CHAPTER SIX – Dead and Buried

Did you ever wonder why it’s so hard for some people to quit doing things they know are bad for them?  It’s usually because they’ve been doing it for a long time.

If a person smokes one cigarette or drinks one beer and realizes that it’s gross and unhealthy, it’s easy for them to never drink or smoke again.  It’s even easier for people who have never even tried such things.  If they have watched other people’s lives destroyed by things like drugs or alcohol, it’s extremely easy for them to choose never to touch those things.  But for the person who has made it a habit and become addicted after months (or even years) of use it can be an extremely difficult struggle to break free of those bonds they have created.

It’s the same way with sin.  People choose to turn their backs on God, and break his commands.  And the deeper they go and farther they run from God the more they become enslaved by their own evil.  They become so used to living in sin and their minds are so darkened that they can’t even imagine what life could be like if they weren’t slaves to wickedness.

That’s why the fact that Jesus is willing to cleanse us from all sin is such Good News.  Not only does he save our lives from eternal damnation, he purifies our lives from the stain of sin and empowers us with the Holy Spirit to be able to live the way he commands us to live.  When we choose to repent and to turn away from sin and toward God, in his wonderful grace, God sets us free from that slavery to sin and death, and we are free indeed to live for Jesus and have a brand new life in relationship to him.

I don’t know about you…but I think that’s awesome!

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CHAPTER FIVE – Do You Want The Good News or The Bad News First?

Have you ever notice how things can completely change depending on your perspective?  For example, imagine that you’re asleep–a nice comfortable sleep filled with sweet dreams and somebody slaps you in the face so that you wake up to a very sore cheek.  How do you feel about that person?

Ok, now say the same scenario happens, but once you’re awake the person who hit you explains that the building you’re in is on fire, and you need to get out before you’re trapped inside.  Now how do you feel about that person?

The Bible can bring about different reactions from different people.  For example.  If you don’t love God, and your life demonstrates a disregard for how he has told us to live, much of the Bible is going to sound pretty harsh–and even frightening.  But if you’ve been saved by God, and your life shows it through living the way he tells us to, then you’re going to read the same Bible with a lot of thanks and joyfulness.

So what do you get out of it–good news or bad news?

PS. I don’t know what happened, but this one has terrible sound quality too.  The others are better.

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CHAPTER THREE – Really Bad Breath

Let’s say you are at home, in your front yard, and you look across the street and notice black smoke and flames coming from the roof of your neighbors house.  Then you notice that your neighbor is just getting home from work and hasn’t noticed that his house is on fire and he’s on the porch fumbling for his keys.

What do you do?  Do you let him go into a burning house without saying a word.  Or do you yell at the top of your lungs, “DON’T GO IN THERE!  YOUR HOUSE IS ON FIRE!”

Now picture all the people who are dooming themselves to eternal fire through their own sin.  What do you do?  Do you do whatever it takes to get their attention and convince them to stop?  Or do you let them walk into that burning house?

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CHAPTER TWO – I Surgery

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “You reap what you sow.”  Did you know it’s really true?  It’s not just a saying.  If you live a good life and help others and always do what’s right and obey God in everything you do, then you will reap the good fruit of integrity and character and peace and joy.  But if you sow dishonesty and gossip and sinfulness, you will reap judgment and punishment and death.  Do you believe it?  Do you believe it enough to change the way you live?

Either way you’ll end up believing it.  On that day when you stand before the Great Judge of the universe, you’ll believe you reap what you sow because you’ll experience it in a deeper reality than you’ve ever experienced before.

My suggestion: get right with Jesus today.  Change your life and ask God to forgive you so that you can start living for him now and reap a good fruit rather than a bad harvest.

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CHAPTER ONE – It’s Greek to Me

Have you ever noticed that most people who say they disagree with the Bible have never read the Bible?  Isn’t that funny?  Actually, it’s not funny…it’s sad.  You would think that people would want to read such an important book–whether or not they agree with it.  That way you could at least disagree from a position of knowledge rather than complete ignorance.

But what’s even more sad than that are all the people who claim to believe in the Bible who have never read it all the way through.  How could anybody be so irresponsible as to base their life on a book that they’ve never read.  That’s probably why there are so many little factions who each call themselves the “real” church.

If all those people (believers and unbelievers) would read the book, there would probably be a lot less arguments about religion.

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Do you think you’d get a better report on the Civil War from a modern historian or by spending some time with Abraham Lincoln?  Do you think you could get a better picture of what the Apollo 11 moon landing was like by checking out the NASA website or by sitting down with Neil Armstrong and having him tell you the story about when he took that small step/giant leap?

Obviously, if it were possible to talk to the people who had been a part of events in the past, you’d get some amazing stories about those events.  You could get a feeling for what it was like by talking to the people who were there when it happened.

Did your parents ever tell you about when you were born?  Did your grandparents ever tell you about what it was like to live through the Great Depression or to watch the Apollo Moon Landing on live TV?  Wasn’t it cool to hear those stories from the people who’d seen it happen?

So along those same lines, would it be better to learn about the history of the world from somebody who was never there but had made a guess about what might have happened as the world started or from Someone who was there, Someone who actually built the Earth, Someone who designed the universe as a star spangled backdrop for His favorite creation to enjoy when the sun went down?

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Paul said, in 1st Corinthians, that if Christ has not risen from the dead that our faith is pointless.  What use is it to believe in a man who said he would rise from the dead who never rose from the dead?  So all of Christianity is hinged on the fact of Christ’s resurrection.  And if Jesus did not really live, die, and then live again, then it makes no sense to put our faith in anything else about Jesus.

In the same way, if you can’t accept part of the Bible, then what’s the point of accepting any of the Bible?  There are plenty of things in the Bible that people have a hard time accepting–Jonah and the fish, Noah’s flood, the creation of the universe in 6 days, etc.  But if you can’t take those things at face value, how can you put faith in other parts?

Jesus taught from Genesis.  So if you believe Jesus, then you need to take the whole Bible seriously.

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I’ve heard people say they think Jesus is cool–he was a nice guy, a good teacher, a miracle worker–and they say they believe in him because he was all about love and peace and helping people.  But some of those same people say they don’t like church or they don’t like Christians or they don’t like the Bible.

The sad thing is that there is only one Jesus.  In spite of all the opinions about him today.  There are cold, hard facts about who Jesus was and what he taught.  And a lot of people who are confronted with that truth don’t want to follow Jesus–just like a lot of people who heard Jesus speak blunt truth and walked away from him.

Jesus is great, but he also taught hard truths, like real love for Jesus is shown by total obedience to his commands, and you aren’t worthy to follow him unless you are willing to walk away from everything else.

Don’t get me wrong.  I think Jesus is awesome.  And the benefits of knowing him totally outweigh any sacrifice you might make to follow him.  But if you REALLY want to know Jesus, you have to accept him on his terms, not yours.

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Christians are supposed to be the salt of the Earth.  We’re supposed to add flavor and and have the curing properties of salt and act as spiritual disinfectants in the world.  If you’re not doing that kind of stuff, you’re like salt that has lost its flavor.  And what good is salt without flavor?

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