"Every day counts when we are devoted to God!" -Elizabeth George (A Woman After God's Own Heart)

Jesus was forsaken so we would never be. -Dr. John Barnett

Daily Scripture Verse

"Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall." -Psalm 55:22

Friday, December 29, 2006

The Avoided Word


The topic that I’m going to be talking about today is a very touchy one. It’s one that very few people wish to talk about. In fact, not many churches in America are willing to bring up this word for fear that it will drive away too many people.
The word is death.
Most people in the world don’t like death. They don’t want to even think about it. Why?
Because they have no hope. They have absolutely no idea what is going to happen to them when they die. In fact, they are afraid of death.
As a true follower of Jesus, we have no reason to be afraid of death. John 11:25-26a- Jesus said...”I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in Me will never die. Psalm 91:14-16- “Because he loves Me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges My name. He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation.”
Death is only the beginning of eternity.
As a true follower of Jesus Christ we will spend eternity worshipping Jesus in Heaven. For those who haven’t surrendered their lives to Christ, they will spend eternity in Hell separated from God forever.
We as true believers in Christ need to get out there and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us. “Friends don’t let friends go to Hell.”1
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1. Mardel’s Christian bookstore t-shirt

Testimony of an Anonymous Person


Well, I grew up in Detroit. I spent most of my life fighting with family and people on the block.
I got abused a lot by my dad, physically and verbally. He would tell me how stupid I was and slap me around. He popped my ear drum a few times from hitting me so hard.
I started drinking before I was 12 to deal with stuff.
About the age of 12 we moved down to Texas where I started to learn how to defend myself. I became trained in the art of Kenpo. I found a bunch of new people to fight with and I also found some other kids to drink with.
In Texas, I also started getting into some sexual sin.
Around the age of 13, I was able to fend my dad off so the physical abuse stopped, but the verbal just got worse.
We moved up to Oklahoma where I started up swimming and playing chess. But even in those activities I was able to find the drinkers and trouble makers.
My family situation just got worse. It wasn’t that my family was all that bad. My dad had medication problems which affected his temper. I think it was mostly me. I was a liar, a thief, destructive, drunk, had huge anger problems, and I was really bad into sexual sin.
Despite the fact I was really bad at school I excelled at chess and took 2nd at nationals (open section). (Chess was an excuse for me to hang with smokers, drinkers, and bums basically.) Despite drinking and abusing my body, I became an excellent swimmer, and made Olympic trials by the age of 16 and a half.
At the age of 17, I decided that I needed to do something about my life. My life was really going down the crapper fast. Figured a church might have some good people in it.
I remembered this old annoying guy that had bought some ribs from me years ago and told me about his church. I drove around, found his home and met with him about a week later.
I became a Christian on July 1st at his house and started going to church the week after that.
I met an awesome group of people at this church. They invited me on their float trip and then out to a party. If it weren’t for the fact I have so many awesome friends at my church, I probably would have stopped going and not be where I am now.
It took me months to quit drinking completely.
About 6 months ago I had a series of really bad luck. I actually pulled the trigger of a gun pointed at my head. I am still not sure why it didn’t go off, but I am glad it didn’t. God and my friends helped me through it.
I still sin a lot. And I mean a lot. But every time I do, I turn to my best friend that is standing right next to me every moment ask Him to forgive me and then continue to make it right.
I get along with my family, we still have our problems, but we work through them now.
I took a program called EE (Evangelism Explosion). It teaches you how to share the Gospel. I now witness to everyone I can.
I am currently concentrated on growing closer to God. It is a difficult task, but well worth it. I have realized that the only thing I can give God is the life He gave to me.
Even though I don’t think I will ever be able to get married and have a family, I will have a happy life serving God for sending His Son to die for me and take away my sins.
Oh, and that “old annoying guy” is my best friend now and an awesome accountability partner.
I guess my suggestion to anyone reading this is that no matter how bad things get...turn to God and He will help you. He has turned me from wanting to kill myself to never wanting to die because there are so many people to share His Gospel with. “His name will be the hope of all the world” Matthew 12:21 NIV

