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Pete came to me with a very unusual request when we were freshmen in college together. He asked me who I thought the five best girls to date were in our class. Just call me Dr. Love. I gave him my top five list - four of whom I had been out with in my mad "date them all" freshman rush. There was one I hadn't dated - a beautiful, perky brunette named Karen. Well, after I gave Pete that list, I began to ask myself an obvious question - why hadn't I dated Karen? So I did . . . and did again . . . and again. By the time we graduated we were engaged to be married . Pete was a New Englander - a man of few words. He wrote only six words next to his picture in our senior yearbook - "You believe in your product - