Translate

Monday, June 20, 2016

Same refrain because we still need Jesus

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let me say it again: This world desperately and urgently needs Jesus. Lives are wrecked with sin. Families are in disarray. Communities are fractured. America is in trouble. The world is a mess. And our only hope is Jesus.

We are in a great spiritual war. The devil knows his time is short. There will soon come a day when the Almighty Judge of the universe will deal swiftly and decisively with him and all his minions forever. But for now he has intensified his efforts to wreak unspeakable havoc upon this world through all kinds of violent and wicked means.

How else do you explain the hatred of the human heart found among those who are bent on murder? The latest mass killing in Orlando reminds us once again that Satan has greatly deceived those who pledge their allegiance to ISIS and other such terrorist groups and ungodly causes. He has filled their minds with lies, blinded their eyes to truth and captured their souls to do his will. And his will has always been to kill, to steal and to destroy (John 10:10).

How else do you explain the depravity of those who buy and sell young girls into the sex trade? How else do you explain the vileness of men who commit shameless acts of impurity with other men? How else do you explain the horrible evil of rape? How else do you explain the utter cruelty of child abuse? How else do you explain the rampant, ruinous addictions to everything from alcohol to heroin to gambling to pornography and so much more? How else do you explain any and every sin that grips the soul?

The Bible tells us that the devil is the enemy who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He is the “father of lies” (John 8:44), and the “deceiver of the whole world” (Revelation 12:8). And judging by the state of world affairs, he’s doing a brutally good job of “blinding the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

But, friend, let me assure you that Satan’s schemes are no match for the matchless power of Jesus Christ. Jesus has already triumphed over him through the cross and the victory of the empty grave. He has already conquered, and will soon crush Satan under his feet forever.

Let me urge you to turn in repentance from sin and put your faith in Jesus today while the mercy and grace of God still beckons you. “Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). For apart from salvation in Christ, we all are dead in our sins, held captive by the devil, and bound for eternal destruction. But in Christ Jesus there is freedom and forgiveness and life abundant and eternal.


The world may be a mess, and it’s going to get messier, but Jesus is still the glorious hope for all mankind. And that’s a message worth repeating.

No comments: