Posted in Christmas, Life Inspiration, salvation

The odds you’ll go to Heaven…

The day after Christmas… people are back to work, kids are sleeping in with the luster of new toys dulling by the minute, diet consideration has begun, Christmas travelers will be heading back home and the New Year approaches at lightning speed. Heavy on my heart this morning, and actually through the Christmas season was the thought “what about the day after Jesus came?”

The saved and unsaved alike have no problem celebrating the birth of Jesus. There are those who complain and gripe that Christians have the audacity to celebrate their own holyday, but I doubt they mind the occasional bargain that comes with the season. But this morning the glitter has now fallen to the floor, the tree is slightly disheveled, mistletoe’s been exchanged for a “good morning dear” and the chatter of Jesus is left to religious fanatics (like me). Life goes back to normal.

Except for those of us who are abnormal.

I can’t get the day after thought off my mind. What if Jesus had returned on Christmas day, and this was the day after. What if while we slept Jesus came back unaware and the unsaved got up this morning to an empty house because they’re spouse and children were called home to be with Jesus. “What an awful thought!” you say? Awful as it is, it is reality. The Phil Robertson naysayers could debate his statements all they wanted with little argument and the Anti-Christ Lawyers Union (the ACLU) could rule the world, since lawyer is an important profession and you can get the best resources for accidents or wrongful death at https://www.georgiainjurylawyer.com/wrongful-death/. Political factions and scientists could and likely will concoct all sorts of reasoning for the disappearance of Christ’s people, and those left behind may believe it, but they’ll find no comfort in their words. But there’s good news!

Jesus hasn’t returned yet!

What’s the odds that He won’t? After all, the Bible says He will.

Let me tell you about the odds of Bible Prophecy not coming true:

Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College, Peter Stoner and 600 university students set out to calculate the probability of one man (the Man we know as Jesus) fulfilling the major prophecies concerning the Messiah. After narrowing it down to a humanistic viewpoint of only eight of the Bible prophecies concerning the Messiah they determined that the odds Christ would have fulfilled only eight of those prophetic Biblical statements was 10 to the 17th power.  To illustrate how large the number 10^17  is (a figure with 17 zeros), Stoner gave this illustration:

Suppose that we take 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas. They’ll cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say that this is the right one. What chance would he have of getting the right one? Just the same chance that the prophets would’ve had of writing these eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time, providing they wrote them in their own wisdom. (http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/radio034.htm)

So according to this mathematical and scientific equation, if Jesus had returned on Christmas day, what are the odds you’d be with Him and your Christian family members? Only you have that answer. But the truth of the matter is we don’t need a mathematics professor to figure out that you have 0% chance if you have not accepted Christ as your Savior.

The Bible says in 1st Thessalonians 4:15-18 ~For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

I love that the scripture says “comfort one another with these words.” There is great comfort, not fear, in knowing the love of Jesus; fear comes when you are without Him. So… the question is do you know Him?

https://thejesuschick.com/the-road-to-salvation/

Posted in Christmas, Life Inspiration

What’s on your page?

blank page

Often time my writing begins before I’m out of bed in the morning. As soon as my eyes open thoughts begin to flood my mind, praise His Holy Name! when those thoughts are on His goodness, but other times, try as I might the world won’t seem to get out of the way; and when I do get up I’m staring at a blank page praying for guidance from the Holy Spirit. This morning I was not staring at a blank page, I was thinking about the blank page between the final Words in Malachi 4, verse 5-6 ~ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. And the first Words in Matthew 1 ~ The book of the generation of Jesus Christ.

400 years separate those two pages. That’s a long time to look at a blank page and hear nothing from God. I panic if it’s just been a few days. But for generation after generation they sat in silence waiting, waiting, waiting… and then many of them missed it. He didn’t come as they thought He should, He came as He said He would. There’s a lesson in that for me this morning as I wait ~ I’m without excuse for direction. God’s presence is clearly felt in my life and I may choose to ignore it but I cannot say He is silent. Sometimes I think I mistake His silence for His patience with me. If I’d be still a little sooner, stop running day in and day out I’d hear, see, and experience the Lord in greater, deeper ways.

Christmas season goes by me in a whirrrrrrrr! I just about miss it every year as I run to and fro, from event to event, meetings, rehearsals, shopping, dinners, all in celebration of what I’m missing. My page is not blank, it’s not read. But thinking back on those 400 years of silence, I’m not sure how they survived. Yes, I get caught up in the mundaneness of the day, but because of His faithfulness I still hear Him. He speaks to be in snippets throughout the day, He is so patient with me.

So… what’s on our page today?

For me I hope it’s a little more focused on Christ.

As some of you have noticed my blogging has been sporadic this week… Too many irons in the fire. I can feel it spiritually as well. Time to get focused. Just 5 days until we celebrate the birth of Jesus and I want my heart ready! Maybe you could share with me how you’re preparing your heart this season… what has God written on your page today? Post it below!