A ‘Beautiful’ Place
It was a crisp autumn day with heavy cloud cover. On my morning run I came past a ‘beautiful’ place. There were flowers, nice white sidewalks and perfectly trimmed grass. You would think I might be standing in a garden. I wasn’t. I was standing in a grave yard. I pry from the mud and dirt a shattered piece of stone. Putting it together I could barely read the faded inscription, “here lies Thomas Scott 1844 to 1923”. All that was left behind of a Father, a husband and a friend to many people lie crumbling in my hand.
As the fog cleared I could see hundreds of more stones corroding to my right and to my left. Under each one of these stones was lying a dead, rotting body, or maybe just a pile of ashes. Of all those who have gone before you, the reward for all their labor and years of trying to succeed is nothing more than stone with their name and years they existed on it. That’s all.
Sure, this is nothing new and we have all long moved past such basic thinking. But the feeling is quite sobering when we stop and think about it. As a young man or woman, one has such hopes in life, such goals and dreams. We think that we are going to matter and surely make a difference. But the truth is, the 7 billion humans inhabiting the earth now will be 7 billion gravestones in a very short time and little will happen in between. Kind of a depressing thought, right? But that depends on where it leads. Bear with me…
As I stood in the graveyard I let out a large sigh. How could this be? It’s so unfair. Believe it or not it was a grey cloudy day and a misty rain began to fall lightly. It was like a movie. I was totally lost in thought. What could be done? What is the answer Should we just appreciate the time we have more? Should we “Live like we were dying” ? Is this the answer or could there be something more?
I won’t waste your time telling you something that you already know. So give me a chance. If you live on earth (which I would assume you do) you have heard plenty about God in the sense of whatever religion you may have been brought up in or been affiliated with.
But what if God could do something for you, as an individual, that you have never thought about? It so easy to sit back and say “there is no proof… I did that already… My life is just fine without God… ect…” But would it not be tragic if you missed the most exciting thing (One) in life just because you’re too lazy to invest the time and heart to really go deeper and forget about what people think? YOU JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT YOUR MISSING. Don’t allow an attitude from the past to poison your future. God wants to blow your mind with His profound character! Ten minutes of sincerity now will do more of you than a lifetime of cynicism and indifference.
The conclusion of the bible is not about a system by which we can relate to God. People often confuse the OLD and NEW Testaments of the Bible (BIG difference). In the New Testament (the conclusion and reality of the Bible) Jesus came as a lowly, down-to-earth guy who completely de-religous-fied all of man’s conclusions about God. He brought revelation of God as a Person, not a system. He spoke in a way that bears witness to reality and sincerity. His words, stir you like nothing else. I have read the Koran, the Book of Moroni and many writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Siddhartha and other religious figures. None of them are anything like Jesus. Only Jesus claimed to BE God and to actually deal with SIN. He spoke in a very real and practical way and at the same time brought profound heavenly revelation.
As much as it sucks, time flies and there is nothing we can do about it. My life may end much quicker than I would like, but I am not dead yet. Not yet. I have a will and a mind and a soul and a spirit. I have all this incredible stuff that goes on inside me as it does inside you. I can create, design, love, hope, forgive, change, think, ponder, and reason. Every one of those things leads me back to one thing, or better, One Being. God. Everything within us and everything around us confronts us with the need to find out more about this Supreme Being. Conscience. Con=with Science=knowledge of. We are all born with knowledge of something beyond us. The question is will one listen to that knowledge and seek truth? How far and deep will one go to find, not what he claims is truth, but real, absolute truth (Jn.14:6).
One Man, at one time in history, claimed not to teach truth, but to be the embodiment of Truth itself. This one Man went to the place we will all go. A place called “dead”. The difference is, He came back and keeps on living to this very day. Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God, gave His life on the cross to be the ransom for our sin (1Tim.2:6). Sounds boring and religious? You don’t have a clue! Don’t let all those fake, phony hypocrites in today’s so called that go to a token building on Sunday’s corrupt your thinking about God Almighty. They don’t have a clue! There is nothing I can say that could be more convincing than manner rising from the dead. You are not made of stone. God has given you a free will and you can choose heaven or hell. As a friend, I beg you, give Jesus a chance!