe on Him! The blessings that come to those who believe far exceed the losses they have suffered because of sin. No one could ever be worthy of these gifts, but God is very pleased to give them by His grace to all who believe. Won’t you be among the number of those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, so that you may learn firsthand the wonderful power of God to save sinners?

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

God works to remove the pain and stain of sin from our life. Are we thankful? Find out the proper attitude in Lessons From a Wisdom Tooth.

Lessons From a Wisdom Tooth

In reflecting on the majesty of the Lord his Maker, David, the psalmist of Israel wrote, “I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well” (Psalm 139:14). Of the original creation, we read, “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). However, we know from God’s Word that sin soon entered into the beautiful creation. Adam and Eve sinned when they disobeyed God and ate fruit from the forbidden tree in the Garden of Eden. We have been reaping the consequences of that sin and of our own sin ever since. Those consequences include suffering, sorrow, pain and death.

One part of our bodies that has been fearfully and wonderfully made is our teeth. We should be thankful for healthy teeth that enable us to enjoy the many varieties of food God has graciously provided for our nourishment. We need to take care of our teeth, because food particles not removed from them can cause decay. This requires a trip to the dentist, who will drill out the decay and replace it with a filling.

Recently, I told my dentist that, while chewing, I was feeling pain in my lower right wisdom tooth. He looked into my mouth and said he couldn’t see any problem, but that he would take an X-ray. The X-ray revealed that there was decay underneath an old filling. I had two options: I could either have him try to repair the tooth or I could have the tooth extracted.

This reminded me of what we read in the Bible about sin. It isn’t always apparent at first glance, but when we consider what God says about it, we learn that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Word of God reveals what is hidden in our hearts.

I chose to have my wisdom tooth extracted and had to make an appointment with another dentist to do that job. We all have an appointment that must be kept, as a result of our sin. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). We are thankful that God has a remedy for sin that is available to anyone who takes God at His word and accepts the remedy He has provided. The next verse tells us, “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28). I hope that everyone reading this is trusting in the Saviour, who shed His blood to wash their sins away.

After the dentist did the extraction, I asked if I could have my tooth. The dental assistant gave it to me in a plastic bag. It was interesting to see the decay, now so clearly evident under the old filling. Now that the tooth was no longer alive, the decayed part blackened over the next few days, and I was very thankful it was no longer in my mouth. If you have received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you have been cleansed from your sin, and you have been given a new life. Are you thankful? We trust you are thankful for this great salvation provided by God at such great cost. We trust that you can say, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

Love Found a Way

I was a sinner! No hope could I see

Till, in His mercy so wondrous and free,

Jesus looked down in compassion on me,

And Love found the way to my heart!

Love found the way to my heart!

Darkness was round me,

For Satan had bound me,

Yet Love found the way to my heart!

Darkness and sin had enveloped my soul;

I was completely in Satan’s control,

But, bless the Lord, Christ in love made me whole —

And Love found the way to my heart!

Never shall sin rule within me again;

Jesus has cleansed every blemish and stain;

King of all kings He forever shall reign,

For Love found the way to my heart!

It's Okay to Yell Fire!

In the early 90s my wife Zebo and I lived in Des Moines, Iowa. One freezing night around 3 a.m. on December 26, I was awakened by a knock at the door. I quickly got dressed, answered the door and found the neighbor lady and her baby from the apartment next door standing there in their pajamas. She said, “My baby started crying and woke me up a few minutes ago, and when I came out to the kitchen to get a bottle, I smelled smoke. Do you smell it?” I said, “Maybe a little ... it’s probably nothing. Go back inside and I’ll go down the stairs and check out all three floors. I’ll let you know what I find.”

I started walking down the center hallway of our floor, stopping at each door to smell for smoke and to feel each door for heat. Nothing seemed out of order. Then I went down the stairway to the second floor. I could really smell the smoke now and I knew something was wrong. I pushed open the door and saw flames coming through the door of a utility room. I quickly ran upstairs and down the hall to our apartment, asking the Lord to help me warn everyone and for us all to get out safely.

Wake Up!

I ran back to our bedroom to shake my wife awake. As I put on my shoes and grabbed my coat I told my wife, “Zebo, get up, get up! The place is on fire. It’s down on the second floor at the other end, so we have a few minutes. Get dressed, put on your coat, grab your purse and the important paper file and I’ll be back for you. I’m going to warn people about the fire.”

“Okay, okay,” she replied. I ran out the door and started by warning the neighbor lady with the baby, telling her where the fire was and to call the apartment complex superintendent and get out right away.

Then I went down the hall banging on each door yelling, “Wake up; wake up. There’s a fire on the second floor. You need to get out right away and go down the south stairs; it’s the only way out.” I kept banging on each door until I heard an answer. Some were irritated at first at being so rudely awakened. But once they understood my warning, their attitude changed. Once I knew they understood the warning, I would go on to the next door.

Then I ran down the stairs at the end of the building opposite to the fire on the second floor, where I met up with the superintendent. He started warning people on the second floor, so I ran down to the first floor and started banging on the doors and warning those people about the fire and that they needed to get out right away.

Still Asleep

When I finished, I ran back upstairs to get Zebo, and to my surprise she was fast asleep. I shook her and yelled, “Zebo, Zebo!”

She awoke, asking, “What, what? Why are you yelling?”

I answered, “BECAUSE THE BUILDING IS ON FIRE. WE NEED TO GET OUT RIGHT AWAY. YOU NEED TO GET DRESSED RIGHT NOW!” Well, now she was wide awake, and don’t you know, she was dressed and ready in about two minutes. We grabbed our important paper file, Zebo’s purse and my wallet and opened the door.

By now the hallway was black with smoke. I went back in, breathed a quick prayer for the Lord’s help, grabbed a couple of towels and wet them to hold to our noses so we could breath. We could hear people crying and coughing and someone saying, “Help me; I can’t see!”

I shouted, “It’s okay. We’re going to get out. The fire is at the other end. Hold each other’s hands, put one hand on the wall, get down low and feel your way until you get to the stairs where I am. You can use the hand railing to guide you down.” The stairs were right outside our door, so we held hands and felt our way crouching down low where the air was a little better.

