God's Dilemma, Part II

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." (1)

"It sounds a little hard to say it this way, but if you are not choosing God and everlasting life, you are a sinner. You are God's enemy. You do things that offend God - not to mention your family. You make selfish choices for your own benefit at the expense of others. You hurt people. You are deeply flawed. You need lots of work. How can I be so direct about all of this about you when I haven't even met you? You know the saying, 'It takes one to know one.' The Bible says that all of us - every human being - has sinned and fallen short of what God intended us to be.

"Maybe you have a hard time believing you are a sinner. After all, you're probably about as nice as the next guy. Maybe even nicer. So let's do a little experiment.

"Take four blank sheets of paper. On the first page write down every lie you remember telling; every time you said 'yes' and meant 'no' or vice versa; and every time that you made a promise and broke it. That's the first page.

"On the second page write down that which you hide from everyone - things you would never want anyone to know about you. Write down everything you ever did that you would be ashamed to have published on the front page of the local newspaper. List all of those skeletons in your closet.

"On the third page make a list of friends to whom you have done something that you would not want them to do to you - whether or not they deserved it.

"Finally, on the fourth page write down the names of everyone for whom you have done something good and done it without hope of any compensation or reward of any kind.

"Now, if you do that, I suspect that you will not be very proud of what you write. That list of good deeds on the fourth page will be all too brief, and those other pages all too full.

"Now that's a really bad sign." (2) To be Continued.

1. Revelation 3:20.
2. Things God Can Do With Ashes, pp. 14, 15.