The Simple Gospel

 Every human being has this fact in common- we will all die one day. And when that happens, we will all stand before God and be judged by Him. And we will then spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell. God has a standard for entry into Heaven- absolute perfection. (Leviticus 11:45, Matthew 5:48) None of us meet that standard. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. (Romans 3:23, Psalms 14:3, Psalms 53:3)

    That's why God met the standard for us by sending His Son Jesus to live the perfect life we could never live and die the death we should have died for our sins. And then He rose again to prove He's God and give us a living Hope. We can all avoid the Hell we are bound to by default because of our sins against God and instead be welcomed into Heaven through putting our faith in Jesus to forgive us of our sins and following Him. He offers that for free to whosoever will call upon His Name! (Romans 10:9-13)

    With the eternal weight of the choice given to all humans about what to do with the salvation Christ offers, it is imperative that the Good News of Jesus is shared with everyone! I mean- if you had the cure for Covid-19 or AIDS or cancer, would you keep it to yourself? Those diseases can only kill the body, but the soul lives on for eternity. Jesus is the cure for the disease of sin and He saves our souls for eternity- if we'll let Him.

    And that's what it comes down to- if we're willing to listen to The Father drawing and The Spirit convicting and trust Him. 

   Sadly, too many will let pride and a love for self and evil keep them from coming to God. And God won't force anyone to come to Him. In the end, we either say "Thy will be done" to God and choose to follow Him or He says "thy will be done" to us and lets us choose to reject Him and go our own way instead. There is indeed a way that seems right to a man, but its end is destruction. 

   Logically, we can either be with God or away from God in eternity. To be with Him is Heaven and to be away from Him is Hell. 

    It's appointed unto man once to die- and then comes the judgment.

    We will all die one day. And it won't really matter then what objections people make now or what ridicule is raised in regards to God and The Bible. None of it changes God or the facts about eternity.

    Of course, people will scoff and laugh regardless and raise any number of objections but even so- the facts remain. And the eternal state of every human soul is worth telling everyone about Jesus. Everyone is free to do what they want with this and with Him. That is the choice given to everyone. But everyone will die one day and everyone needs to consider what will happen then and decide what they will do with Jesus and His free offer of grace and love. Jesus loves you- no matter what you've done and no matter what you do in reaction to this information- He loves you more than anything. And I love you through Him because He loved me first. 

  Everyone has to make their own choice on eternity and I respect their right to do so but everyone needs to remember that every choice has consequences. This one has eternal consequences. May God bless and guide you as you make your decision.

Of Heroes and Legends, (There Can Be Only One) (poem)

[Note: Another poem from the archives and yes, this is another one I wanted to post because of my recent conversation with friends about science fiction and fantasy stories (and most anything really) being used to convey spiritual truth. I've heard it said before, "Everything is theology"- and I think it's true. And in the end, all of the heroic stories point us back to, as Tolkien called Him, "The One True Myth"- Jesus Christ, the Hero who gave His life to save His enemies and rose again to prove He's God. He is the One all of my writings hopefully point to all the time.]

This seems to be appropriate to follow the parody song about Narnia that I posted last. This a little poem I wrote just recently- this one just came to me one day and all of a sudden I had to hurry and write it down. This one was fun for me given my love of sci-fi and fantasy and superheroes and comic books and so forth, of course. :-) It talks about the heroes and legends of old- the ones in myths and stories of yore- and how through all these characters and adventures- we are ultimately drawn to the longing and desire inside all of us to be part of something bigger than ourselves- to join in the great adventure that God is ultimately calling us to- the one that He laid out for us before time and made possible through the death and Resurrection of Jesus. This is also definitely inspired from my love of Hebrews 11 – the hall of faith. I really love Hebrews 11:38 when it describes the faithful to God- “they were too good for this world.” Or in other translations- “the world was not worthy of them.” (I think of the great heroes of the faith in The Bible of course- and a few of my modern Christian heroes as well like St. Francis of Assisi, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Eric Liddle, Mother Teresa, Mister Rogers, Jim Elliot, C.T. Studd, Hudson Taylor, Martin Luther, Rachel Scott Joy, Cassie Bernall, Larry Norman, Keith Green and Rich Mullins- among others) And as J.R.R. Tolkien once explained to C.S. Lewis- though it sounds like one of the myths of the dying and rising gods of old- Jesus and Christianity is different in this regard- because it actually happened. Jesus is the one true myth!


Of Heroes and Legends,
 (There Can Be Only One)

(by Nathan Ludwick; copyright 3/9/2011)
(Psalms 44:4-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Philippians 3:8, Hebrews 11, Jeremiah 20:9, Hebrews 12:1-4, Ephesians 6:10-20, Proverbs 28:1, 1 John 5:4, John 16:33, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Acts 17:22-31, Matthew 13:34-35, 1 Corinthians 9:22)

Once upon a time, as all good stories start
A bright new world of hope, then things fall apart
As years of wreck and ruin rage, a line of heroes begins to raise
The stuff of myths and legends here to save the day

In the days of darkness and dangers
There are the adventurers, wanderers and strangers
The giants of old, the men of reknown
The ones that the songs and tales are written about

Powerful in battle, armored for the quest
The good fight to conquer kingdoms and restore justice
A strong faith gives a supernatural advantage
As brave as a lion, the righteous one stands

With every chance to turn back, they continue on
Struggling to save the good that’s left in the world
Where the smallest ones can be the boldest ones
A fire burning in the heart drives them on to greatness

An epic scale like Middle Earth, for Narnia and for Aslan
Though tortured, flogged, jeered and facing the sword
Destitute, persecuted and mistreated- they were too good for this unworthy world
This great cloud of witnesses calls us to endure and join them on the golden shore

And the Man on the moon is the One who made it and holds it in His hands
Santa Claus- ol’ Saint Nicholas shows us The Father’s kind and giving heart
And Superman is the picture of the God-Man who brings salvation for all
The One True Myth- Realer than Real, Truer than True is The Hero we need to believe

If we can trust the foolishness of God, the pilgrim’s progress leads us to the Grey Havens
Where we realize all the stories of lore really pointed us to Christ at the core
And then with Him, as all good stories end, we live happily ever after.

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