Still Trapped

The others followed us down the stairs and out into the cold but clean air. As we ran out, we could hear the fire trucks coming. I told Zebo to start the car and turn on the heat to stay warm. Then we heard a man yelling from a second floor window. “We can’t get out — there’s fire in the hallway.” I ran to the building just below the window and hollered, “How many are there?”

He answered, “Me, my wife and two kids.”

I turned, pointed and yelled at one of the young men watching: “You’re big enough — come help me catch these kids.” Then I told the man in the window, “Break out the screen and let down your kids and wife one by one, feet first. Lean out the window, drop them and we’ll catch them.”

One by one he let his kids and wife down, leaning out the window holding their hands. When he had let them down as far as he could, he let them go and the young man and I caught them. Last of all the man crawled out, held onto the windowsill by his fingertips and dropped. We caught him and with that everyone was safely out of the building.

What’s Wrong With Warnings?

It’s okay to wake people out of their sleep and warn them of danger when the building they are sleeping in is ON FIRE!

So it is with the gospel. It is okay to wake people out of their sleep and warn them of danger when they are in danger of HELLFIRE!

I warned those people in our apartment building about the danger they were in because I cared and did not want to see anyone get hurt or die in the fire.

If you are lost and in danger of hellfire, why would you ignore a warning? Even if you get irritated, want to fall back into spiritual indifference or are worried about what you might have to leave behind, are those reasons to stay in the firetrap of sin?

“Flee from the wrath to come” (Matthew 3:7).

“Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

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

A Christian has a serious responsibility to warn people about coming judgment, but it’s a joyful privilege as well.

“The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man ... hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand” (Ezekiel 3:16-18).

“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth” (Luke 15:7).

It’s great to have warnings about danger, but warnings are incomplete without action. Evacuation Alert: Will You Act on the Warning? makes the point pretty clear.

Evacuation Alert: Will You Act on the Warning?

In a blog about natural disasters, a writer asked a question about people in danger: “Why do people still refuse to heed hurricane warnings only to suffer in the end?”

The writer mentioned the threat of fires that were burning in Houston, Texas, and the calls that went out for the people to evacuate. They were calls that some people ignored. The writer noted his frustration about the reaction to this threat and one involving a hurricane.

“I don’t get it,” he wrote. “I really don’t. Houston and Galveston residents were repeatedly told about the dangers of Hurricane Ike, and still some choose to stay!”

Sadly enough, the same question can be asked about people who refuse to obey God and respond to His warnings about future judgment. The warning is clear: God hates sin, and His judgment — eternal punishment — is awaiting those who die in their sins without Christ.

The Bible says, “Because [God] hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man [Jesus] whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

Judgment for sin will be far worse than any natural disaster. Christ will deal out retribution to the people who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel. These “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power” (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

Even though the warning is severe, people choose to ignore it — just like the people who ignore the warnings about hurricanes, wildfires and floods. Unfortunately, they do this to their peril.

Despite the awful outcome of living and dying in sin, there is a way of escape. God’s evacuation plan is found in Jesus Christ, His Son. We must put our trust in Him alone to save us. He said, “If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24).

God doesn’t want anyone to die without Christ and suffer (2 Peter 3:9). “Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18).

God’s evacuation plan from judgment is activated by simple faith. Here is what Christ promised: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:24).

God offers us eternal life as a free gift that can only be received by faith. But if we reject it, we endanger ourselves. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation” (Hebrews 2:3).

What will you do? Will you ignore the warning? Will you procrastinate and risk your future? Or will you pay attention and trust in Christ to be saved?

Warnings wake us up, but not just to get away from bad consequences. They let us listen to good news like the good news you’ll find in “The Bad News First.”

The Bad News First

It isn’t difficult to find bad news. There are worries about Iran having nuclear weapons, Islamic State militants, the economy, political intrigue and power plays. Unfortunately, the good news that could be printed likely wouldn’t earn much attention.

You may know the word “gospel” simply means “good news.” To be sure, the message of the Bible has its share of bad news as well, but the emphasis is on the good news. It reminds me of the doctor who says, “I have good news and bad news, but first the bad news.” The patient needs to hear the bad news first or else he will only be daydreaming when the details of the good news goes sailing on past his head.

The good news may not even be relevant unless it is stated in the context of the bad news. Who wants to hear that open heart surgery will make you a new person. “What? Just leave me alone, and I’ll be happy as the old me, thank you.”

But if I hear, “You have a problem with your heart and we’ll give you three months.” What? Now I am listening. “Please, doctor, get on with the good news, if there is any. I’m all ears — hurry!”

Even so, the gospel does present the bad news. It examines the human condition and our problems and states the conclusion plainly and pointedly. And you won’t be pleased. Whoever said you would like “bad news”?

You might check, for example, Romans 3:23. It says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” How do you like that? Can you argue? Rather direct, rather obvious, and hard to swallow, like a large pill.

But the good news also comes to us in plain and simple terms as well. The gospel has as its heartbeat the person of Jesus Christ. His coming, His life and death and resurrection are all at the core of the good news. It really is worth checking. It is relevant.

While you are there in Romans, check out chapter 6 and look down to the last verse, number 23: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

The bad news is first, and the glorious good news is second. Read it again. Isn’t it amazing! Does God have your attention? Did the good news just sail on past? Have you embraced it?

Have you ever said, “Thank you”?

My Wounds Don't Heal Like They Used to

ometime after 1 a.m., April 4, 2013, Sergeant Terry Hughes heard the ringing of an alarm. His alarm was connected to a military-grade motion detector hidden a mile away in the kitchen of the Pine Tree camp near Rome, Maine. Jamming his pickup into gear he raced for the camp. Parking quietly, he ran for the dining hall and looked carefully in the window. A balding man with the hint of some eyebrows moved stealthily inside peering through decades-old glasses at more items to stuff in a bulging backpack. Then he headed for the door. Stepping outside, the burglar’s eyes filled with the blinding light from Sergeant Hughes’ flashlight. A .357 Magnum revolver was pointed at his head and the words, “Get on the ground!” thundered in his ears.

Not long after the April 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Russia, Christopher Thomas Knight quietly stepped off a trail in northern Maine and vanished. No one called the police. No one came looking for him. Friends assumed he’d headed off to New York City or Texas or maybe he’d died.

Chris tried living off the land. But road-killed birds and berries make a meager diet. Soon corn and vegetables began to disappear from gardens along his route. But Chris said, “I wanted more than vegetables. It took a while to overcome my scruples. I was always scared when stealing. Always.”

