THE GOSPEL
(Partially adapted from J.Y.'s book, "Worship Not the Creature: Animal Rights and the Bible," from Nordskog Publishing)
My mother died on July 8, 2007, in my arms in a little house we built attached to our house, a peaceful place where she could live out her remaining years. She was mostly happy there but somewhat sad and lonesone after losing her husband of 25 years a couple of years earlier (my own father died in 1971 after being married to Mom for 27 years). We loved her and miss her greatly. However, I am at peace about where she is, because I know she placed her total faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and taught me to do the same. She fully understood that the great truths of the Holy Bible are the only basis for confidence in facing death. My heritage is one of faith, stretching back to grandparents who were believers. No human being is perfect, but for the most part none of them had any doubts as to where God's Word to mankind could be found.
Please let me take this opportunity to present the real truth about how to live a complete life, whatever your current philosophy, health, economic status, ethnicity, sex, age, your affiliation with a church, or any other factor. It certainly is not through fervently believing in and following some worldly cause such as animal rights or saving the environment. One must first recognize himself for what he is: A sinner. Romans 3:23 tells us, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” However, God in His great mercy wasn’t willing to leave us without hope, for in Romans 6:23 He states in His Word, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:8 reveals how great God’s mercy is when it says, “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 10:9-10 tells us how to appropriate God’s love in Christ when it gives the formula, “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved…” Once you do this you can face the future with confidence, since the little book of I John tells us in 5:11-12, “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
Every one of us will reach the time of sunset on our lives, and at the appropriate point we will stand before Almighty God and give account for the life we have lived. The most important question the great Creator God will ask us is this: "What did you do with My Son, Jesus Christ?" If we can tell God that we accepted Christ for who He claimed to be, the incarnate, eternal Son of God who died on that cruel cross to buy eternal life for all who would believe, then we will be admitted into the very presence of God forever. If we have lived only for ourselves and have left out the only begotten Son of God, then we face eternal punishment as the result not of God's desire for us (His desire is that all men come to know Him and inherit eternal life--II Peter 3:9), but because of our choice to live apart from God and His Son. I urge you, do not let this be your epitaph. Accept Christ as Savior today and start to become the person God created you to be, now and forever.