The Bridge Tender And His Son

There is a very famous story, that many Christians know, about a draw bridge tender and his son.

One day the bridge tender takes his son to work with him. It's a nice day... the son is fishing on the bank of the river... and the father is checking on the machinery that runs the bridge. Everything is as it should be. But then the son notices the train is coming. It's early! The train has run through a red light and is heading toward the draw bridge and the bridge is open!

The son notices this and tries to pull the emergency switch. But he's too small and he falls into the gears... just as the father looks out the window, seeing his son fall into the gears. The father must make a decision. Lower the bridge, saving the train but killing his son. Or run out to pull his son from gears allowing the train to plunge to the river below.

What does he do?

An Academy Award nominated, and award winning film tells this story. It's called MOST (the Movie), which is Czech for "The Bridge".

Look At The Fields! They Are Ripe For Harvest.

Over the past week I've written about some of the deep, horrible sin we have in America, and how our embracing of our sin is resulting in God withdrawing His blessing from America.

Abortion. More children are murdered each day in America than all of the deaths we've had in Iraq.

Homosexuality. We celebrate sin.

Divorce and remarriage following divorce. We just ignore this sin. As we also do people living together outside of marriage.

...and more.

This is where most leave this subject. They condem the sin and cry about how bad it is. And we should be crying about the horrid sin going on all around us. And we should be crying about our own sin. Because most Christians are disobeying the Lord and they are not concerned about it in the least way.

The first call to share the Gospel comes early in the Gospel of John. Read chapter 4 starting at verse 34. In verse 35 Jesus says, "I tell you, OPEN YOUR EYES and look at the fields!" The fields are ready for harvest. Christians OPEN YOUR EYES, obey the Lord, love your neighbor and tell them about the Good News. Share the Gospel message with them! Why do you want to keep such good news a secret??

The Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon said that it might be doubted that you truly are a Christian if you are not sharing your faith. Yet the statistics say that only 2% of Christians actively share their faith each year.

You can sin by doing something that is in violation of God's law. You can also sin by not doing what God has commanded you to do. If a blind man was walking toward a cliff, would you not warn him about the danger ahead? Of course you would. The Bible tells us that non Christians are blind and they are heading for a huge cliff... hell. Get up, go out and share the gospel. It's the loving thing to do.

Here are blogs by two people who are sharing their faith:

The Centurion Papers

Day by Day

What Is The Answer? Evangelism

In the Bible read 1 Corinthians chapter 5. What does God say we should do when someone is an unrepentant sinner?

"Then you must cast this man out of the church and into Satan's hands, so that his sinful nature will be destroyed and he himself will be saved when the Lord returns."

Unrepentant sinners are turned over to Satan! That is what God also does with unrepentant nations, turns them over to Satan by withdrawing His blessing. For example, we see this throughout the Book of Judges. Israel turns away from God, and God then withdraws from Israel. Without the full extent of God's blessing Israel suffers. Things get so bad they then realize what they have done and they turn back to God... resulting in God's blessing being on them again.

Could this be what is happening in America now? I think so. We've been steadily turning away from God. We been steadily embracing sin... even celebrating sin just as the Corinthian church was doing!! So how is God going to react? Since we as a nation are turning away from Him, He will let us experience what it is like to be without Him.

I read somewhere that America has more violent weather... more natural disasters than any other country. We survive them better than other countries because of our wealth (strong buildings, flood control dams, advance warning of severe weather, etc.), but we are still getting hit pretty hard. Some people have taken what they see happening as one sign that the end times are near. I can't say whether this is true or not because no one knows when Jesus will return. But it seems to me that what we are seeing is God withdrawing His blessing from America and America embracing this withdrawal by diving deeper into sin.

What can we do? We can be active politically. We can support organizations that oppose abortion and homosexual marriage. But I think that is only putting and band aid on the symptom. Yes, we should be doing these things, but the #1 priority in our lives needs to be sharing the Gospel. That is what will change America.

I can hear some non-Christians saying that what I am proposing is to sell people on Christianity so we can increase our numbers and take over the country. There is a fundamental flaw with that strategy. We can not "sell" someone on being a Christian. All we can do is to help people see their need for a Savior and give them the good news. Only God "makes" someone a Christian.

All we can do is help people see that they have lied, stolen and used God's name inappropriately (blasphemy), breaking God's law. (Those are just three of the 10 Commandments.) Because you have broken God's law you owe the penalty for breaking God's law... death. But the GOOD NEWS is that Jesus Christ has already paid that penalty for you. He has died to pay the penalty YOU owe for breaking God's law. It's a free gift... all you need to do is to accept that gift.

Christians, please, go out and share the Good News. There is no better way to love someone.

Are You A Good Person?

Would you consider yourself to be a good person? That's a question that's starting to show up everywhere. It's a question based on the Bible, but I even saw what appeared to be a Buddhist web site using it.

Why is this question being asked?

Because it is ultimately the most important question that can be asked. It is pretty much the question that separates those who are going to hell from those who are going to heaven. (Take the Good Person Test at www.911christ.com).

If someone thinks they are a good person, that's a fairly solid sign they are headed for hell. Does that surprise you? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell?

That's exactly true. Good people do go to heaven and bad people do go to hell. The thing is, there is no one who is good. (Romans 3:23). We all are wicked and we all deserve to go to hell.

That upsets some people. They say, "I'm a good person. I've never murdered anyone! I'm certainly a better person than that guy who lives next door."

Anyone who says they are a good person, is counting on their own "goodness" to get into heaven. But that doesn't work. Because compared with God's standard none of us are good. And that's the standard that applies. So if we are counting on our goodness to get us into heaven, we're not going to make it. Why, just check the Ten Commandments. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever taken anything that does not belong to you? Have you always honored your parents? Have you ever looked with lust at another person? Jesus said that looking with lust is adultery in the heart.

If you have broken just one of these laws you face God's punishment. Just like when you break a civil law, there isthen a penalty to be paid. Disobeying God is very serious, and thus the penalty is very serious... the penalty is death (hell).

I was talking with a friend about this and my sister was listening. Suddenly my sister blurted out, "Then no one deserves to go to heaven!" Yes! That's it! None of use deserve to go to heaven.

So how does anyone get to heaven? It takes someone else paying our penalty, that we owe for breaking God's laws, on our behalf. Jesus did that on the cross. Jesus paid the death penalty so that you don't have to. Jesus died in your place. He died so that you can live forever with God.