Home

It took a couple of years, but somewhere in the late 1980s he settled down at a campsite near the 30-mile-long shores of Maine’s North Pond area. Surrounded by nearly 300 camps and many cabins in woods crisscrossed with dirt roads and traversed by hunters, Chris found a spot a few hundred yards from some homes. Other than a couple of words addressed to a hiker in the mid 1990s, Chris didn’t speak to another human being for 27 years.

Buried in a dense forest of maple, elm and hemlock and partially hidden by massive car-sized boulders, Chris fashioned a bedroom-sized home. These weren’t luxurious quarters nestled in among the mice and mosquitoes, but they were expensive — very expensive. Every move he took, each decision he made was calculated to keep him concealed. Why? From the Land’s End jeans on his legs to the Columbia jacket keeping him warm —everything but his glasses belonged to someone else. Every cut of meat he cooked was stolen from a freezer and prepared over flames from pilfered propane. The complicated military histories and Tom Clancy novels that filled the frozen hours of Maine nights were stuffed into stolen backpacks and read by stolen flashlights under stolen tarps. Each theft came with its own hefty price tag of fear and guilt.

Moving mostly at night, Chris hopped from boulder to boulder and watched the ground to avoid snapping dead twigs. There had to be no pattern on the ground, no beaten trail into his woodland hideout—and there wasn’t. No detail could be forgotten, and so Chris meticulously painted his shiny stolen garbage cans a dull green. Even wood clothespins were painted darker colors to stop any reflection of light. One yellow shovel was neatly covered in a black bag.

No Pleasure

The burglaries, more than 40 every year for 27 years amounted to well over 1,000 total. You’d think it would get easier on his conscience, but it never did. Each time he’d watch the property carefully for cars, lights, smoke from the fire, or any sign of people in residence. He’d never touch a place with anyone home. Then, “it was usually 1 or 2 a.m. I’d go in, hit the cabinets, the refrigerator. In and out. My heart rate was soaring. It was not a comfortable act. I took no pleasure in it, none at all, and I wanted it over as quickly as possible.”

Then each time, as the severe and blustery Maine winters closed in, Chris hunkered down. With the first snows covering the ground in early November until large patches of barren ground drove back the snow in early April — Chris stayed hidden. Filling Rubbermaid containers with food and setting mouse traps to stop the mice from stealing his stolen stores, he hunkered down in triple stuffed L. L. Bean sleeping bags. Chris trained his body to wake in the early morning hours when he needed to get up before the seductive sleep of hypothermia locked him in its eternal grip. He never allowed himself the warmth of even a small fire; everything had to be cooked over a two-burner propane stove. Any open flame gives off smoke that drifts upward past the camouflaged tarps and above the thick tangle of hemlock branches, like a little gray flag marking a dirty secret below.

As a young man, Chris said he “was lord of the woods. I ruled the land I walked upon. I was tough and clever.” But age and the sugar and alcohol binges he used to fatten up for winter were wearing him down. Every camp he burglarized was checked for a better pair of glasses. But none had the right prescription for his worsening vision. For 10 years he lived in an increasingly blurry fog. Sores on his arm troubled Chris, who said, “My wounds don’t heal like they used to.” He feared diabetes had come through binging on stolen candy.

Now Chris is in prison, locked in a loud, colorful, crude world where he longs for one thing he’s lost — the stillness. Locked in jail, Chris didn’t let his mother visit. As he put it, “Look at me. I’m in my prison clothes. That’s not how I was raised. I couldn’t face her.”

The Stillness of Peace

Do you, too, long for the stillness of peace? You haven’t committed over 1,000 burglaries for food and camping gear and neither have I. But you may have wounds that haven’t healed — wounds in your conscience, a longing for meaning, guilt that is normally drowned out by the rush found in a loud, colorful and trivial world. There’s a way out that doesn’t involve the barrel of a .357 Magnum. The Bible tells about the Lord Jesus Christ: “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). His love for you, for me and for Chris was so deep that He was willing to be punished for the sin that we have committed. He was willing to pay the penalty that we deserved to heal the wounds brought on by our own sin.

Chris hid from his mom and every other human being in an attempt to find that stillness. But fear lurked under every dead branch and guilt behind each stolen hamburger patty. All that time the God who made Chris was watching over him in mercy. He let a giant shelf mushroom grow that Chris watched with pleasure. God kept him from freezing during the bitter Maine winter. And God provided the stars that Chris enjoyed sparkling overhead as he drifted on the stillness of the nearby lake.

But God has provided more than starlight — He’s given spiritual light. He gave Chris, and you, His Word the Bible. Have you read it? Chris didn’t. He stole National Geographic, People, Glamour and books galore — but never the Bible. “I can’t claim a belief system,” he says. Maybe Chris hid himself from that spiritual light because he said, “I stole. I was a thief. I repeatedly stole over many years. I knew it was wrong. Knew it was wrong, felt guilty about it every time, yet continued to do it.” If Chris had opened a Bible, he could have read, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5).

Will you repent? Will you receive God’s love as a gift? Will you allow the stillness of His presence to drive out the guilt, fear and sin? He tells you, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Find out more about that care and love in Somebody Cares.

Somebody Cares

The boy thought he could live by his own rules and be happy. So instead of serving his time as a soldier during the Civil War, he left the military without permission. He was caught and convicted of desertion. He then faced a sentence of death before a firing squad at Davenport Barracks, Iowa.

One winter night, as the minutes passed before his scheduled execution, someone intervened on the boy’s behalf. Indiana Congressman Schuyler Colfax went to the White House to plead for him. The congressman told the boy’s story to President Abraham Lincoln.

The president listened patiently and said, “Some of my generals complain that I impair discipline by my frequent pardons and reprieves, but it rests me, after a day’s hard work, that I can find some excuse for saving some poor fellow’s life, and I shall go to bed happy tonight as I think how joyous the signing of this name will make himself, his family and friends.”

Even though the boy was guilty, he escaped the punishment of the firing squad. He lived because somebody cared. Somebody cared enough to intervene on his behalf, and somebody cared enough to give him a second chance.

