It’s helpful to think of a Covid experience as a never-ending house of horrors, with room after room of scandal and outrage, so much so that you never quite get through it. There simply are not enough researchers or column inches to cover it all.

In the past, any one of these outrages would be enough to call forth enormous public debate. Introduce them all at once – starting March 2020 – and gradually unfold and codify them over a few years and many features slip through the cracks.

Consider, for example, the continued requirement that any legally immigrating person coming to the US from another country and seeking residency is absolutely required to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a shot widely admitted not to protect against infection or spread and is associated with injury on a scale without pharmaceutical precedent.

And yet the US government requires it.

The evidence is here from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.

Note the language: “to prevent the following diseases.”

That is completely untrue. You cannot make it true simply by claiming that it prevents something. It does nothing of the kind, despite its moniker of being a vaccine. All the others are indeed vaccines that generally prevent the disease because they are sterilizing shots. The Covid-19 shot is not. And yet there it is, riding the coattails of public-health valor from past ages.

It is generally not possible to avoid the requirement. You can appeal for a religious exemption, which involves several rounds of correspondence and documentation. They have variously been granted after much headache, bureaucracy, and expense. Very few will go to the trouble.

Meanwhile, the US is currently experiencing a wave of immigration from asylum seekers which this country has never seen in raw numbers before. There is no requirement that these people coming across the Southern border and then shipped around the country face any such requirement of Covid vaccination. That only kicks in if you seek to immigrate the old-fashioned way, which is to say, by seeking legal permission.

Based on reports from Archive.org, it appears that the addition of the Covid-19 shot was in the first week of October 2021. It was not there and then it was, by pure bureaucratic edict. Edit file, submit, done.

This was long after it was well known that the vaccine did not stop infection or transmission, and long after the CDC was aware of the health risks of the vaccine. It was also a time when vaccine uptake was dramatically dropping from the levels of the initial enthusiasm from earlier that year.

By this time, vast numbers had grown skeptical and were willing to take their chances. The market for shots was headed south. It appears that immigrant populations – who had not been required to get it for the first ten months of 2021 – were roped into the market as mandates began to invade private workplaces and cities. In other words, this was a forced recruitment of immigrant populations to boost the demand for the shots.

The Biden administration attempted to impose such mandates on the whole of the private sector. The Supreme Court blocked that measure in January 2022. So most were repealed. But the one for legal immigration stayed, and has not been challenged in court.

There is a darker way to understand this policy move too. It serves as a filtering mechanism. Many people around the world were fleeing shot mandates from their home countries. Adding this one to the list of required injections was a way to signal to the world: the US would not provide any sanctuary to shot refuseniks, so don’t bother even trying.

It also operates as a culling mechanism against anti-lockdown and anti-mandate opinions. It assured that the US would not be allowing people to work here who think for themselves, look at evidence, or otherwise refuse to bow to the pharma agenda.

The CDC further elaborates on the regulation: it must be within 12 months and it does pertain to children too. There is a narrow range of exemption for repeated shots but that requires additional paperwork.

There is simply no basis for this mandate at all. The vaccine is not efficacious in the normal sense of that term. Nor is it necessary for healthy adults, much less children, who face a near-zero risk of medically significant outcomes. There is the additional peculiarity that whatever immune response occurs from the shot fades quickly, and ever less pertains to the existing strain in the community of this fast-mutating virus.

In other words, there is nothing defensible about this policy at all. It is keeping untold families apart and preventing US citizens from moving to the US with children and spouses from other countries who decline the shots. They have worked to get back but the vaccine mandate here bars them from doing so. Sadly, there are few in Congress willing to take up the causes and do something about this.

It’s the sort of rule that is enforced with no rationality at all but which benefits powerful pharmaceutical companies. The issue has been barely covered in the media at all, and there are currently no real efforts ongoing to push back because the victims are powerless and much of the world has moved on.

