A Plea for Your Life...

Today, I make a plea for you to consider your future...

You may believe there is no God – or you may simply be undecided.

You may reject that the Bible is God's written Word through which He wants to communicate with us.

You may be one who believes in God and in real places the Bible calls Heaven and Hell.

You may be one who believes that you are bound for Heaven or you may not be sure.

No matter your beliefs today, I am pleading for you to consider that the Bible might be true.  Consider this in light of the historic events that seem to unfold nearly daily.

The Bible teaches some simple but crucially important truths:

1. Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
   We are all sinners.
2. Romans 6:23a “For the wages of sin is death...”
   The price our sin "earns" is death.
3. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
   God chose to love us, sinners, in spite of our sin, by sending His son, Jesus Christ, to die as the punishment for our sins.
4. Romans 6:23b “... but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.”
   This demonstration of love is a gift from God to us, and the gift is eternal life.
5. Romans 10:9-10 “That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
   We are free to accept this gift or not.  The act of accepting the gift means we believe and confess.  We believe that Jesus first died and that He was resurrected.  We confess that we are sinners and in need of God's gift.
6. John 14:6 “Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”
   Acts 4:12 “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
   This free gift of salvation through Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven.  There is no other way and no other name through which we can be saved from Death in Hell.

This plea I make is an urgent plea.  Why is it so urgent?  Well, there is the old cliché that each day is one day closer to the end of your life – and one day closer to the end of this age.  The truth is that we do not know for sure when the end of time will come – or even the end of our lives.  But, Jesus does tell us in Matthew 24:32-33 that just as we can recognize the signs of the seasons (in a general sense), we can also recognize the general time when the end of the age is approaching.

Today, more than any other time in history, we see the jigsaw puzzle of history beginning to come together.  The world is volatile and yet, there is continual talk of peace.  The activity of our world continues to be centered around a tiny country, Israel, whose very formation in 1948 is the fulfillment of a most unlikely Bible prophecy.

While the promise of world peace has been a goal of many for more than a century, there are groups of powerful elite people who now speak openly of their goal to form a “New World Order” in hopes of achieving lasting world peace.

At the same time, there are treaties between nation-states of historic proportions such as Russia with Iran and China.

The rise of some world leader to broker a peace deal could literally occur at any day.  The Bible tells us that this attempt at lasting peace will be broken after only three and a half years.  At that time, life on earth will become a most miserable existence.

I am not trying to prove beyond all doubt that the end of this age will be today or tomorrow.  Rather, I am pleading with you to consider what if?  What if the end really is today or tomorrow?  Are you trusting in nothing but the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for your sins?  Or, is there some other way that you hope or expect will bring you to Heaven?

I can only extend the offer that God has made in His Holy Word.  The choice is yours.

I plead with you to consider what that book of prophecies has said.  This book, the Bible, has many, many prophecies which have been fulfilled with pinpoint accuracy – often with many centuries between the prophecy and the fulfillment.  It is this book that I ask you to consider...  What if the Bible proves accurate once again?  And, what if today or tomorrow is the beginning of the end of the age?  What if, “today is the day of Salvation” – as the Bible tells us in II Corinthians 6:2 “... Now is the day of salvation.”

Please, I beg you, pause today.  Place your trust in the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.  Ask God to save you today.

My Father in Heaven, I thank you so much for the gift of Salvation!  I pray that you would work in the hearts of any and all that read this.  Please use Your Word to bring some to a saving knowledge of your Son, Jesus!
As I see events unfolding in the world today, I long for the Glorious Appearing of Jesus in the clouds!
Yet, I am thankful for your great mercy which causes You to delay the conclusion of this age -- so that many will accept your gift of eternal life!

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If you have accepted God's gift of Salvation, I encourage you to pass this on to the people you know!  If you read this as a web page, an E-mail, or on a piece of paper.


This is also posted at: http://sites.google.com/site/pleaforyourlife/


A file can be downloaded and printed from: http://sites.google.com/site/pleaforyourlife/plea.pdf

If there is someone that you would like to hear this Great News, but you believe that they would be less likely to listen if it came from you, then please simply send me their E-mail address, and I will be glad to send this to them.  Please go to:

http://sites.google.com/site/pleaforyourlife/#form

NOTE: I will NOT send mass E-mail.  I will send this E-mail by request only.  The E-mail will be prefaced with the statement "Someone cared enough to request that I send this to you".

God's Provision -- God's Way...

Through the past many years, God has provided for the needs of my family through a regular, fixed paycheck.  One that I didn't have to wonder about -- is it going to be there next month?  Yes, I understood that it was God who gave me talents and abilities, and it was God who provided the job itself.

However, that was easy to "trust", if you can call it that.

Over the last months, we have seen God provide in ways that may not be "miraculous", but still bear the mark of God's hand...

1. We expected my severance pay to end after the August 15th check, but then there was another on August 31st, and that check was significantly more money than all the rest had been.
2. Then, we got another check from the money that had been held out from the severance checks for the company stock purchase plan.
3. Then, our church gave us a love gift of significant size.  We have received other gifts as well.  Of course, any gift is significant size today!
4. Then, I was having trouble with getting unemployment benefits established, but this week, they resolved this for me and we will have unemployment for the past 8 weeks (on its way here in a debit card).
5. Then, the bank inspected our house, and we were at 97% complete (closer to 100% now), and we were significantly under budget.  The rest of the money which we borrowed is sitting in the bank, and we can apply it to our mortgage month by month as needed for probably close to a year.
6. We have had friends bring food over several times which has provided relief from time to time.
7. Because we used a geothermal HVAC system, our power company (cooperative) gave us a $1000 credit which will cover several months of our electric bill.
8. Because we were on the plan to keep our bill constant all year round with the utilities in Knoxville, and because we have not used nearly the amount of water or electricity there, we had been overpaying for quite some time, and so now we have a balance that will allow us to make NO payments -- hopefully until the house sells.  And, if it sells soon enough, then we will be refunded whatever is left.

There is obviously a limit to how long we will be able to rely on the money we have, but for the immediate future, God has provided.

I do not know exactly how long each of these things will last, and I don't know whether I will find an appropriate job in the next months.  In other words, I don't know what the future holds.  But, I do know that today, God has provided, and He has been gracious enough to show us that He has provided for at least some time into the future.

In addition to all of the monetary provision we have seen these last months, we have the knowledge and assurance that nothing can separate us from the love of God and no man (or anything) can "pluck" us from Our Heavenly Father's hand!  So much in this life is unknown and unsure!  Will He provide -- even in this life?  Yes, Matthew 6 tells us that His eye is on the sparrow, and so we know that He will take care of His children.  But, we do know that His ultimate provision will be the full and final deliverance from Sin and Death as we spend eternity Worshiping our Beloved Savior!

Thank you, Father, for your promise of provision!  Thank you for showing us your provision through these recent difficult months!  Most of all, thank you for your eternal incomprehensible grace -- that if we accept that Amazing Grace, we KNOW we will have eternity to praise you and thank you for all that we do not understand today!