One of the most important decisions anyone can make in life is what to believe about Jesus Christ. Is He simply a great prophet as some claim, is He a great teacher or is He truly the Son of God Who came to offer forgiveness of our sins and the promise of eternal life? Every person must make that choice. Some want to straddle the fence on this one, but a non-decision is a decision. It is a decision to refuse to accept Him as the Son of God and to refuse His offer of eternal life. No one can opt out of this decision.
A few days ago I mentioned Pascal's Wager. That wager states that if it is 50 percent possible that Christianity is true, then a person would be wise to become a Christian. In such a scenario a person has nothing to lose. If Christianity is true, the person who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is prepared to enter eternity when this life ends. If Christianity is not true, the person who lives as a Christian will enjoy a much better life than those who reject Christianity. This has been proven to be the case in many studies. However, if Christianity is true, and the person lives as if it is not, when his or her life ends, that person has lost everything.
In the late 1970s I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. Up until that time I had lived my life on my terms, doing mostly what I wanted to do. Although I was raised in church as a child, that early teaching had little influence on the choices I was making as a young adult. It wasn't until certain events occurred that I realized I needed to return to what I had learned as a child. Alone in our mobile home, I asked Christ to come into my life.
Two years later I was licensed by our church to preach, and about a year after that I became the pastor of a church I served for the next 20 years. I graduated from Bible school and then went on to earn a bachelor's degree, a master's and a doctorate. God led me to publish eight books on bivocational and small church ministry which led me to speak to dozens of conferences and workshops across the US and Canada. I was called to serve as a Regional Minister who was responsible for 133 churches when I retired. Today, I am privileged to serve once again as the pastor of a church. I know I have a lot more years behind me than I have before me, but I also have the confidence that when my time here on earth ends I will spend eternity in heaven, not because of all the things I've done, but because I accepted what Jesus Christ did for me on the cross and asked Him to be my Lord and Savior.
If you are not a Christian, may I ask why? What is it that you are unwilling to give up in order to accept Christ in your life? What possible reason is good enough for you to refuse to receive the gift of eternal life that Christ can give you? If you would like to talk about this, please contact me. If you do not have a church home, I want to invite you to join us at North Madison Baptist Church, 1906 Orchard Street, Madison, IN this Sunday at 10:30. We would love to have you.
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