Care Shown to Us

Like the young soldier in this story, we sometimes think we can live by our own rules and be happy. We expect to live the way we want without any consequences. But according to the Bible, we are all guilty in the sight of God. We are guilty of sin. “The scripture hath concluded all under sin” (Galatians 3:22). Like deserters, we have tried to run away from God and live outside His family. We break His commandments, and we fail to live up to His standards (Romans 3:23).

Because of our sin, we face something that is far worse than a firing squad. We face eternal punishment. “As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). Those who die in their sins without God’s forgiveness will not be listed in God’s Book of Life. “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15).

Thankfully, somebody cared for us and stepped in to save us. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). God doesn’t want us to die in our sins. He is not willing that any of us should perish or be condemned (2 Peter 3:9). He desires to remove our guilt and give us a pardon. The Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Have you responded to God’s love for you? Have you accepted His forgiveness and His free gift of everlasting life? If not, you can do so today and escape punishment. God stands ready, right now, to remove your guilt and give you a new life. These wonderful blessings are yours for the asking. As the Bible says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

God’s love gives us a permanent home and family — not just relief from punishment. Find out more in Pity for Orphans.

Pity for Orphans

Around the world, children who have lost their parents are placed in orphanages. Most of these orphanages are understaffed, overcrowded, undersupplied and just plain unhappy. The lives of children in orphanages are generally full of grief, pain and insecurity.

In a very real sense, the whole world is an orphanage, and every person either is or has been a spiritual orphan. They are spiritual orphans because they don’t know the abiding love of God the Father in their lives. Without having a sense of the love of God, their lives fill up with grief, pain and insecurity too.

In this sad condition, God has taken pity on them and has made a way that spiritual orphans, all the world around, can come to Him and be made His children forever.

A Lasting Relationship

In order to bring sinners into a lasting relationship with Himself, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, all the way to the cross where He gave His life as the one sacrifice for sin. When a sinner believes on the name of Jesus, their sins are washed away, and the Holy Spirit indwells them. The Holy Spirit sheds His love in their hearts, making them know God as their loving Father. Through faith in Christ, they become one of His children forever.

When God has such pity for poor spiritual orphans and is so ready to welcome them into His family, isn’t it a shame when anyone says “no” to His offer of grace and instead turns Him away?

Someday God will welcome each one into heaven who has his or her faith in the Lord Jesus. Heaven is where they will never again part from His love. The Lord Jesus told His followers, “In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:2-3).

Heaven must be an utterly wonderful place, because the Lord Jesus has gone and “prepared” it, and all He has done in the past and all He will do in the future is nothing short of wonderful!

But those who refuse God’s offer of grace, when they pass out of this world, will have only the darkness and loneliness of hell to look forward to. Oh, there will be plenty of people in hell, but they will be lonely people, because there won’t be any loving friendship or good will found in the entire place. Those things are God’s gifts which He gives to us in this life, but when it comes to eternity, they are reserved for heaven alone.

When an orphan is adopted into a loving family, a future full of disappointment and bitterness is avoided. When a soul is adopted into God’s family, they avoid much grief caused by sin in this life, but they also avoid the pains of hell in the life to come.

The blessings God has reserved for those who believe on His Son are immense and long lasting. I don’t want to live without them, and I hope you don’t either. Won’t you believe on the name of Jesus that you might be adopted into God’s family and become one of His children forever? Thank God, He has pity for poor spiritual orphans and welcomes them into His family when they hear the gospel and believe in the Lord Jesus.

The Joyful Message

It is a joyful message

That God now sends to you,

Repentance and forgiveness —

How old, yet ever new.

It is a joyful message

That Christ for you has died,

That He who once was buried

Is risen and glorified.

It is a joyful message —

For you His blood was shed,

For you He bore the judgment

And suffered in your stead.

It is a joyful message,

So full of grace and love;

It comes from highest heaven —

From God’s own heart above.

It is a joyful message:

Today, oh, hear His voice —

The voice of Jesus calling:

Repent! Receive! Rejoice!

Massive Explosives Found Near Homes

Since January 1, 2015, live bombs packed with explosives that could rip apart town centers have been discovered buried across Europe and Asia. The potential for death and destruction is disrupting whole communities, forcing evacuations, closing key transportation links and placing military, police and civilian expert bomb-disposal squads in risky situations.

In late January, a Danish fisherman working the Baltic Sea near Bornholm brought up a deadly load in his net. The explosive measured nearly three feet long and forced a call to the Danish Emergency Management Agency who took charge of its disposal. Experts now estimate that there may be millions of such hidden explosives stashed in that same area. Genuine fear stalks the minds of the fishermen who work the rich fishing waters.

Then in March, a massive 550-pound bomb was discovered buried in central London that placed thousands of local residents at “significant risk.” Army disposal teams sent warnings through the area sending people from around 1,000 households fleeing to safety. Flyers posted in the area warned that were the bomb to explode, nearby homes could be destroyed and homes across a wide area damaged. The Tower Bridge across the famous Thames was closed and a massive rail line threatened. A local resident stated, “Everyone’s worried; everyone’s a bit petrified. All the buses have stopped and the trains might have to stop too.” Schools were evacuated while gutsy Army disposal experts carefully examined and removed the 5-foot-long bomb.

In late May, a little over a month before the fabled Wimbledon tennis tournament, a 110-pound bomb was discovered in a parking garage close to the storied Wembley Stadium where the tournament is held. The device, “capable of reaching heights of 1,100 feet,” with its explosion posed a serious threat. Hundreds were evacuated and the area brought to a standstill for 24 hours while army experts successfully removed the device.

Then, just days later, Cologne, Germany, faced its own crisis. Tens of thousands of residents were forced to leave their homes. Streets were flooded with long lines of senior citizens in wheelchairs pushed by social workers moving toward waiting buses sent to get them out. Schools and kindergartens, even the local zoo, were shut down. The culprit? A 1-ton bomb found buried 16 feet underground near a vital bridge that lay close to a 45-story apartment complex.

In June reports were heating up around the world. Sicily had a key airport, the sixth busiest in Italy, closed down, rippling flight delays across Europe. Gloucestershire police in southern England called in local army bomb experts to check out 10 devices discovered in a cluster near new homes.

Now, just last week, news has filtered in from Okinawa that Japanese authorities fear removal of bombs buried in their area may take up to 70 years. A nervous Tetsuo Shimanaka said, “I get nervous every time there’s a disposal operation, whatever the size. ... It’s scary to think I was sleeping above bombs.”

