Some time ago, I had the most interesting experience.  It was probably obvious where we were going as my wife and I pulled out of our driveway on Sunday morning at about 9:00.  She was wearing a dress and I was in my customary tie and jacket.  I mean, where do people go on Sunday morning dressed like that?  As I checked both ways for traffic, I noticed a man and woman walking down the street.  It was obvious from what they were wearing (or not wearing) that they were not on their way to Sunday School.  The woman was out in front and near enough that as I pulled out into the street, I could not help but catch her eye.  I hoped a nod and a smile would communicate a neighborly “Good morning,” but she immediately gave me a smirk, rolled her eyes and then looked away as if to say, “Mind your own business.”

  A familiar feeling welled up in my stomach, one that I had often felt when I knocked on someone’s door to share the gospel.  It was always unsettling when the occupant answered the door, heard that I was from a church, and acted as if I had come to deliver the bubonic plague in a special unmarked package.  As the door closed, something inside wanted to shout, “Give me a chance, I’m really a pretty nice guy.”  I often thought as I walked away, that the next time I see that individual may be at the Great White Throne Judgment, where everyone that is antagonistic toward the gospel will stand condemned before God, and be cast into eternal Hell to collect the wages of their sin.  I took no comfort in the thought, and tried to be more determined at the next door.  O how much can be lost in one moment—how much can be gained!

  Perhaps you feel the same frustration as you try to live your faith and share it with others.  Let me remind you that they are not rejecting you when they smirk, but your Lord.  Don’t stop trying; He is their only hope!, and you are privileged to tell them of His love.  Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! (Romans 10:15)”

  All of my life I have witnessed the scorn of those who dared to talk about the end of the age as if it were an imminent reality.  Interestingly, fictitious books and films that follow the lives of fictitious characters who face the cataclysmic events of the supposed last days of human life on earth, are accepted as palatable, if not praise worthy, productions by people of the arts.  The only difference seems to be that one is a sincere warning of impending judgment while the other is the usual gory produce of the entertainment industry.

  Acceptable or not, the reality of the end of the age is looking ominously close, to those of us who view the pages of prophetic Scripture as more reliable than the biased commentary hailed as “the news” of our day.  The unrest in Israel and the Middle East, the vastness and strength of the military of Communist China, the unprecedented alliances being formed among world powers, the apostasy that is taking place in the Church, the acceptance of a new paradigm for governance that calls evil good and good evil, are all shadows of things to come.  The list goes on, but these will suffice for now.

  While the Bible clearly states that no man knows the day or the hour of the end of the age, it does give us a verbal snapshot of the prevailing conditions that will indicate the end is near.  Paul paints a global picture of the the last days, for his young son in the faith, Timothy: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,  Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof… (2 Timothy 3:1–5)”  The end of this age is coming and there is going to be a season of reckoning for those who inhabit this earth.

  If you are obliged to consider God’s warning, “…behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.  (2 Corinthians 6:2)  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)”

  Salvation, as it is presented in the Bible, is a very narrow path.  Jesus put it in perspective when He said, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)”

  Secondly, it must be understood that salvation has to do with the immaterial part of man—it is a spiritual matter.  It pertains to our living, eternal souls, and their relationship and eternal fellowship with God. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (Mark 8:36)”

 Thirdly, because salvation is not a material possession, but a treasure to be stored in heaven, and in your heart, you must access it by faith.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved… (Acts 16:31)”  This faith involves understanding the truth, agreeing that it is the truth, and placing your trust and dependance upon the truth.  Without these three components one does not have saving faith, according to the Word of God.

  Fourthly, salvation is clearly a gift.  The scriptures tell us, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9).”  Salvation cannot be earned because that which is earned is no longer a gift.  Salvation by Faith, and salvation by Works (good deeds) are mutually exclusive.  (i.e. If you have one you cannot have the other.)  This is important because God is not willing that you take credit for any part of the salvation that His Son, Jesus Christ, purchased with His own life’s blood.

  Now that you understand salvation, how can you make it your own?  One, understand and agree that your sin has separated you from God and will end in both temporal and eternal ruin and death.  This is called repentance.  Two, understand and agree that God has paid the penalty for your sin by offering His own Son as payment in full.  Jesus died, was buried and rose from the dead in fulfillment of God’s just requirement for your redemption.  Three, place your faith and full confidence in the finished work of Christ.  He is God’s provision for your salvation.  Make it a personal matter.

 A few years ago, I heard the story of a teacher who gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet, and what it does.  The next day in a written test, she included this question: “My full name has six letters. The first one is “M”.  I pick up things.  What am I?”  When the test papers were turned in, 50 percent of the students had answered, “Mother.”  These children had observed one of the many facets of God ordained, God blessed motherhood, and it had left a deep impression.

  Motherhood was God’s unique idea, initiated when He created the first woman, Eve.  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,… (Genesis 1:27–28)” …she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20)  The scriptures are clear, God created mothers to be part of the family unit, with a God defined role as the specially designed helper for her counterpart, the husband/father, of which He had said, “…I will make him an help meet (fit) for him. (Genesis 2:18)”

  God has indeed given motherhood an exalted role in His creation, and no matter what our perverted nation does to destroy it, true motherhood is the design of God.  Men will never be mothers, even if they rebel against God and marry other men (Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:27), dress up like women (Deuteronomy 22:5) and teach perverted stories to elementary children in public schools (Matthew 18:6), have surgery to reduce or hide their manliness (1Corinthians 6:19-20), take female hormones (1Corinthians 6:9), etc.  All of these only serve to demonstrate our propensity to work the works of darkness.

  No one has been used of the Lord to shape my life more faithfully or more effectively than my dear mother.  She helped to set my feet on the path that leads to light.  The closest second would be her mother, my grandmother, whose life I view, even now, as a gift from God, to guide me in my youth.  With all my heart, I sing their praises.  Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

  In chapter two of Colossians, the apostle Paul combats the false teachings of his day that were avowed by the Gnostics. (i.e. teachers who claimed to have mystical knowledge that had not been revealed to the Apostles) They believed in Jesus Christ, but denied His deity and contended that something more than Jesus was necessary for salvation.   As self-acclaimed possessors of so-called superior knowledge they led their disciples away from truth, and into error.

   Some have argued that the biblical record of Paul’s spiritual warfare with the Gnostics, in first century Colosse, is irrelevant today because we no longer wrestle with the false teachings of the first century.  But Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, observed, “… there is no new thing under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9).” He was right; a close look at the philosophical landscape of our day, reveals that the lies of yesteryear continue to circumvent the globe, though often under the deceptive cover of a new label.  Today, many of the teachings of the first century Gnostics find their adherents in the camps of those who have embraced some tenet of the New Age philosophies of the 1970s and 80s which have now evolved into a smorgasbord of soul damning untruths.  They were not “new” in the 1980s, nor are the teachings they have spawned new.  They are altogether the teachings of old fashioned Humanism.

  When we are talking about the eternal souls of men, knowing the truth is of supreme importance.  Thankfully God has not left us to fend for ourselves in the quest for truth, but has given us the Bible.  If you have not discovered this miraculous book, if you are not convinced that it is from God, you probably have not read it.  Those who read the Bible with a desire to understand, soon discover that it is a source of undeniable truth, from our undeniable God.

  The New Testament warns us that any teaching that requires man to earn what God has provided freely in Christ, is a false teaching.  God describes those who have believed the lie: “In whom the god of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)”