Faughan GO Team

These two articles are from the Word Today distributed by the Faughan GO Team.

WAKE UP! 

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr….ing!

As he rubbed the sleep from his eyes he slowly came to his senses. It was not the doorbell, nor the telephone, it was the bedside alarm. It was seven a.m., and if he didn't get out of bed immediately he would be late for work. His deep sleep had been suddenly broken into. It was time for action stations.

Spiritually speaking, we are rather dozy. We are not naturally awake to the things of God. But God has alarm clocks of all different shapes and sizes that He sets off to wake us up and make us take action. Sometimes, at a personal level, God can use the alarm of sickness or a personal difficulty to make us turn to Him. It may be some unforeseen event that stops us in our tracks and brings us up with a jolt. At a wider level, God has alarms to wake up a whole nation. The "Foot and Mouth" disaster that has plagued these islands over past months is a wake-up call from God for us all. As a nation we have been walking far from God. This is His loving wake up call. Perhaps in your life just now some alarm has been going off. It is time to take action.

"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon."
(Isaiah 55v6&7)

D O or D O N E

"Don't all religions lead to God? Well, it depends who you ask. Some say that it doesn't matter what we believe so long as we believe in something. Some claim that all religions are equally viable methods of getting close to God.

I am sure you would agree that when we have a problem it is good to get an expert opinion. Well, no-one could have more expertise about the deep spiritual questions that we have than the Lord Jesus Christ. With regard to how we can get right with God and go to heaven there is no-one better to ask than the person who is the eternal Son of God and the person whose home is heaven. So, does Jesus Christ have anything to say about our opening question, "Don't all religions lead to God?"?

Thankfully, Jesus does have a great deal to say about this. In fact on one occasion when He was talking to His disciples He addressed the whole issue of how to get right with God and get to heaven. Speaking to a man called Thomas, Jesus said;, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14 v 6) In these few words Jesus Christ has made it crystal clear that there are not a number of ways of getting sorted out with God. He has stated clearly that all religions do not lead to God - He and He alone is "The way."

So what is it that makes Jesus Christ the only way to get right with God? All other religions can be spelt D O. They give list after list of things that we must DO in an attempt to swing things in our favour with God. However, true Biblical Christianity is spelt D O N E. The Bible says that Jesus Christ has done everything that is necessary for men and women to get right with God.

A huge barrier separates every man, woman and child, from God - our sin. "There is no-one righteous, not even one." (Romans 3 v 10) Since God is such a holy and perfect God He cannot tolerate sin in any shape, size or form. "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong." (Habakkuk 1 v 13) 

Now, that leaves us ALL with a big problem, for no matter what we DO we can never wipe out our sin. 

Jesus Christ alone can deal with our sin. He can do this because when He died on the cross, He, the sinless Son, was dying in the place of others. He was taking the punishment that was due to sinners like you. His death on the cross is the only effective way for taking away our sin.

When we come to see that we are rotten sinners in God's sight, deserving only His holy anger we are in the right frame of mind to receive God's gift of forgiveness and to be made right with Him. Being made right with God is not something that we earn or DO. Jesus has DONE it all. 

Jesus Christ commands everyone to trust in him, alone, and all that he has DONE.

"Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved." (Acts 16 v 31)

How do you spell your religion? D O or D O N E?