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Love Our Enemies

Some of you are probably wondering, “Why on Earth would I want to even consider loving my enemies?” Well, the answer is simple. Because Jesus has commanded us too! That’s right, Jesus, our Lord and Savior has told all of His followers to love our enemies.
In Matthew 5:44 Jesus tells us to love our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”
Not only does Jesus tell us to love our enemies, He also tells us to do three other things. We’re told to bless those who curse us, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who use and persecute us.
Now this is something that hits close to home for me. Recently, I’ve been having trouble with one of my friends, in fact she hates me. I’m still not sure what caused her to hate me, and I had been really struggling with this. Then one day as I read this passage in Matthew everything came into focus. Even though *Misty* (not her real name) still hates me I need to do good to her, pray for her, love her, and bless her. It’s hard I’ll admit, but I know that it’s what Jesus would want me to do.
If we as Christians continue to hate our enemies what does that do for our testimony? It harms it more than helping it. People won’t want to listen to what you have to say if you go around hating you enemies because they won’t see any difference in your life compared to the way everyone else lives. We as Christians should be known for our love.

Prayer And Time With God


Our time spent with God while reading our Bible and praying is a very important part of our Christian walk. We as Christians need to have a daily time where we read our Bible and pray to God. When I say daily I mean daily. Everyday.
Why don’t we as Christians want to read our Bible and pray daily? Because we’re too “busy.” A couple of months ago I figured out something very important. I figured out that time with God is important. (How ironic) During the day I would tell myself I don’t have time to read my Bible or pray. I’m too busy. Man was I wrong!
I had a whole lot of time. I just would rather read a different book instead of the Bible. I used to stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning reading some book instead of the Bible. Now don’t get me wrong, reading books other than the Bible is ok so long as they are God honoring, and if it doesn’t take out your quite time with the Lord.
Now I find that I have no problem with finding time to read my Bible. Reading my Bible and praying daily has helped me get through the day. When I don’t read my Bible, it’s hard to concentrate on school, I find I’m very irritable, and just not a very nice person to hang around during the day. What a change! I thank God daily that I have a Bible and am able to read it without fear of being put into prison.
I want to say one last thing.
God loved us so much he sent His only Son to come to Earth and die on the cross and rose from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins and purchase a place in Heaven for us. Shouldn’t we, His creation, give Him time? He loves us. We need to take time out of our busy schedule and talk to God. Share with Him what has been going on in your life. He is faithful.
1 Timothy2:13- If we are faithless He remains faithful...

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Moriah's Testimony

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I thought it would be a good idea to tell you all my testimony of how God changed me from a cussing, little brat to the person I am today.
I was born in Colorado on February 17, 1990 in a small hospital. My brother, Craig was born in the same hospital, same room, and same nurses on March 16, 1991.
The start of the memories of my life began in Tulsa, Oklahoma when I was about 3. I lived with my mom, dad, and younger brother Craig. We live in North Tulsa in a tiny one bedroom house in a run down neighborhood.
My dad was hardly ever home because he was a truck driver, and my mom couldn’t get a job to help pay the bills because she had to take care of us kids. Well, needless to say we were kicked out of our house. It was around this time that my parents divorced. Not long after the divorce my mom got hooked up with some guy, who later became my step-dad.
Well, about three months after we had moved into the apartments, we boarded a Grey Hound bus and went to Washington where my grandparents lived. We stayed with them over the Christmas season, then we moved again to California.
In California, we moved from one homeless shelter and apartments to another. When I was about 6; I was raped my step-dad's best bud. When I told my parents about what had happened; they didn't believe me.


