Marsha's Musings at 2:30 in the Morning

All is quiet in the house at this hour.  Just gotta love these night time wakenings…if only they didn’t wear me out so much for day time! 

I just finished reading the book of Acts last night and it ended with these verses:

Ac 28:25 So when they did not agree among themselves, they departed after Paul had said one word: "The Holy Spirit spoke rightly through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers,
 26 "saying, 'Go to this people and say: "Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand; And seeing you will see, and not perceive;
 27 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them."'

Sadly, these verses are as true today as they were back in the Apostle Paul’s time.  It has been painfully evident to me as I have showed various ones what the Bible has to say about sin, God’s judgment, and what Jesus came to do by dying on the cross and shedding His blood in their place to save them from God’s judgment against their sin.  It’s incredibly good news that one can have peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ, but for some reason, it is incredibly unpopular.  

I guess one reason it is so unpopular is that people don’t want to hear that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way to have true peace with God, sins forgiven and a place in heaven.  Many WANT to believe that all roads lead to heaven.  They say they believe the Bible is true, but then they deny it by rejecting the exclusivity of the Bible’s message for salvation. They want a salad bar Christianity where they can pick and choose what they like from the Bible and discard the rest.

 

You can’t have it both ways.  Either the Bible is all true and contains all that one needs to know for salvation and life (no need for further revelation or scriptures) or the Bible is false and insufficient.  Jesus Christ is either sufficient for salvation and there is no salvation in any other or He is a fraud. 

Ac 4:10 "let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole.
 11 "This is the 'stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.'
 12 "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Many reject this in the name of “tolerance”.  They say you have to be “tolerant” of all religions and to preach a message that is exclusive in nature is to be intolerant of other religions.  They say it is unloving. 

 

I must ask, If a building is on fire, is it unloving to tell the occupants that they need to flee for their lives?   No!  So is it unloving to speak the truth of the Bible to others, to warn them of judgment to come and tell them how their sins can be forgiven through Jesus Christ so that they may escape the coming judgment of God?  No!

Ephesians 4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ—

These are my rambling thoughts between 2:30 am and 3:00 am.  Somehow I feel like I am making more sense tonight than I did the other day at this hour.