What Will The Preacher Say At Your Funeral? --Ray Comfort

Ray Comfort died today in his sleep at the age of 58 years. One day you are probably going to hear something like that, but don't you believe it for a moment. When a Christian passes on, he doesn't die. Death was nullified the moment he was born of the Spirit of God (see John 3:1-5, 1 Corinthians 15:51-58). This is because God is not only the source of life, but He is life itself, and when He makes His abode in a human being, death has no place there in the same way that darkness disappears when light comes.Of course, if you are an "unbeliever," you don't believe that. That's why you are called an unbeliever. But even if you did believe it, that wouldn't change much. When the Bible uses the English word "believe," it loses a lot in translation. Greek is a far more complex language than English. The original word for believe means to trust. I often use the analogy of a parachute. Believing in it won't help you. Trusting in it will.Have you ever noticed how a man may be a money-grabbing, lying, womanizer, who has been hated by almost everybody, but the moment he dies, the whole world says he was "a good man"--a generous person, and a loving husband? When I go to be with the Lord, I'm pleased to know that the preacher won't have to embellish a thing. He can say that I was a selfish, sin-loving, ignorant man, but God freely forgave me, saved me from Hell, and granted me the gift of everlasting life (see Romans 6:23). What will the preacher say at your funeral?<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Problems With the Bible

Recently an atheist gave me a sheet of paper that listed his problems with the Bible. Heading the list was 1 Corinthians 1:26, a verse which he said proved that atheists are smarter than Christians. Here is the verse: "For you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." He seemed to have skipped over the words "after the flesh." There are different types of wisdom. There is the wisdom of this world ("after the flesh"), and there is the wisdom of God. The message of the passage is that God has chosen a seeming foolish message of child-like faith, to confound those proud folks who think that they are wise. So, if you look around the Christian faith you won't find many of those proud people who are puffed up in their own "fleshly" wisdom. So the atheist isn't wiser than the dumbest of Christians. Rather, according to the Bible, he or she is a fool (see Psalm 14:1). Also on the list was a reference to Japheth, saying that he sacrificed his daughter. Somehow my atheist friend (and he is a friend) thought that, because the Bible related the incident it was somehow condoning it. He looked a little taken back when I told him that Japheth was lacking a little in intellectual capacity. What he did was stupid. The Scriptures are given to us for our instruction. We can learn life-lessons from all the stupid things that men and women did in the Bible. Noah became drunk and shamed himself. Saul became jealous and destroyed his life. Judas was a hypocrite and ended up killing himself. Peter slept when he should have been in prayer, and denied his Lord. David let lust into his heart, and committed adultery, then murder. These incidents were written for our admonition, and we can either humbly learn from them or proudly walk down the same tragic path. The choice is ours.

A Tremendous Moral Obligation 

 "What does the Bible have to say about the countless people who, through zero fault of their own, never hear the word of God? Do they go to Heaven or Hell?" Andrew DouglasThose who have never heard the good news of the gospel will go to Heaven, if they have never sinned. However, if they have lied, stolen, committed adultery, been covetous, had sex outside of marriage, looked with lust, hated anyone, been unthankful to God, committed homosexual acts, murdered, blasphemed, failed to love their neighbor as themselves, and to love the One who gave them life with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength, etc., they will end up in Hell. God will give them justice. The problem is, they have sinned (all of us have), and so they desperately need God's mercy. So, as Christians, we have a tremendous moral obligation to make sure that they are warned of their danger before they die (see Ezekiel 33:8, Romans 10:14-15). We must plead with those that the Bible calls "unsaved" to come to their senses. We should be as the disciples, who, when they were threatened for preaching the gospel said, "We cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard."Fortunately, you are not one of those who have never heard. You know that Jesus suffered and died for you. He paid your fine in His life's blood so that you could leave the Courtroom. That means that God can legally dismiss your case. Now, because of the suffering death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, God can allow you to live and escape the damnation of Hell. What you must do to receive that mercy is repent and trust Him. Once you do that, you can take the gospel to those for whom you are so concerned.