By the time I was 6 1/2 both my parents drank, smoked pot, and my step-dad was a pack-a-day smoker.
My step-dad would often beat us kids with the metal part of a belt when he was high, or in a drunken rage.
My youngest brother was born when I was about 6 1/2, and soon Craig and I felt left out, and unwanted.
When I was in the 4th grade, my family moved in with some friends we had known when we were in a homeless shelter together. That school year proved to be extremely hard. I got head lice, and I couldn’t get rid of it. In the end I missed about half of the school year.
Near the end of my 4th grade year, my parents got a tax return check. My mom and step-dad then decided to move us to Oklahoma so we could be near my step-dad’s parents.
So we packed up the car and moved to Oklahoma. We stayed with my grandparents about a year then moved into a small trailer park about a half a mile away from the Tulsa Zoo.
I started attending the public school in the town that I lived in after summer break. Since I had missed so much school when we lived in California, I had to do 4th grade over again. I was very shy at first. I wouldn’t talk to anyone, and when I did start to talk people called me an idiot.
Well, 4th grade came and went, and we had moved in with my grandparents again, and it was then that I did things that to this day I still regret. Some of these sins included sexual sins, cussing, and drinking beer. It got worse as I got older.
5th grade came and went, and I became very bitter. I hated everyone. I wanted to move out of my grandparents house so bad that I actually attempted to run away on several occasions. None of these attempts succeeded though. It was like something or Someone was stopping me from doing it.
6th grade was the peek of it all. During the summer I had prayed the prayer. I only did it though because I thought it was the right thing to do at the time. But when I got back from summer camp my life continued to go down hill at top speed. I cussed every other word, had a bad relationship with a boyfriend, drank, smoked, I started messing around with pot and I tried to commit suicide on several occasions. On top of all this I was pushing God as far away from me as I possibly could.
Well, 6th grade finally ended and I had promised myself that I was going to commit suicide during the summer or run away. I just couldn’t stand living with my grandparents any longer.
One fateful day my aunt came and picked me up to spend the weekend at her house, and while in the car she asked me if I wanted to come and live with her and her family. I enthusiastically said yes. So a few weeks later Craig, Adam, and I went to live with my aunt and uncle. Within weeks we all began to call them Mom and Dad because they were more of parents to us then our real parents had been.
Almost immediately I saw a difference in the way that they lived their life and how I lived mine. They didn’t cuss, smoke, drink, or yell at each other. I can honestly say that I wanted what they had. So I started to listen to my new parents and to the pastor at the church I started attending. I was told several verses during my time of searching that I would like to tell all of you. I was told that Heaven is a free gift. Romans 6:23- For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. I was also told that Heaven cannot be earned or deserved. Ephesians 2:8-9- For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast. Let’s just say for instance you have a friend and that friend gives you a very expensive car ( 2006 Corvette) for your birthday. And out of the blue you start pulling out your wallet or purse to give your friend some money to help pay for this gift. That would be so insulting! It is a gift that must be accepted freely because if you pay for it then it is no longer a gift. I think you guys will understand this more clearly when I tell you what the Bible says about man. You see, man is a sinner. Romans 3:23- For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Let me explain what sin is. Sin is anything that is contrary or goes against God’s perfect law. Some of these sins could be lying, cussing, pride, lust, and hatred. The Bible tells us that these are all sins. You are probably think, “Everyone does it, so what?” Just because everyone does it doesn’t make it right. Sin is a very serious issue! And since man is a sinner, he can’t save himself. We would have to be perfect. Matt. 5:48- Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. Some of you have heard the saying that the good stuff you do in your life will outweigh the bad. If this theory were true or even possible then there would be no need for Jesus to come to earth. Sin is sin.
Let me clarify on who God is. God is merciful therefore he doesn’t want to punish us. 1 John 4:8b- ...for God is love. But God is just therefore he must punish sin. Exodus 34:7b- He will by no means clear the guilty. So we have a major problem. This problem was solved about 2000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the infinite God-man. John 1:1,14- In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. (In the Bible the word Word is capitalized which means it is a name of God. So in other words you can replace the word Word with the name of Jesus.) You see, Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead 3 days later to pay the penalty for our sin and purchased a place in Heaven for us. Isaiah 53:6- We all like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all. This free gift can only be received by faith. The key to Heaven; the key that will open the doors of Heaven; is called saving faith. Saving faith is trusting in Jesus Christ alone for eternal life. Acts 16:31- Trust on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved... Finally the light bulb above my head clicked on and I knew what I had to do. So right then and there, while I was laying in bed, I put my trust in Jesus Christ, and decided to live for Him.
Sure life is still really hard at times, in fact recently I had fallen away from God, and had become a cutter, but not only that I had tried to commit suicide. I finally came back to God and have walked with Him ever since.
Later after I had gone through my struggles with cutting and all, I had asked myself why that had happened to me. Well, a few months later a friend of mine was going through the same thing that I had already experienced, and I was able to help that person in a way that not very many people could have.
So now I come to the end of my testimony. I want to thank you for reading my testimony. I pray that one day you all will come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way, just as I have. Thank- you and God bless!
(I would encourage you to check out the other testimonies on this blog, and if you would like to submit your own testimony; just shoot me your testimony by email. Thanks and God bless!)