Meanwhile, this Covid vaccine is being gradually added to every list of requirements that is available, from immigration to the childhood schedule to school attendance. This is despite how the shot has completely failed to perform up to the promise of the first year. This is fully known by vast swaths of the world’s population, and yet US bureaucracies persist in their impositions without the slightest sense that they ought to acquiesce to the reality that everyone knows.

Copyright © 2024. Originally published by Brownstone Institute. All rights reserved.

 

Daniel Kolenda in his book Live Before You Die tells the story of an American soldier in the Vietnam War who was about to step on an anti-personnel landmine that was hidden from his sight. His comrade across the battlefield, who could see the impending disaster from his vantage point, stood up from behind his protective barricade and shouted a life-saving warning to his friend. At that moment the brave young man received a gunshot wound that ended his life.

A couple of years later, at an honorary memorial service in the United States, the soldier whose life had been saved from the landmine had a chance to meet the wife and son of his deceased friend. The son, who was only seven years old, had never gotten a chance to really know his father. The soldier could tell that this boy’s heart was broken, so he knelt down next to him and put his hand on the child’s shoulder. “I want you to know,” the soldier said, “your father saved my life.” The little boy looked up at him with tears streaming down his cheeks. “Sir,” he said, “were you worth it?”

Another minister who disguised himself under the name of George tells in his book about God’s Underground the following incident:

A Russian Army captain came to a minister in Hungary and asked to see him alone. The young captain was very brash and very conscious of his role as a conqueror. When he had been led to a small conference room and the door was closed, he nodded towards the cross that hung on the wall. ‘You know that thing is a lie,’ he said to the minister. ‘It’s just a piece of trickery you ministers use to delude the poor people to make it easier for the rich to keep them ignorant. Come on now, we alone. Admit to me that you never really believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God!’  The minister smiled. ‘But, my poor young man, of course, I believe it. It is true.’

I won’t have you play these tricks on me! Cried the captain. ‘This is serious. Don’t laugh at me!’ He drew out his revolver and held it close to the body of the minister.’ Unless you admit to me that it is a lie, I will fire!’ ‘I cannot admit that, for it is not true. Our Lord is really and only the Son of God,’ said the minister. The captain flung his revolver on the floor and embraced the man of God. Tears sprang to his eyes. ‘It is true!’ he cried. ‘It is true. I believe so, too, but I could not be sure men would die for this belief until I found it out for myself. Oh, thank you! You have strengthened my faith. Now I too can die for Christ. You have shown me how.’

When the Russians occupied Romania, two armed Russian soldiers entered a church with guns in their hands. They said, ‘We don’t believe in your faith. Those who do not abandon it immediately will be shot at once! Those who abandon your faith move to the right!’ Some moved to the right and were then ordered to leave the church and go home. They fled for their lives just like the disciples did when Jesus was arrested on the night of His crucifixion. When the Russians were alone with the remaining Christians, they embraced them and confessed, ‘We too are Christians, but we wished to have fellowship only with those who consider the truth worth dying for.’

The Cost of Discipleship

When Jesus Christ chose the twelve apostles, their role was to confirm by their words and their lives the reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus Christ, these men initially fled in fear. They were devastated by His death because death seemed so cruel and final. They must felt terrible when they saw their Lord, whom they had left everything to follow, being crucified on the cross.

Historical records of the first century clearly prove that every one of the disciples apart from the Apostle John later faced a martyr’s death without denying their faith in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The only reason why these men were transformed from defeated cowards to courageous men of God within a few days of the death of the Saviour was their personal intimate knowledge and experience of the facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Non-believers, atheists, agnostics, etc… have suggested that the disciples, during the decades following His death, simply invented their accounts of Jesus. But these apostles were continually threatened and pressured to deny their Lord during their ministry; especially as they faced torture and martyrdom. However, none of these men who spent time with Jesus chose to save their lives by denying their faith in Him. Each of the apostles was called upon to pay the ultimate price to prove their faith in Jesus, affirming with their life’s blood that Jesus was the true Messiah, the Son of the Living God and the only hope of salvation for sinful humanity.