Are You Sleeping on Bombs?

Who’d ever want to sleep on bombs? But that’s the enduring legacy of World War II. A recent estimate made by the Berlin government guessed that the city sat on top of around 3,000 unexploded bombs. But no one knows quite how many there are or where a backhoe will expose the next one. Multiple people have died this decade trying to successfully remove them. Unexploded ordnance from that massive conflict litters not only nations across Europe but island nations from Brunei to Japan.

All this begs the deeper question. Do you have your house parked on a bomb or two? Maybe you live far from the blast zones of World War II or outside the range of the RPGs littering the Middle East and Central Asia. But what about the 110-pound “white lie” or the 1,000-pound “nasty gossip”? They may not have caused any obvious problems when they escaped our lips a few years ago. Now they are buried and forgotten by us. But just as the seven decades since World War II haven’t rendered its explosive power inert and harmless, seven millennia could roll by and leave our sins as potent as the day they were dropped in a heated moment of anger or deceit. Burying them under lovely stadiums of good works or 45 stories of charitable giving doesn’t remove their sting. “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).

Fire Exposes Live Explosives

One family in Plymouth, England, kept a bomb given to them after a World War II raid as a door stop for years. It passed from one man to his brother and then on to his child. Then fire swept through a neighbor’s house. “If that [were] to happen to us, the bomb would be a danger,” they thought, so they called the Navy. Just this month the Royal Navy Bomb Disposal truck pulled into their driveway and then made off with the bomb that was proven to be live. What a mercy the fire hit next door instead of hitting their home.

Will you call the only available expert able to remove the hidden and exposed sin from your life? Leaving it to be tested by a future fire of judgment is not a good idea. Don’t even dream of trying to dispose of it on your own. What a lousy idea to improve your life and pretend that will disarm the past. “God requireth that which is past.” And God’s Word says about Jesus, “Now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And 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” (Hebrews 9:26-28). The Lord Jesus Christ is the only One that can ever remove the explosive power of sin from your life. Will you call on Him to be your Saviour?

Find out what else has long-lasting power in An Old-Growth Forest and Eternity.

An Old-Growth Forest and Eternity

If you were to walk through a stand of old-growth forest in the Pacific Northwest, you would be walking through one of the most beautiful, majestic places on earth. You would find yourself marveling at the straightness and height of the trees, which are almost unbelievably huge. Douglas fir, spruce and red cedar can grow to heights of 300 feet, and sometimes these trees can be as much as 13 feet across. A tree trunk with a diameter of 13 feet would require eight or nine people holding hands to wrap their arms around its trunk.

Although these trees may look like they are growing straight up to heaven, they invariably have a lean to them. This lean may not be perceptible to the naked eye. It was important for old-time loggers to know which way these trees were leaning. The slightest lean in one of these old-growth giants would greatly affect the direction the tree would fall when it was cut down. This is why lumberjacks would take a plumb line (a piece of string with a narrow lead weight attached to one end) and hold it against the trunk of the tree to determine which way it was leaning. Once they determined the lean, they could safely predict what direction the tree would fall when it was cut down.

Some of those old-growth trees are 600 or 700 years old. That is a long time indeed, but compared to eternity, it is less than a tiny sliver of wood compared to all the trees that have ever grown in the soil of the earth. These trees can live to a remarkably old age, but they don’t live forever. However, human beings will live forever. Do you know that eternity may be just around the corner for any of us? Our physical bodies will one day return to the dust, and in the dust they will remain until they are resurrected, but each person will exist forever in heaven or hell. This is why it is so important to get right with God through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. People who remain unrepentant sinners will be sent out of God’s presence and into the darkness of a lost eternity forever.

Repentance

People need to repent, because they invariably have a “lean” to them. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God’s glory — His goodness, love, righteousness and holiness so pure, so wonderful, is the standard by which He will judge the world. It is the plumb line that every person’s life will be compared to. If you are comparing yourself to other human beings who are sinners, you might be deceived into thinking that everything is fine, just because you measure up favorably against the majority of other people. But it is only when you hold up God’s plumb line — His standard of righteousness — that you will see how far you have fallen short. Sins are thoughts, words or actions willfully committed that are at odds with God’s right ways. Repentance is when we have a change in the depth of our hearts and come to hate the sin we once loved, because God is at work in our heart.

The Lord Jesus died on Calvary’s cross so that sinners who repent might be forgiven. “Through this Man [Jesus Christ] is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 13:38). The blood He shed on the cross has the power to wash away the guilt of sin for all those who believe on Him.

Repentance and faith are bound together: You can’t have one without the other. People who repent will always be led of God to look to the Saviour for the forgiveness of sins. “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22). People who believe in the Lord Jesus have turned their backs on their sin, because they are now heading in a new direction — towards the Lord.

Heaven

Walking through a stand of old-growth forest, with the morning sun slanting through the upper branches and a soft light suffusing everything below, is a beautiful experience. However, it doesn’t begin to compare to the experience of being in heaven. In heaven, the Lord Himself will be the wonderful light of the place, and the light of His glory will fill every heart. Because of the light of glory, not a trace of spiritual poverty, ignorance and misery, so common among men on earth, will be found in heaven. The most beautiful places on earth all give a hint of their Creator’s wisdom, power and majesty, but in heaven each one will have an intimate, unshakable knowledge of these things. This knowledge will fill the souls there with rapturous joy.

Loggers used a plumb line to determine the lean of a tree and the direction it would fall when it was cut down. Will you use the plumb line of God’s Word to help you understand where you will spend eternity when this short life is over? Be wise and repent. Believe on the Lord Jesus. That’s the most important step you will ever make!

And that step isn’t something that’s short lived. Read about it in Eternity Is a Long Time to Be Wrong.

Lifelong

Not everyone has life-changing experiences when they are young. When I was 15, I made the most important decision I will ever make in life. I accepted the Lord as my Saviour when I was at a young people’s event in Canada where the Bible was opened and discussed. In my own home, the Bible was read every day and talked about, since my parents are Christians.

But why did it take so long to accept God’s love when I grew up in a Christian home? When I was 8, my oldest brother had an accident that resulted in his death. I became bitter and angry against God. I would yell at Him and cry, but I did that when I was home alone. When I was with others, I acted happy and helped people. I also pretended to be a Christian. When people asked if I was a Christian, my answer was “yes.” If they asked how to be saved, I gave the gospel. Almost everyone thought I was a Christian. But as time passed, my mother, one of my sisters, and one of my aunts knew the truth.

