A choice to be made

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The Bible has been banned, burned, scoffed, and ridiculed. Scholars have mocked it as foolish, while kings and countries have branded it illegal. Politicians have minimized it. The Bible is God’s word and our best hope! “We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves; Spread the gladness all around, Jesus saves, Jesus saves; Bear the news to every land, climb the steeps and cross the waves; Onward, tis our Lord’s command, Jesus saves, Jesus saves.” (copyright 1951 Tenn. Music & Printing Co.)

In June 2005, Billy Graham preached his final BGEA Crusade message after nearly 80 years of ministry. “When the situation in the world becomes the way it was in Noah’s day, you can know that Jesus’ return is near. In Noah’s day, the world was filled with wickedness, corruption, violence – every imagination of man’s thoughts were evil. It was a world in which marriage was abused and violence prevailed.”

“Almost everyone today understand that we are approaching a climatic moment in history. The world is going to come to an end. Just look at the headlines of today’s papers. It’s all happening today and I believe God is warning us.”

When I read Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” I sometimes feel like the little boy who returned from his first day of school and his mom asks, “Did you learn anything today?” The little boy responded, “Apparently not enough. I have to go back tomorrow…and the next day…and the next…” it all begins with God! He is creator, sustainer, judge and redeemer. Mankind was made by God, saved by God’s love, and redeemed and forgiven by the cross and an empty tomb!

A Chart: “The Beginning and the End”

Genesis … Revelation

The sun is created … The sun is not needed.

Satan is victorious … Satan is defeated.

Sin enters humanity and life … Sin is banished.

People run and hide from God … People invited to live with God forever.

People are cursed … The curse is removed.

Tears are shed, sorrow for sin … No more sin, no more tears or sorrow.

The garden and earth are cursed … God’s city is glorified; the earth is made new.

Paradise is lost … Paradise is regained.

People are doomed to death – hell … Death is defeated: believers live forever with God.

The Bible records for us the beginning of the world and the end of the world. The story of mankind, from beginning to end – from the fall into sin to redemption and God’s ultimate victory over evil – is found in the pages of the Bible.

“Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.” (Revelation 22:12-14)

Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Are you one of the many or one of the few?

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By Pastor Earnie Jones

Your pastor speaks

The writer is the pastor at New Life Church.

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