Most of the information about the deaths of the apostles is derived from early church traditions. The Church historian Schumacher researched the lives of the apostles and recounted the history of their martyrdoms.

Andrew died on an X-shaped cross in Patras of Achaia, Bartholomew (Nathaniel was flayed alive in Armenia, James (brother of John) was beheaded by Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem, James (son of Cleopas and Mary) was stoned, Jude (Thaddeus), the half brother of Jesus was shot with arrows in Armenia.

Matthew was slain by the sword in Parthia, Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that His Master and Lord Jesus Christ had died.

Stephen the first Christian martyr was stoned to death after preaching one of the longest sermons in the Book of Acts. James the Just and half-brother of Jesus was captured and taken to the very pinnacle of where the devil took Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.

He was told to blaspheme Christ, or be thrown off! James the Just replied: “I see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of glory!’’ So they threw them off. But the fall didn’t kill him, so they started to stone him. As he lay there, with his bones broken and the stones being thrown at him, he said, Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” Finally someone, out of sheer mercy, got a big wooden club and clubbed his head, and he died.

John was the only one of the 12 apostles left after the others had already suffered a martyr’s death. He became a political prisoner on the island of Patmos because of his exclusive devotion to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus which was taken as treason by the Roman authorities. He subsequently faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil but was miraculously delivered to become the only apostle of the 12 to die a natural and peaceful death.

The Early Christians

We also know that thousands of the early Christians and those of later ages suffered violent death, mutilation, burning and other processes that marred and destroyed their physical bodies. Nero persecuted Christians by daubing them with pitch and burning them alive as torches for his nightly garden parties or sewing them in the skins of wild animals to be hunted by dogs and lions.

One notable Christian who was martyred in about 155 under Antonius Pius was Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and once a student of the apostle John. Forced into the stadium, Polycarp was asked by the Roman proconsul to swear by the genius of the emperor and to curse Christ. He replied,

Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?

Before the day was over, he was burned at the stake. Like all martyrs before him and the multitudes after him, he had been transformed by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

All this happened because His message and His physical resurrection transformed His early followers, who did not pick up the sword to defend themselves even during the brutal persecutions, but rather went about spreading His love and the need for repentance and forgiveness of sins to all regardless of their race, sex, ethnicity, poverty, or wealth.

They did so because they believed with all their heart, soul and mind the Words of Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This echoed the conviction of Peter’s words spoken to his fellow Jews:

And there is salvation in and through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

There have been countless people who have been transformed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These followers have produced revolutionary changes-socially, politically, economically, and culturally.

As someone has said, Christianity is not a religion; but a revolution against the kingdom of darkness.” And as George Sarton has said, “The birth of Christianity changed forever the face of the Western world.” Despite widespread persecutions, Christ’s transformed followers, especially during the first few centuries, effected that change because Christ’s life and teachings challenged almost everything for which the Roman world had stood. The Christians rejected the pagan gods of the Greeks and Romans.

These gods, said the second-century Christian apologist Aristides, were man-made and thus not gods at all; moreover, they were given to all of the weaknesses and sins common to mankind. Some of the gods, according to Roman mythology, committed adultery, murder, sodomy, and theft; others were envious, greedy, and passionate; still others had physical impediments; some had even died.

But Christians said Aristides, worship and honour God who is neither male nor female, whom “the heavens do not contain…but the heavens and all things visible and invisible are contained in Him. This had already been confirmed by Paul’s famous sermon at Athens on Mars Hill.  The Bible tells us while Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy at Athens, his spirit was grieved and roused to anger as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So, Paul began to preach to them about Jesus Christ, a man who had recently been crucified in Jerusalem. He drew their attention to a natural debate before he could engage them about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. These Epicurean and Stoic philosophers thought that Paul was trying to be an announcer of foreign deities because he preached Jesus and the resurrection (see Acts 17:18).