When four or five years had passed since my brother’s death, I thought about suicide. My mother started praying even more. My parents sent me to a Christian therapist for a year, and then to an art therapist for a few sessions. My mother would show me how the Lord loved me and had a purpose for me. She opened the Word of God to show me. But life was still a mess.

Turning Point

When I was 14, I grew fed up with my bitterness and anger against God. I turned to the Lord for help. I asked Him to help me grow okay with my brother’s death and not to be angry so often. At that time, one aunt and one grandmother passed away and went to be with the Lord. God did help, but some things didn’t change.

On October 22, 2010, I was traveling to St. Thomas, Canada, for a young people’s event. I went along with my brother and sister and a friend of ours. The next day, October 23, opened with breakfast. After the meal was a Bible meeting for young people together with singing hymns. The topic of that meeting was “My [daughter], give Me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26). The Lord started me thinking about how my life was still a mess and how I was not fully over my brother’s death (though seven years had already passed). Two weeks before, I had been at a Bible conference in Chicago and heard about a young man who had committed suicide in Florida. His family was known at that Bible conference. One of the meetings was turned into a prayer meeting for that family. It hit me once again how people can die young. (My brother was 16.) But back to October 23. It hit me that I had never accepted Jesus into my heart. I started praying in my mind to the Lord to help me in different areas of my life. In the middle of that prayer, I opened myself (my heart) to the Lord. That day the Lord came into my heart after waiting for so long for me to open the door.

Psalm 51:7 says, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” When we ask the Lord to save us (wash us), He cleans us till we are white in the heart. Sin blackens our heart. But how does He wash us? Revelation 1:5 says, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.” We find from many Bible verses that He died for us so we could become clean by His blood. His promise of “The truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) is true. You can experience that no matter what age you are.

In I Used to Go to Church you’ll discover another life changed, not by a religion, but by a Person.

I Used to Go to Church

I used to go to church fairly regularly, satisfied with the thought that I’d been christened and confirmed and that I’d never done anybody much harm. I believed the Bible — what little I knew about it. I believed about God and that Jesus Christ died for all. I said my prayers and considered I wasn’t as bad as some people. I hoped I stood a chance of getting to heaven somehow or other, although it didn’t seem worth thinking about very much.

But God didn’t let things stop there — I became very conscious of my sins. Now, I knew that I’d been confirmed, but I wasn’t sure whether I was christened or not. So I began searching through old church records, and finally I found that I’d certainly been christened.

Now, I thought, I’ll be satisfied.

But it wasn’t enough.

I used to ask different people’s opinions. One person said, “Christening doesn’t make any difference; it’s the life you lead.”

This didn’t help much.

Another said, “You must be born again.”

I thought, “That’s all very well, but how can I be born again?”

Now all this started me praying very earnestly. I confessed my sins, changed my ways, and tried to do what was right, but my sins just seemed to get worse. At last I thought, “If the Bible is God’s Word, I ought to be able to find what I need in it,” and so I made up my mind to read the New Testament every Sunday. I would go into a room by myself and read it very carefully.

I also read any tract that I could get hold of. I remember in one of them it said, “You may go to church regularly and not be a Christian.” I thought, “That sounds like me.”

Another said, “There is salvation for you if you want it.” I thought to myself, “I want it, but how can I get it?”

This went on for nearly a year, and one Sunday afternoon while reading the Bible I heard in my mind, “You must accept Jesus as your Saviour,” just as clearly as if it had been spoken.

Decisive Moment

I began to think about this, when it came again, “You must accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour.”

I said to myself, “So I will!”

I put down my Bible, went upstairs, locked the door, got on my knees, and my prayer was something like this: “O God, I’m a sinner; I believe Jesus Christ died for sinners and that You raised Him from the dead. I will accept Him as my Saviour, and with Your help I will do what is right.”

Tears came into my eyes; I felt myself praising God and saying, “O God, my Father!” I felt I could say “my Father” without a doubt. I could’ve cried like a baby, and the Spirit of God gave me assurance that I had become a child of God.

Everything seemed different. I was born again; I was a new creation in Christ Jesus, and I knew it. Then in a flash it came to me that there must be thousands like me who don’t know God’s way of salvation. I thought to myself, “Tracts helped me; I will help others, and with God’s help I will give them out as long as I can.” Since then I have given away thousands of tracts and can honestly say that the last few years have been the happiest time of my life.

I learned that we become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ, not by being christened or confirmed or going to church — not even in “being good.” Accept Christ as your Saviour; believe Him, trust Him, rest your soul upon Him, and this new life will be yours. “He that hath the Son hath life” (1 John 5:12).

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Jesus Christ isn’t just for those who grew up in Christian homes. Find out about a husband and wife who independently discovered their need of Christ in I Believe in Jesus Too!

I Believe in Jesus Too!

I was studying the Old Testament, and the more I read it, the more I saw that just being a Jew would never save me. I must have something better than my fastings and prayers. God told me in His Word what I deeply realized — I was a sinful creature — and I often prayed to Him to “wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin” (Psalm 51:2).

After eight months of studying the Old Testament, I resolved to read the New Testament also, and during this reading it pleased God to open my eyes to see and my heart to receive the Lord Jesus as my Redeemer. Nothing can adequately describe the intense joy of my soul — I was just overcome with the love of the lovely Jesus. I fell on my knees, but my heart was so full with the consciousness that all my sins were forgiven that all I could say was, “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!”

What About My Wife?

Two months passed after this happy experience of being born again. Now I felt deeply for my poor wife, and I earnestly prayed for her conversion. I prayed with tears that she would feel her sins and come to the Friend of sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ.

I felt I must tell her of the great change which had taken place in me and of my need to make a public confession of my faith in Christ. I didn’t know how to do it!

I knew her bitter opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ. The loving smiles she once gave me when I came home in the evening were now few and far between. At last one evening when I came home, she was more cheerful and like herself. She welcomed me with her usual loving greeting, and I thought that the time had come when I could best communicate to her the desire of my heart. I asked the Lord to help me.

After the children were in bed and we were quietly talking together, I said, “My dear, I have something to tell you which I hope won’t hurt or upset you. You must have seen that I’m not what I once was; in fact, I’m a Christian, and I am anxious to confess Jesus publicly.”

