Friday, July 3, 2020

Do you proclaim Christ?

Thinking about some of the things that are out there in the world today. Coronavirus is a part of our daily lives today. If you watch local news, the numbers of new cases is read like baseball scores. Whenever a new case happens here in Page County, I get an email and a text, telling me that another case has been confirmed. It has only gone off 20 times in the past 3+ months as there has only been 20 confirmed cases in the county. Excitement! It gave people something to talk about when they saw each other or talked with each other on the phone or internet. Another case! WooHoo! All right, I am being cynical. But it felt like there was a sense of excitement when another case was found. It was the talk of the town.

We are made to be afraid of the virus. It will kill you. If you don't social distance and wear a mask and stay away from every other person, you will get the virus and you will die. If you don't get it, your grandma or grandpa will get it from you, and they will die. The whole idea is stay inside, stay away from each other, stay home from work, stay out of school and if you do that, then you just might not die or you might not kill another person. Live in fear. Be afraid. Be very afraid of this virus.

And I think, I wish that people were that afraid of hell. I wish that people would be just as adamant about telling people about that which will save their lives - Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, you are going to die and go to hell. Period. If the virus kills you, and you don't believe in Jesus, you will go to hell. If you die from a heart attack, a car accident or any of the other million ways you might (it is "might" but the fact is that we are all going to die in some fashion) die, and you don't believe in Jesus as your Savior, you will not go to heaven. You will go to hell.

But that is something that we don't share. We can be told that we must accept what we are told by this doctor or this expert, even if there is another doctor or expert that says just the opposite about the virus. Accept it. Believe it. Live it. If you don't, you aren't being loving to others.

Yet don't tell anyone about Jesus because you cannot force your beliefs on someone else. You must wear a mask, but don't tell anyone about Jesus. You must stay 6 feet away from other people, but you cannot tell them about Jesus because that is forcing your beliefs on others. Wait - force your beliefs of the coronavirus on others, but don't force your beliefs on salvation on others. I shake my head. Why/ Because Christians listen to this way of thinking and avoid talking about their faith because they don't want to force their beliefs on others.

There are so many other things that upset me. A black national anthem being played at football games. When did we get a black national anthem? I don't remember that being accepted by the nation. When will there be the Hispanic national anthem? Or the white national anthem? There won't be! Why? There is only one national anthem. I guess we shouldn't be surprised. As a child of God, I find that I am just as disgusted, or maybe more so, when we are told there are other ways to salvation that Jesus Christ. Really? When did Jesus say that there are other ways to the Father? He didn't. There is no other way. There is only one way of salvation for whites, blacks, hispanics, asians and so on. That way is through Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, who suffered and died upon the cross and rose from the dead on the 3rd day.

One way to salvation. One hope for life. Not found in a national anthem. Not found in a mask. Not found in our attempt to make things my way. It is found only in Jesus Christ. Plain and simple. Remember that.

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