Paul concludes that God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. In the past God permitted all nations to walk in their ways, but He did not leave them without any evidence of Himself and His goodness. He sent rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with nourishment and happiness.

However, the appointed time has come when He expects and charges all men everywhere to repent and turn from their ignorance, idolatry, and superstition because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man Jesus Christ, whom He has proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead (see Acts 17:19-31).

Death Is Not Final

To the Christian, death is not final. A believer simply falls asleep in Jesus and wakes up instantly in the presence of God. But those who die without the Lord Jesus Christ are referred to as “the dead.” Someday the dead will stand before the Great White Throne of God and be judged according to the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

They will then be cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15). Some say that when Christians die, they sleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raises the dead. However, Paul said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).  To sleep in the grave would not be gain! Paul knew that physical death would allow him to “depart and be with Christ,” which, he said, is very much better (Philippians 1:23).

We will be fully conscious one minute after we have died. We will know who we are, we will have our memory. It is only our body that dies, not our spirit. Death separates body and spirit. Later, spirit and body will be reunited in the resurrection. When Paul talks about putting off our earthly tent, he says to be “absent from the body” is “to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he refers to those who have died in Christ as having “fallen asleep in Jesus” because this is what death is to the believer- falling asleep and waking up in the presence of our Lord.

Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, the Christian will not see death. This truth caused Jesus to proclaim,

I am Myself the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live; And whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to, and relies on) Me shall never actually die at all (John 11:25-26).

Death is conquered! The Tomb is Empty! Jesus becomes the Giver of Life (John 20:21-23). This is the Good News that Paul preaches to us. “It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place” (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Jesus Christ is the divine, eternal Son of God, who became a member of the human race by virgin birth. He led a sinless life, died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of humanity, was buried and rose again in bodily form from the grave on the third day.

He ascended into heaven, whence He will return to earth in person; to judge the living and the dead. Everyone who repents of sin and trusts in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

As we make New Year resolutions, I want to call your attention to a text that you will find in Genesis chapter 7:1 “Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.”

Many people have questioned whether the flood was a real event and whether it literally covered the whole earth. The text in Genesis 6-7 does not indicate whether the Flood went right around the globe or just covered the then-known world. The Bible’s focus is not so much on the material side of this story as on the moral side. Why did it happen? The answer is astonishing: It happened because God regretted that he had made human beings. It broke His heart!

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart (Genesis 6:5-6).

This is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. It communicates God’s feelings so clearly. God is a Person, and in the deep of His mighty nature He thinks, wills, enjoys, feels, loves, desires and suffers as any other person may. What had happened to cause such a crisis in God’s emotions? We are told that between two and three hundred angels, in the area of Mount Hermon, sent to look after God’s people fell in love with women, seducing them and impregnating them. The offspring were a horrible hybrid, somewhere between men and angels – beings not in God’s order.

The Bible tells us that when this began to happen, God’s Spirit was grieved and this led to His resolve to wipe out the human race, but He preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven other persons, and also set a definite lifespan of man for which is not more than 120 years. Men lived 500 years and more back then, and they had time to mature in their sins. For 120 years, the exact span of man, God strove with that generation to repent but they ridiculed the idea that He was going to destroy the world.

Noah was Faithful in Building the Ark

So God told Noah to manage one of the earliest recorded projects in the Bible–the building of the ark. It was 510 feet long (155.4480meters), 85 feet wide (25.90800 meters), and 51 feet (15.54480 meters) high. He may not have completed it to budget, but he certainly had to finish it by a specified time–before the flood.

It must have met his performance criteria, as it successfully accommodated a pair of all the animals, and no doubt some his relatives might have said, “What are you going to do with the old homestead?” Noah says, “I don’t need it. The storm is coming…the day of grace is closing and worldly wealth is of no value, and that the ark is the only place of safety. All these things that we value now will soon be destroyed. They only run for a time, not for eternity.”

