Dear
Friends,
John
Courson in his Life Application New Testament Commentary shares a
touching story about his son Benjamin.
When
my son Benjamin was four years old, he was completely and wonderfully obsessed
with Bible stories and Bible characters. If you came to our house, chances are
you would have seen Benjamin wearing what looked suspiciously like a
burlap sack. That was his David outfit. He was David for a good part of each
day. Then he would become Joshua, marching around and knocking down the
building block walls. He loved Bible stories in a way that blew me away. Once
on his "Special Day," I said, "Benjamin, where do you want to
go? Do you want to go to the park? Do you want to go to McDonald's
playland?"
"No,
he wanted to go to the Christian bookstore. So that's where we went. We
spent two hours there, with Benjamin sitting on the floor looking at books and
playing with puzzles. After watching Benny's enthusiasm, Fred, the owner,
offered to hire him!
Thus, it was not surprising that after every
service, Benjamin would head for the bookstore at Applegate Christian
Fellowship. One week, he saw something that had escaped his notice in all of
his previous visits.
Way
up in the top shelf sat a Bible Nintendo game. Intrigued as he studied the
picture of Noah and the ark, Joshua and Jericho, Jonah and the whale on the
cover, Benjamin brought it home
Now,
at four years of age, Benny was not very adept at video games, but he patiently
and laboriously pushed the buttons and tried to advance to the different levels
where he could see Noah's Ark sail, and Jericho's walls tumble down. After a
couple of hours, however, frustration began to cloud his face. Finally, he said
to my wife, Tammy, "Mommy, get a piece of paper and write down what I tell
you. I want to send a letter to the bookstore?" This is what he said
“Dear
Bookstore
I
am talking about Nintendo. Please help me to get to Goliath. Please help me to
get to the flood of Noah and help the animals to go two by two. I am Benjamin.
I am only four. Don't you know that? Bye, Bye, bookstore. I love you, bookstore.”
What
a sweet and heartfelt letter. Frustrated that he didn’t receive the results he
expected, Bemjamin wanted to know how to achieve his heart's desire.
Benjamin
was disappointed because the game didn't end the way he thought it would.
Unfortunately,
like Benjamin, there will also be many others who will be disappointed when
they discover they didn’t receive what they expected. They stand face to face
with the Lord thinking they are going to enter heaven, only to hear those
disappointing words: “I never knew you.”
They
have built their hopes for heaven on a false sense of security. They go to
church, pray, help others, try to keep the 10 commandments, and genuinely
live a morally good life. If you asked them about their life, they would say
they certainly deserve and expect to go to heaven because of the way they had
lived their life.
Unfortunately,
these people, like Benjamin, will suddenly be surprised and disappointed
to hear the Lord say, “Depart from Me. I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:23)
They
have assumed that all those wonderfully good works they had
conscientiously done throughout their lifetime will be enough to earn their way
into heaven, never realizing that their works, while they may be good, will
never be good enough to open the doorway to heaven.
Jesus
says, “You must be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect,” and
measured against that standard everyone falls short.
So,
there must be another way, and there is. But it will never be through trying,
but only through trusting-trusting in Christ and Him alone for your salvation.
Paul
writes, “You were saved by faith in God , who treats us much better than we
deserve. This is God’s gift to you and not anything you have done on your own.
It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about.”
(Ephesians 2:8-9, Promise Translation).
Eternal
life is a “free” gift, not because of anything we have done, but because of
everything He has done.
Paul
writes, “He saved us not because of any works of righteousness that we had
done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by
the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5)
Jesus
says your works, no matter how good or how many they may be, will never be good
enough to save you. Everything you need to be saved has already been done for
you on a cross where Jesus bled and died for you and your sins. He loves you,
and all you have to do is to accept that love.
The
ABC’s of salvation are simple. Accept that Jesus died for your sins, Believe
God raised Him from the dead, and Confess that you want Him to be your
Lord and Savior.
And
if you do that, you will walk through the doorway to heaven, and you will be
welcomed with those assuring words we all long to hear: “Well done good and
faithful servant….enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew25:23).
You
may be one of the greatest of sinners but never forget that God is the
greatest of Saviors, and He wants to save and change you and He will if you ask
him.
If
you haven’t already trusted in Christ alone for your salvation, I hope you’ll
do it today. And if you have any questions about salvation, please don’t
hesitate to email me.
Yours
in faith and friendship,
Tom
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