Mar. 18—Most people today act as if this life is all about them. If it is, then it’s also all about every other individual — including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin — a scary thought indeed. There is a sense in which life is about each individual, so long as we understand that each individual’s life is accountable to God — be it yours or Putin’s.
As man’s world once again heads toward wars — whether in Ukraine, Taiwan, the Mideast or elsewhere — each of us as individuals face a rapidly approaching eternity — an eternity of peace and joy or an eternity of hellish pain. We can receive God’s gift of salvation through one of three pathways:
n First, by electing to accept God and Messiah Jesus, inviting the Holy Spirit to dwell in our heart and soul through repentance and faith;
n Second, reading and accepting God’s promises in Holy Scripture; and/or
n Third, through careful study of mankind and the wondrous world around us with a mind and heart disciplined for truth and wisdom.
As to the latter, one need go no further than observing the sun, moon, stars, the regularity of the seasons, together with nature’s animals, flowers, fruits, vegetables, DNA programming of all life and the conscience that is imbedded within each of us. Understand also the global universe with its built-in gravity and precise formula of enabling life, and a universe that was created at a moment in time and one that is still expanding. Despite contrary argument, know that not a single transitional fossil of a once-living being has yet to be uncovered. Behind all of this, there is and must be a supremely intelligent Being, and man’s “knowledge” is always subordinate to God’s wisdom.
Note two quick illustrations:
As late as the 1800’s, many believed the world flat — while Scripture written (ca)1900 BC states: “He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth.” (Isaiah 40:22)
Second, it was only in the 20th century that medical science first “discovered” human blood’s greatest coagulability to be on the eighth day of life. Scripture — written some 3,000 years ago — instructed, “Every male among you who is 8 days old must be circumcised.” (Genesis 17:12)
God is the most loving being ever. A love so great that God ordained His only Son — Messiah Jesus — to be incarnated into the world to teach and set our example, and despite being sinless, to also suffer the most painful agony and crucifixion death possible at the hands of sinful man, a death well deserved, but only for each of us. Notwithstanding, God freely offers to each of us Messiah’s death as our substitutionary and redemptive sacrifice as the only means of justifying our entry into God’s joyful eternity.
Despite this unbelievable gift of grace, God’s gift of man’s free will has produced a self-pride so strong that it has become a stumbling block causing most of us to fall, rejecting our Creator and Savior and resulting in a judgment of eternal punishment ordained by a judge who is just and holy, as well as being merciful.
Please know well that all who reject God do not just “die.” Rather, each soul will live forever experiencing either unimaginable Joy or eternal suffering — precisely as each has freely elected. Finally, understand that acceptance of Messiah Jesus as Savior is not only one’s passport to a joyful life eternal, but it also produces an immediate “joy and peace that passeth all understanding” as one journeys through life in this troubled world.