The people must have thought Noah had lost his mind. And in the same way, people in the last days will ignore the prophetic warnings. Every time Noah drove a nail into the ark it was a warning to them. Even the carpenters who helped build the ark might have made fun of him, they were like lots of people today that help build a church, and perhaps give money for its support, but will never enter it themselves.

Well, things went on as usual. Every sound of the hammer echoed, “I believe in God.” If they had repented as they did at Nineveh, I believe God would have heard their cry and they would have been spared. But there was no cry for mercy.

People might have said, “This old Noah says the world is coming to an end in 120 years, and it’s 20 years since he started the story, but nothing has happened!” Someone has said that Noah must have been deaf, or he could not have stood the jeers and sneers of his countrymen. He could not get a man to believe him except his own family. Some of the old men could have passed away saying, “Noah is wrong…. Poor Noah…so easily deceived, brainwashed and manipulated!”

I don’t think any of us would have had the grace to preach for 120 years without a convert. But Noah was faithful; he just toiled on, believing the Word of God. The first thing that could have alarmed people was when they rose one morning and lo and behold the heavens are filled with fowls of the air. They are flying into the ark, two by two. They come from the desert; from the mountains; and from all parts of the world and they are all going into the ark.

And they looked down on the earth, and with great alarm and surprise, they see little insects creeping up two by two, coming from all parts of the world. Then behold! There come the cattle and other beasts two by two. It must have been a very strange sight. The neighbors might have inquired, “What does this mean?” They run to their wise men who have told them that there is no sign of a coming storm, and ask them why it is that those birds, animals and creeping things go towards the ark, as if guided by some unseen Hand.

Scoffers Will Come in the Last Days

“Well,” the wise men would have said, “we cannot explain it, but give yourselves no trouble. “What has made these creeping insects and these wild beasts of the forest go into the ark, we do not know. We cannot understand it; it is very strange. But there is no sign of anything going to happen. The stars are bright, and the sun shines as bright as ever it did.

Everything moves on, as it has been moving for all time past. You are hearing the children playing in the street. You can hear the voice of the bride and bridegroom in the land, and all is merry as ever…..God is not going to destroy the world. Business was never better than it is now in this “New World Order Global village.” Do you think that if God was going to destroy the world, He would let us go on prosperously as He has? There is no sign of coming storm.

Noah might have preached for the last time by saying: “The door is going to be shut. Come in. God is going to destroy the world. Look at the animals, how they have entered the ark.” The communication has come to them direct from heaven.” But the people only mocked and scoffed.  The apostle Peter reminds us:

To begin with, you must know and understand this, that scoffers (mockers) will come in the last days with scoffing, people who walk after their own fleshly desires and say, where is the promise of His coming? For since the forefathers fell asleep, all things have continued exactly as they did from the beginning of creation.

For they willfully overlook and forget this fact, that the heavens came into existence long ago by the word of God, and the earth also which was formed out of water and by means of water, Through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the present heavens and earth have been stored up (reserved) for fire, being kept until the Day of Judgment and destruction of the ungodly people. Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

The Lord does not delay and is not tardy or slow about what He promises, according to some people’s conception of slowness, but He is long-suffering (extraordinarily patient) toward you, not desiring that any should perish, but that all should turn to repentance (2 Peter 3:3-9 AMP).

If you are a scoffer who is reading this, remember you can laugh at the Bible, you can scoff at your mother’s God, you can laugh at ministers and Christians and call them false prophets (of course some are), but the hour is coming when one promise in the Bible will be worth more to you than the whole world to you. You can imagine that 24 hours after the rain began to fall; Noah’s ark was worth more than the entire world.

