I at times feel as though I am an alien in a foreign world, I am so out of place. The Lord through His word revealed to me what sin is and its devastating effects on man. Man sinned and was separated from God and the earth was cursed. Salvation is of the Lord! God became a man and dwelt amongst us, and as a man He never sinned, taking upon Himself the penalty for sin which is death; so that He could save some, that they may know Him. Jesus is the Lord! He died for our sins, this was prophesied of in the scriptures, He was buried, and on the third day from His death He rose from the grave alive. The bible tells us this Jesus is God in the flesh, He is God the Son. “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Romans 4:25); God saved me through the death of His Son Jesus as a man, and has assured me of life by raising Him from the dead. I have assurance of salvation through faith and that faith was given to me by the grace of God. What is faith? “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).
The writer of the puritan classic “Pilgrims Progress” (John Bunyan) called this world Vanity Fair, and it is that. “Pilgrim Progress” was written in 1678 almost 100 years before America even became a country and when he describes Vanity Fair, it is as though he was talking about modern day America in 2012. Today sin abounds in America; in fact many are boastful and proud of their sin. We have many that go to Christian churches taking part in all the frivolity that everyone else in the land takes part in; there is no difference between the two. Very few in this society have moral restraint at all, oh they call themselves having moral restraint, but it is always based on their own standard of goodness (subjective), not on God’s standard, His moral Law (See Deuteronomy 5 & Matthew 5-7). The movies in our theaters are just awful; you can hardly attend a movie at all anymore. It is next to impossible to find anything on television that is not loaded with gross sexual immorality and if you do, the commercials are loaded with it. We have a president who is for the murder of unborn children and for homosexual marriage, stating that Jesus would be for it and the man running against him is no better, he thinks Jesus is the brother of Lucifer. What is a God fearing man to do? Understand this, I hate my own sin more than I hate the sin of any man.
I look around and it is as though the entire world is dyeing right before my eyes and no one cares. The ills of our society are closing in on us like the walls of a trash compactor and no one cares. Death is real, I am a man who sees death first hand often; for I am a Registered Nurse in the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit, most times it comes unexpectedly to both the one who died and their family. Death is real and “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), that is what each of us have earned for our sin, not just physical death but spiritual death being cast out of the kingdom of God. You sin you die, you are separated from God; then you have physical death and it is all over. I carry a 4 foot cross, I will go out to a busy intersection in my community and stand there with the cross for 30-60 minutes at a time; on the cross beam are the words, “Are You Ready”. Often times I will have someone drive by and yell out, “Ready for what?” They really don’t want to know, or they wouldn’t have yelled it out, it is just mockery. So what do the words mean? Hebrews 9:27 says: “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment”. So why do I do this? As a warning! I know God; He has saved me from His wrath for sin and has given me eternal life through the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Death is real; I see it all the time. How can I sit back and take part in the frivolity of Vanity Fair knowing that everyone who dies comes to judgment and knowing that “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), and that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). The only hope any of us has, is to escape judgment. Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). When a Man who said that, is publically executed, buried, then three days later rises from the grave having multiple witnesses who proclaimed this account before all men, until they themselves were killed; you know that there is hope, so you go tell people everywhere to repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel”.
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