The Love of Altruism

Altruism is the principle of living for the good of others; unselfish.

My Bible Study teacher had asked me to do a study on “The Characteristics of Altruism as Evidenced in the Life of Paul and How This Applies to Us Today” for a in-town retreat that are group of Bible Study girls were going to. That was about a year ago, and I thought it would be good to have it on here for you to read and think on.

Test all things hold fast to that which is good. - 1 Thessalonians 5:21

I want to begin this study with telling you that I had googled the word altruism and came up with 2,510,000 sites on the word altruism. I couldn’t even begin to look at all these sites, it’s physically impossible. So I got off the internet and looked in the one Book that could help me with this study of altruism. That Book is the Bible.
I turned to the book of 1 Corinthians, and that is where most of the biblical material is taken from. The versions used in this study are NKJV, NIV, and the Amplified Bible Version.
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How many times have you heard the word “Altruism” before? For a few, you might have heard this word before, and for some this might be the first time you’ve heard this word.

Note: You might want to check out 1 Corinthians 8-9 (It might help you understand more)

In the first 3 verses of 1 Corinthians 8, Paul talks about how we know that idols aren’t real or of this world and that it’s ok to eat the meat sacrificed to idols. But in the next verse it says that not all the Corinthian Christians knew this. So in the end some of the Christians were making the weaker Christians stumble, because it was going against there convictions. The weaker Christians thought it was wrong to eat at the idol feast, but as they walked by they might have seen some of there fellow Christians eating there at that feast. So they would question themselves and end up doing what they thought was wrong.

OK you guys are probably thinking, “Whoa, this girl’s nuts! What on Earth is she talking about?” I’m sorry if you’re confused; let me try to explain a little more in detail.
In A.D. 59 (The time that the book of 1 Corinthians was written) Christians in Corinth were having some serious problems. They were doing things that were completely contrary to God’s perfect law. Some of these sins included immorality, sectarianism, division in the church, idolatry, and so on and so forth. So Paul, being the one who started the church in Corinth, had to do something to help his brothers and sisters in Christ. So he wrote them a letter. Hence, the book of 1 Corinthians. Most of the Corinthian Christians were former idol worshippers and so most of them still thought that the idols were real to some extent. So they didn’t want to eat the meat sacrificed to these idols because they thought it was wrong. They were new Christians and they didn’t know that the idols weren’t real and that it was perfectly fine to eat the meat that was sacrificed to the false gods as some of the other Christians knew. So as I explained a couple of paragraphs before, the stronger Christians were making the weaker ones stumble and fall into sin. (I hope that helped!)

When you truly come to know Christ in a personal way, the Holy Spirit convicts you of things in your life that need to go. For me the Holy Spirit convicted me of some CDs that I had in my room. The songs on those CDs were not God honoring so I threw them out.

When you go against these convictions it becomes sin. Sin is anything that displeases the Lord or is a transgression against His holy, and perfect law.

You see, Paul was an altruistic person. What I mean by this is that he was free to go to the feasts at the temples and eat the meat sacrificed to the false gods, but he didn’t. Paul didn’t want to become a stumbling block to the weaker Christians.

Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.- 1 Corinthians 8:13

We are also free people, but like Paul we need to be careful about what we do. If you have a friend who you know is extremely addicted to the TV then don’t turn it on when you get together at your house. (Even if your favorite TV show is on.) There are plenty of other things that you could do. It is important for us not to make our weaker brothers and sisters stumble. This is a form of altruism.