When The Door was Shut…There was no Hope

Did you ever notice when the 120 years were up, God gave the world seven days of grace? If there had been a cry during these seven days, I believe it would have been heard. But unfortunately, there was none. At long last…the last day had come, the last hour, the last minute, and the last second! God Almighty came down and shut the door of that ark. No angel, no man, but God Himself shut that door. There must have been a lot of wailing and screaming going up when God shut the door of the Ark; “Noah, Noah, Noah! Let us in.”

They left their homes and came to the ark and pounded on the ark. Hear them cry, “Noah! Let us in. Noah! Have mercy on us, “I am your nephew.” I am your niece.” “I am your uncle.” And Noah might have replied saying, “I would like to let you in, but God has shut the door. I cannot open it!

When the door was shut, there was no hope. Their cry for mercy was too late. Their day of grace was closed. Their last hour had come and God had pleaded with them and invited them to come in, but they mocked at the invitation. They scoffed and ridiculed the idea of a water deluge. Now it was too late. Jesus said,

When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from… (Luke 13:25).

Men say “I don’t believe in all these stories of the flood. Whether you believe it or not, Christ connected His return to this world with Noah’s flood. Remember, in Noah’s day, two sins were predominant: excessive violence and sexual perversion. The Bible also tells us, “The earth was depraved and putrid in God’s sight, and the land was filled with violence (desecration, infringement, outrage, assault, and lust for power) (Genesis 6:11).

Jesus said the climate of the time prior to His return would be similar to the climate during Noah’s day. “For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all.” (Matthew 24:38). We could paraphrase that statement by saying it was business as usual.

God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign…No More Water But Fire Next Time

The writing is on the wall for anyone who will pay attention. Yet Jesus said it would largely be business as usual. The good news is God gave Noah the rainbow sign that no more water, but unfortunately it will be the fire next time. Since even the heavens will be on fire, and then what will property, stocks, bonds, titles, honour and position in society be worth?  The time is coming again when God will deal in judgment with the world. It may be a little while because we don’t know when, but it is sure to come. For Peter says:

The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will vanish (pass away) with a thunderous crash, and the material elements of the universe will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up…..But we look for new heavens and a new earth according to His promise, in which righteousness (uprightness, freedom from sin, and right standing with God) is to abide (2 Peter 3:10-13).

Although the timing of this end of the age is in God’s hands, from a human standpoint it appears we are standing on the threshold of the final battle. The pieces of the puzzle are all in place. As the sands of time slip through the hourglass of eternity, we are all moving closer to an appointment with destiny.

The question is, “How much time is left for each of us?” The text we’ve selected has a special application to both natural and spiritual parents and their children. The command of the Scripture was given to Noah not only for his safety but that of his household. The home was established long before the church.

A Day of Grace and Mercy

So another question that would be put to each natural or spiritual father and mother is this: Are your children in the ark of God? We shouldn’t rest day or night until you get our children in. I believe our children have many more temptations than we had. There is so much evil in the world that our sons and daughters find it easier to believe in the devil than in God. Noah heard from the Lord about the destruction that was coming, so he built an ark and saved his family. The writer of Hebrews says he did this by faith:

By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith (Hebrews 11:7).

The good news is, this is a day of grace. It is a day of mercy. You will find if you read your Bible diligently, that God always precedes judgment with mercy and grace. Grace is a forerunner of judgement. He called those people in the days of Noah in love. They would have been saved if they had repented in those 120 years. When Christ came to plead with the people in Jerusalem, it was their day of grace; but they mocked and laughed at Him. He then said,

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! (Matthew 23:37).

Forty years afterwards, thousands of people begged that their lives might be spared, and eleven hundred thousand perished in that city. Today God is holding up His justice because of His mercy and because a Savoir died.

It is only by grace that we are saved, and that is why Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord (see Genesis 6:8). No one was ever saved in any other way other than by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Each person is saved by looking to the cross; everyone receives some degree of God’s grace, even the most sinful man or woman.