She looked in my face and gave me one of her own loving smiles, and said, “How very strange! This very evening I planned to talk to you on the very same subject. About a month ago I found the hiding place of your New Testament, and at first I said to myself, ‘He’ll never see that again; it’ll go into the fire.’

“As I was about to throw it into the flames, I thought I would just see what rubbish there was in it, and the first words my eyes fell on were these: ‘Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in Me’ (John 14:1). I could not believe my own eyes, and I looked again.

“‘Yes,’ I said, ‘they’re there!’ I was in ‘trouble,’ and I ‘believed in God,’ and, must I believe in Jesus too? I cannot tell what comforting thoughts these were to my heart. I read the whole chapter and I felt so happy that, instead of putting it into the fire, I replaced it where I found it. I’ve read it again every day since then, and all I have discovered in it has been wisdom and love.

“This morning I read Matthew 27. I wept bitterly over what Jesus suffered for sinners, and while I was reading and weeping, it was as if a loving voice said, ‘It’s all for you; I’ve endured all this for you.’ ‘For me, Lord?’ I asked. ‘Then I will believe. Help Thou my unbelief!’ I then cried for joy, and I felt such peace in my soul as I had never felt before,” and here my dear wife burst into tears again.

I was not in the least prepared for this unexpected and joyful news. My cup of blessing seemed to be too full for me, and we wept together like children. For the first time we knelt together to praise God for His matchless love towards us. I could hardly sleep for joy!

I woke early the next morning with a peace in my soul which I’d never known before, and I went to the office feeling that I was the happiest man in the world. “What more do I want?” I repeated to myself as I was hurrying along the busy streets: “I’m a Christian; I know I am. God’s Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. Now my only desire and prayer to God is to see our children loving and serving that precious Jesus whom we love.”

Jesus, Only Jesus

Be our joyful song today,
Jesus, only Jesus;
He who took our sins away,
Jesus, only Jesus;
Name with every blessing rife,
Be our joy and hope through life,
Be our strength in every strife,
Jesus, only Jesus.

Once we wandered far from God,
Knowing not of Jesus,
Treading still the downward road,
Leading far from Jesus,
Till the Spirit taught us how,
Neath the Saviour’s yoke to bow,
And we fain would follow now,
Jesus, only Jesus.

Be our trust through years to come,
Jesus, only Jesus;
Password to the heavenly home,
Jesus, only Jesus;
When from sin and sorrow free,
On through all eternity,
This our theme and song shall be:
Jesus, only Jesus.

Andre's Answers

Andre was one of the tough guys when I first met him. But he joined a few of the other men when I asked if anyone in the cell wanted to read the Bible together. Like many of the county jail inmates, he was awaiting trial and sentencing for the crime he had committed. I don’t know the charges against the men unless they share their stories, and Andre hadn’t shared his.

Week after week he came to the Bible sessions, and his attitude seemed to soften. He accepted some Bible study booklets to work on during the week, even completing the question sheet at the end of each lesson. As I took these home to read over, I began to see a puzzling set of answers.

One study booklet told the story of the “prodigal son” and his older brother. In this well-known Bible story, the younger brother asked for his inheritance money early and wasted it in sinful living. When he repented and returned home to his father, he was received with open arms, and they had a party. This made the self-righteous older brother upset. He didn’t think such a sinner deserved forgiveness and a joyful reunion with his father. He couldn’t acknowledge that he was also a sinner in need of forgiveness. When asked which brother he was like, Andre answered: “I feel I am the self-righteous brother, because I tend to minimize and justify my sins based on my reason for committing them. I don’t tend to acknowledge my sins.”

Are Honest Answers Good Enough?

The next questions were, Have you ever considered what God thinks about you? Would He find you guilty? Have you ever accepted the Saviour He provided? “I feel that [God] would be satisfied with who I am, for I am a fair and just man,” Andre wrote.

Andre’s answers were honest, but what would God think of them? Our natural thought is that our goodness will outweigh our “mistakes,” as in a balance scale. But to a holy God, sin is so awful that He cannot allow it into heaven. Sinners are headed to hell when they die, if they don’t take God’s free offer of salvation. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

After reading about the thieves who were crucified on either side of Jesus, Andre responded to these questions: On which side of the cross do you stand? Do you take sides with the repentant man (thief) or with the others? Remember, there is no neutral ground. “I stand on the same side as the repentant man. I truly believe that God is my Saviour,” he wrote.

Andre was able to clearly describe who Jesus Christ is. “He is the Son of God; God in human form, a sinless man, born of a virgin who gave Himself for the sake of everyone.” Do you need to be saved from your sin? was asked next. “Yes I do, in order to be saved from eternal damnation,” Andre rightly stated.

Living Reality or a False Front?

About this time we read in the local newspaper of a violent crime that had taken place in our town. The police had arrested a man who, in order to be accepted by a gang, had stabbed someone he didn’t know fifteen times, leaving him naked and bleeding. The victim survived and crawled to a house for help. This crime didn’t seem to fit the mild mannered fellow that Andre now appeared to be, but I found out that it was indeed Andre!

Later on he told me that his “boss,” the gang leader, was locked up himself and had counseled Andre to find God. I wasn’t sure what this meant to either of them, since he’d told me that the gang’s motto spoke of allegiance to “God, mother and gang.”

Here was a young man who appeared to be close to salvation, yet his next written answer to the question, Are you truly saved from your sin? made my heart ache for Andre. “No, I’m not, although I can be. I have not made the decision to give myself fully to the Lord Jesus Christ.”

After a few more visits, Andre was gone. He was sentenced and sent to prison to serve time for this awful crime. I pray that he has by now made a clear decision to follow Jesus. Even in prison he can experience the freedom and acceptance that comes in knowing Him. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, [you] shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

What About You?

The Bible tells about a jailer who asked his prisoner a question. The jailer had just heard two of the prisoners singing at midnight, even after he had beaten and chained them up. When a powerful earthquake shook the jail that night and everyone’s chains fell off, none of the prisoners ran away! The terrified jailer was amazed! These men had something he wanted, so he asked them, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30).

The Apostle Paul, one of the prisoners that night, gave a clear answer to the jailer: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and [you will] be saved” (Acts 16:30-31). The jailer believed and was saved, and his family too.