1Corinthians 9:19 says, “For though I am free in every way from anyone’s control, I have made myself a bond servant to everyone, so that I might gain the more for Christ.” So Paul was free, he didn’t belong to anyone except Jesus Christ. But as my pastor has said numerous times, he became a bondservant or an under rower. (An under rower is a slave who would row at in the bottom of a large ship) Paul tells us the reason why he did this too. He said that he wanted to win the souls of as many people for Christ as he possibly could. We also as Christians need to become bondservants for Jesus Christ. It won’t be easy, but it is defiantly worth it.

1 Corinthians 9:20-23 says, “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak, I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in it’s blessing.” Paul not only cared for these people but he also loved them. If Paul didn’t love these people he wouldn’t have taken the time to get to know them. That’s what he means when he says that he became like a Jew, one under the law, and so on. When you love and care for someone; you want to know everything about that person. Paul did this. He took time to listen and understand the people. Paul wanted to find common ground with these people before confronting them with their need to change.

We also need to do this. We as Christians need to take time out of our schedule (however busy it may be) to talk to and try to understand the people around us. These people would include your next door neighbors, friends that you hang out with, your teammates, even family members fall under this category. This again is another form of altruism.

Another way we can be altruistic like Paul is by not offending people with our life-style. What I mean by this is simply by the way we dress, how we talk, who we talk about, and where we go affects those around us, and we should be careful about these things. For girls, wearing an extremely tight shirt affects those around you. You’re probably say well yeah, that’s what I want, right? Sorry to say but this is wrong. We don’t please the Lord when we dress that way. Sure we please the world, but our top priority should be Jesus not the world. For guys, wearing your pants all the way to your ankles is not God honoring either (in my opinion). There is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing a belt every once in a while.
Now I’m not saying that girls have to wear dresses all the time and guys have to wear suits, but we need to honor God with what we wear. Some Christians find tight shirts, and baggy pants offending, and the last thing we need is to have a fellow Christian stumble because of what we wear.

I hope by the examples I’ve shown you that you can see that although altruism is not a common word it is a very important word, and deserves our time and study.

Monday, December 25, 2006

Soul Force, What the Bible Does Say About Homosexuality

I don’t know how many of you have heard about Soul Force, but basically it is an organization supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender “Christians.” Unfortunately, these people haven’t read their Bible well enough to find out that this is not only wrong but it’s a direct transgression against God’s law.
Recently, I have been receiving mail from Soul Force. The front cover has the title of “What the Bible Says—and Doesn’t Say—About Homosexuality.” I found this title interesting, and decided to read the material inside. Within minutes I was disgusted with what I was reading. This organization was saying that it is OK to be a homosexual and a Christian all at the same time. I know that the Bible clearly tells us that this is wrong.
One of the sentences in the pamphlet, that Dr. Mel White wrote, stuck out to me more then anything. I want to share with you what he said and how it is contrary to God’s law.
“I’m convinced the Bible has a powerful message for gay and lesbian Christians-as well as straight Christians. But it’s not the message of condemnation we so often hear.” In Genesis 18 and 19 it says that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave.” Most of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah were gay. In Genesis 19:4-8 it talks about how two men of God came into Sodom and Lot brought them into his house. The men of the city came and ordered the men to come out because the wanted to know them carnally as the NKJV Bible writes. (Other versions leave out the word carnally) Well, Lot then said here take my two virgin daughters and do whatever you want with them; just don’t do anything to these men. Let me ask you a question: Why would Lot offer his two virgin daughters to the men of the city if they only wanted to shake hands with the two men of God? That just doesn’t make sense.
The message is of condemnation! God explains this in Leviticus 18:22. “You shall not lie with a male as with a women. It is an abomination.”
(The definition for abomination is—to regard with horror or loathing or to dislike strongly.) You see, God hates homosexuality with a passion. It’s an abomination to Him.
I feel that as a Christian I must stress the importance of marriage between a man and woman. The Bible tells us that God created earth and that the crown of His creation was man and woman. (Genesis 1-2) If God really wanted marriage to be between a man and man or a woman and woman then He would have created a man for Adam or a woman for Eve, but he didn’t.
It’s not Adam and Steve, it’s Adam and Eve.
Throughout the New Testament when God talks to man concerning marriage, (or anything having to do with marriage) He would say things like love your wife. (Check out 1 Peter 3:7, Ephesians 5:25, and 1 Corinthians 7 1-9 for some of the verses of the New Testament that talk to men concerning their wives) Now for the sake of this blog, I looked up the word wife in the dictionary. The dictionary says that a wife is a married woman. Is it just me or does anyone else find that interesting?
So there you have it, marriage is between a man and a woman. Therefore, if a man marries a man or a woman marries a woman then it is a sin because it goes against God’s perfect law of how things should function.