It was A. W. Tozer who wrote, “Don’t imagine that when the Day of Judgment comes God will turn off His mercy.” Paul said it was the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering that leads us to repentance (see Romans 2:4).

And the apostle Peter reminds us, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

Therefore, it’s now a loving call “Come with all your household into the ark (Genesis 7:1).

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 AMP)

I don’t usually make New Year resolutions because I try live each day or season for what it brings, but with an eternal perspective in everything I do.

The Book of James states:

Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that. (James 4:13-15)

You may be the best businessman in your community or have the best job or career. You may grow the best crops and produce the finest animals. But if you don’t have a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and you don’t strive to live for Jesus in every area of your life, then you are not living with an eternal perspective.

When it’s all be said and done, all our treasures will mean nothing. And there is only one thing that will stand the test of time: The love of Christ in our hearts.

For the love of Christ controls and urges and impels us, because we are of the opinion and conviction that [if] One died for all, then all died; And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

I read the story of an evangelist who visited a rich man one day on his neighbouring farm. The man had spent most of his life building the house of his dreams. He had lived in it a mere three months and was sitting on the front veranda, totally wasted away from a terminal disease, the evangelist said to the rich man, What a beautiful house,” Tears filled the rich man’s eyes. Yes, evangelist, he responded, “but for what?” Three weeks later he died.

Jesus made this clear in His parable of the rich fool by pointing out that a man’s life does not consist in and is not derived from possessing overflowing abundance or that which is over and above his needs. The man thought that he would pull down his storehouses and build larger ones, and there he would store or hoard all his grain, produce, and his goods.

And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many good things laid up, [enough] for many years. Take your ease; eat, drink, and enjoy yourself merrily. But God said to him, You fool!

This very night they [the messengers of God] will demand your soul of you; and all the things that you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with the one who continues to lay up and hoard possessions for himself but doesn’t have a rich relationship with God.” [this is how he fares]. (See Luke 12:16-21 AMP)

What about you? Is what you are living for worth Christ dying for? What motivates you in business, job, ministry, or career? Do you do your best to live for truth? For what do you wish to be remembered for? What if the offer money or success sidetracks you from your true calling?

Remember the more we aim at personal success, the less secure we become. We are threatened continually by the possibility that someone else will succeed more than us. That is why Solomon observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless like chasing the wind (Ecclesiastes 4:4).

You can easily achieve what appears to be a success and yet somehow become frustrated. Derek Prince wrote that he once heard a talk by the president of a well-known evangelical college. The majority of parents who send their children to that college are professing Christians. But the President had this to say:

I make it a point to ask each of my students, ‘When your parents sent you to this college, what did they tell you was the most important thing in your future? Was it to become a faithful servant of Jesus Christ? “Up to this point,’’ the president continued, “none of my students has ever answered yes.

If your son or daughter were to be enrolled in that college, how would he or she answer? If you are a father or mother you need to ask yourself questions like these:

• What kind of example have I been setting for my family?
• Am I giving my children eternal purposes and eternal standards to live by?
• Am I inculcating eternal values that will direct them into lives of service and obedience for Jesus Christ?
• Am I mainly concerned with worldly success-a career, material comfort, financial independence, and status in the community?
• Or am I compromising my standards and commitments for the sake of material prosperity and worldly success?
  

A Remarkable Interview

One of the greatest public servants in the history of England was William Gladstone (1809-1898) who served as prime minister four times during the latter half of the 19^th century. It is reported that Gladstone was a committed Christian and he also taught a Sunday school class throughout his adult life. In fact, his aim early in his life was to become an Anglican clergyman, but after his graduation from Oxford, his father encouraged him to enter politics.

Shortly before he died, Gladstone gave a speech in which he told about being visited by an ambitious young man who sought his advice about life. The young man told the elder statesman that he had admired him more than anyone living at that time and wanted to seek his advice regarding his career.