You can become part of the family of God when you accept Jesus as your own Saviour. There is no crime too bad to be forgiven. The same prisoner, Paul called himself the “chief of sinners.” If his sin-stained soul was washed clean by the blood of Jesus, yours can be too. “[You] are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26).

People like Andre who know they need a Saviour but don’t act on that knowledge are in danger. Find out about that danger and the Saviour from it in Treetopper.

Treetopper

Afraid of heights? Then I know a job that is not for you — a treetopper.

A treetopper is a man who straps long, steel spikes onto his boots, hangs a saw from his belt, and wraps a strong rope around the trunk of a tree. Then he shimmies up the tree by digging the spikes into the bark and flipping the rope up every few steps. Treetoppers sometimes climb to a height of 150 feet or more. Sounds dangerous? It is.

When the treetopper reaches the desired height, he starts chopping. In the old days, the cutting would be done with a sharp, two-bladed axe and a hand saw. Nowadays, the treetopper pulls on the starter rope of a lightweight chain saw to engage the engine and start the saw blade whirling.

First, the treetopper cuts a large v-shaped notch on one side of the tree. Next, using the saw, he makes a flat cut, beginning at the opposite side of the tree. As the flat cut gets close to the v-cut, the upper part of the tree starts to lean and fall over. At this point the treetopper yells as loud as he can, “TIMBER!”

The top part of the tree takes seconds to free fall through the air. This part of the tree might be 80 or 100 feet long. It hits the earth with a thunderous crash, making the ground shake. The falling part of the tree pushes the main part of the tree sideways, so that the treetopper, attached by his spikes and rope, sways violently back and forth for a few seconds.

Often, when the tree stops swaying, the treetopper takes a little break for a few minutes by sitting on the tree where the cut was made. He has a bird’s eye view of the forest up there. Perhaps he feels for a few minutes like a king on an extremely high throne before climbing down.

Another Dangerous Perch

You may never have to climb a tree to a height of 150 feet to cut part of it down, but there is another great height from which everyone is in danger of falling that you need to know about. People that don’t know the Lord Jesus as Saviour are in danger of falling from the heights of this world into the depths of a lost eternity!

This fall can’t be measured in feet, but the enormity of the fall can be described in other ways. It is a fall from this world, where it’s pleasant to enjoy the light, to the darkness of hell where the light of the wicked will be put out in everlasting darkness. It is a fall from a place where men and women can freely choose to turn their lives over to God, to a place where those who have rejected Christ will remain in the hardness of their hearts forever. It is a fall from this world where goodness, truth, and beauty abound, to the barren emptiness of hell where none of those things can be found. Hell is to be avoided at all costs! “I say unto you My friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear Him, which after He hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him” (Luke 12:4-5).

Some people just seem cut out for doing dangerous jobs like tree-topping. But no one in their right mind should continue to take the dangerous risk of being sent away to everlasting punishment. Everyone should realize the extreme danger of remaining in their sins and come to the Saviour of sinners to have those sins dealt with once and for all. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

The Lord Jesus is uniquely qualified to be the Saviour of sinners, because He was both Man and God in the same person. As Man, He could suffer death. And this is what He did when He let Himself be taken by cruel hands and be nailed to a cross of wood. His death has infinite power to cancel out His creatures’ sins. Think of it! The Lord Jesus wanted you, and all others like you, to be with Him for eternity, so He willingly came to this earth and died for sinners! Oh the wonder and the marvel in the five words, “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3)!

Because He died for sin, all who accept Him have their sins forgiven, and all may go to heaven. If your sins were a thousand times worse than they actually are, His blood that was shed on Calvary could still wash them away. “The blood of Jesus Christ [God’s] Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7).

Look at it this way: The Lord Jesus left the glorious heights of heaven and came down to this sin-stained earth. His purpose? To bring sinners home to glory where they can be with Him forever.

Will you put your trust in Jesus Christ? “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth” (Romans 1:16).

Acting on God’s offer of mercy is vitally important. Recognizing that we need that mercy is the first step toward receiving it. Read about it in “I Could Have Freed a Thousand More!”

I Could Have Freed a Thousand More

I freed a thousand slaves, and I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves,” said Harriet Tubman, an Underground Railroad Conductor who led hundreds of slaves to freedom in the pre-Civil War days. This diminutive black woman, an ex-slave herself, would travel into the South, and then hiding by day and walking by night, she would lead groups of slaves to the North. Nineteen times she made the dangerous trek into the South and is credited with leading hundreds of slaves to freedom.

Often Harriet would come to a clandestine meeting of slaves and explain to them how she could lead them to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Many would refuse her offer because they didn’t see themselves in the bondage of slavery. Not seeing themselves in the condition of slavery, they were not willing to undertake a long and arduous trip to escape it. Disappointed, Harriet would have to begin the trip back to the North with fewer companions than she had hoped for.

The reluctance to admit they were slaves kept many from seeking freedom. Today, the same thing is going on when the gospel is preached — people don’t see their need of the Saviour to set them free.

Only the Lord Jesus can set the sinner free. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).

How does the Lord Jesus set the sinner free? Let me give you three ways.

The Lord Jesus can set people free from the wages of sin. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). “What is the big deal about the wages of sin?” you might ask. “Everyone dies.” True, but death in this verse includes the separation of souls from God for all eternity in hell. It is much more than just the physical death of the body. In this case, it is not true that slaves don’t receive wages.

He can set souls free from the guilt of sin: “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39). How precious it is to know that your sins are forgiven and paid for by what the Lord Jesus did on the cross!

He can also set souls free from the fear of death. “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26).

But nothing the Lord Jesus has to offer will make any sense to you until you see yourself as you truly are — a lost, undone sinner, without a shred of righteousness, headed towards judgment, both in this life and the life to come. You are not alone in this condition. This is the condition of every man and woman outside of Christ. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the [slave] of sin,” the Lord Jesus said in John 8:34. The human race, apart from Christ, is a race of slaves to sin. We have a great need of the Saviour of sinners — the Emancipator of all those who believe!

When the gospel of God’s grace is presented to you, will you see your need of salvation? Or will you pass the Saviour by because you think you are just fine without Him? Oh, be wise and consider what it means to be a lost sinner — a slave to sin — and then ask the Lord Jesus to save you and set you free!