Genesis vs. Evolution

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” –Genesis 1:1
With this said, why do we have such a problem with believing that God is truly the one who created everything?
In the belief of Evolution we are told that we evolved from an ape, and before that we came from this primordial soup. If this is true then why aren’t all apes evolving into men? Where is this missing link?
The answers are simple. In fact they are so simple that a little child could understand them. These answers are found in the Bible. In the Bible we’re told that God created the heavens and the earth, and that he made man in His image. (Genesis 1:1, 27) Once He made man, God then formed the woman Eve out of Adam’s rib.
So now you know that God created man and woman. We didn’t evolve from some ape after a billion years. Therefore there can be no missing link.
The fact that the Evolution theory changes yearly is a dead give away that it’s impossible to have occurred. It just doesn’t add up.
In Creation everything makes sense. We have the Creator who created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. (Genesis 1-2:2)
Some people have the idea that one day in Genesis means so many years. This belief is called the ‘Apparent Age Theory’. This theory is false. “In Genesis 1, yom comes with “evening” and “morning”, and is modified by a number. So it’s obvious that the Hebrew text is describing a 24-hour day.” –Jonathan Sarfati, Answers in Genesis Creation Magazine
Another thing that some people believe is that sure God created the world but He let it continue on all by itself. What I mean by this is that the world just sustains itself. Well if the world just sustained itself then there would be no need for God anymore. The Bible tells us that God is always watching over us and He has everything in control. (Matthew 6:26-30)

Unchanging Christ

I came across a verse recently in Hebrews that says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8)
I read this verse, stopped, and read back over it again this time more slowly. After I had read it for the 4th time; I sat there on my bed thinking about that verse.
Jesus Christ is the same always. He never changes...ever. That’s a difference between Him (God Almighty) and mortal, finite men and women. We change our minds so many times daily that it’s a wonder how we can keep up with anyone let alone ourselves.
Jesus never changes. He’s the same as He has been since He created earth about 6,000 years ago.[1] The cool thing about all of this is since He never changes; we can put our trust in Him. That truly is awesome when you stop and think about it.
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[1] Answeres in Genesis, Creation Magazine

Life on the Fence Post

Life is a lot like trying to balance on a wooden fence, trying not to fall off. On your left you’ve got the world yelling at you telling you, “Come on! Jump over on this side! It’ll be a lot of fun! You can do whatever you want and there are no consequences!”
You see what they’re doing and it looks very enticing, but then from somewhere on your right you hear Him (which is Jesus Christ). In a still small voice, He calls to you and says, “Come to me and find rest, you who are weary.(Jeremiah 31:25) I love you with all of My heart. (John 3:16) Trust in Me and you will be saved.” (Acts 16:31)
You look over at Jesus, then back at the world. The world is calling you to join the fun, and Jesus is calling you to follow Him. You look over your shoulder back at Jesus, and His nail pierced hands stretch out toward you. He smiles at you...a smile that brings tears to your eyes.
You look away from Jesus, and turn your eyes onto the world. They look like they’re having the time of their lives, you think to yourself. You hear His voice again. He says only one word to you...”Come.”
You make a decision, and you jump..., but on what side of the fence did you jump on? It’s your choice. You have to decide.
You may think that you can just stay balanced on the fence, but the truth is...you can’t. You’re going to fall, and I assure you that when that happens; you won’t land on the right side.
The world may seem enticing, but in the end it leads to destruction and death. Proverbs 14:12- There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
Think about it. Cory died of lung cancer because he smoked. Sammy got AIDS because she slept with 5 different people a week. Tony died because he overdosed on some drugs. Death and destruction is all around us. Every thing we do has consequences to it...whether good or bad.
You have to make the decision to follow Christ. Nothing I say can make you do it. It’s your decision...what are you going to do?