 ‘‘What do you hope to do when you graduate from college? Gladstone asked. The young man replied, I hope to attend law school, sir, just as you did.’’

‘‘That’s a noble goal,’’ said Gladstone, ‘‘Then what?’’

‘‘I hope to practice law and make a good name for myself defending the poor and outcasts of society, just as you did.’’

‘‘That’s a noble purpose,’’ replied Gladstone. ‘‘Then what’’

‘‘Well, sir, I hope one day to stand for Parliament and become a servant of the people, even as you did.’’

‘‘That too is a noble hope. What then?’’ asked Gladstone.

‘‘I would hope to be able to serve in the Parliament with great distinction, evidencing integrity and a concern for justice—even as you did.’’

‘‘What then?’’ asked Gladstone

‘‘I would hope to serve the government as prime minister with the same vigour, dedication, vision, and integrity as you did.’’

‘‘And what then? Asked Gladstone.

‘‘I would hope to retire with honours and write my memoirs—even as you are presently doing—so that others could learn from my mistakes and triumphs.’’

‘‘All of that is very noble,’’ said Gladstone, ‘‘and then what?’’

The young man thought for a moment. ‘‘Well, sir, I suppose I will then die.’’

‘‘That’s correct,’’ said Gladstone. ‘‘And then what?’’

The man looked puzzled. ‘‘Well, sir,’’ he answered hesitantly, ‘‘I have never given that any thought.’’

‘‘Young man,’’ Gladstone responded, ‘‘the only advice I have for you is to go home, read your Bible, and think about eternity.’’

It is easy to be deceived by the temporary benefits of wealth, popularity, status, and achievement, and to be blind to the long-range benefits of God’s kingdom.

C. T. Studd’s Testimony

The missionary, famous British athlete, and founder of the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, C. T. Studd was saved in 1878 at the age of eighteen when a visiting preacher at their home caught him on his way to play cricket.

“Are you a Christian?” he asked. Studd’s answer was not convincing enough, so the guest pressed the point and Studd tells what happened as he acknowledged God’s gift of eternal life received through faith in Jesus Christ:

I got down on my knees and I did say ‘thank You’ to God. And right then and there joy and peace came into my soul. I knew then what it was to be ‘born again’ and the Bible which had been so dry to me before became everything.

In 1884 after his brother George was taken seriously ill, Studd was confronted by the question, “What is all this fame and flattery worth… when a man comes to face eternity?” As a result of his experience, he said,

I know that cricket would not last, and honour would not last, and nothing in this world would last, but it was worthwhile living for the world to come. C. T. Studd gave up all his achievements in this life for Christ’s sake. He was challenged to his commitment by an article written by an atheist. That article, in part, says:

If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, then religion would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity.

Religion would be my first waking thought and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I should labour in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for heaven worth a life of suffering.

Earthly consequences would never stay my hand, or seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable.

I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season, and my text would be: “WHAT SHALL IT PROFIT A MAN IF HE GAINS THE WHOLE WORLD AND LOSE HIS OWN SOUL.

Still further, and what was better than all, Studd set himself to work for Jesus Christ, and, he says,

I began to try and persuade my friends to read the Gospel, and to speak to them individually about their souls. I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted almost all the pleasures that this world can give…but those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that the saving of that one soul gave me.

Studd continues to be best remembered by this poem, Only One Life ‘ Twill Soon Be Past Only What’s done for Christ will last.

There is a higher level of wealth than material success. The writer of Hebrews tells us, “Moses considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).” (Hebrews 11:26 AMP)

True wealth is having an eternal perspective in everything we do. When we strive to love, know and serve our Creator and our fellow men with our gifts and talents; it helps us look beyond the world’s value system to see the eternal values of God’s kingdom.

None of us determines the date of our birth or our death, but we determine what we do between those dates.  We need to live each year as if it were our last because as someone correctly said, “what we do in life echoes in eternity.” Happy New Year!

Photo courtesy: Heavens Call