SIGNS OF THE TIMES/PROPHECY PAGE
February article by Chris Butler
FREEDOM OF CHOICE
Just recently I was in
conversation with my near neighbour and he asked me why I went to my church
each week. He said he thought church was
old fashioned and for good people only.
My reply was that the reason I go to the services was because I was the
complete opposite – I had not been very good over the past week and needed
forgiveness for the things I had done wrong.
The Bible tells us in Romans chapter 3 verse 23 – ‘For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God’. His
reply was that you made your choice – ‘you do what you want to do and I will do
what I want – bye bye’. This caused me
some concern and I thought to myself that was me, 25 years ago. Why can’t people understand what God is
offering them?
Let us consider together
what sort of choice the world can offer us – terrorism, murders, theft,
adultery, muggings, marriage going out of fashion, people being greedy and
deceitful, starvation for some and plenty for others, lack of respect for
people in general. There seems very
little ‘love thy neighbour’ any more with people afraid to walk the streets for
fear of being attacked – the list goes on and on. Can things get any worse, I ask myself? Does anybody really care any more? Don’t you
think that the world in which we live is deteriorating rapidly?
Let us open our Bibles
and read what we are told in the second book of Timothy, chapter 3 verses
1-4.
‘But mark
this: There will be terrible times in
the last days. People will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their
parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without
self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.’
Doesn’t it seem to you
that we are living in these last days? I
do, and we need to look to ourselves to do something about it. It’s no good sitting on the fence – we need
to look to our Bibles and find out what God has to offer us. Do you want to be like my neighbour and sit
back, hoping for the best? God wants you
to make a choice – go with the world or with God. Can we find help with our decision? Yes – you will find the message of salvation
in your Bible, but you need to read it to find out more of what God has to
offer you – life eternal in His kingdom, or eternal death in the grave The apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter
6 verse 23 –
‘For the wages of sin is death but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’
Sin is our main problem,
so it is up to us to do something about it
We must read our Bibles, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of our
sins, be baptized into His saving name and follow Jesus’ example, for he never
sinned. Hebrews 4 verse 15 says
‘For we do
not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we
have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet without sin.’
All Jesus ever did was
to follow God’s will. You might like to
read Hebrews chapter 5 verses7-9 which supports this. So let us join ourselves to Jesus and follow
His example and do our very best to follow Him.
God gave immortal life to Jesus and will do the same for you when He
returns to the earth if you follow His commands. Read the first book of Thessalonians, chapter
4 verses 14-16.
Freedom of choice –
choose God’s way, not the way of the world.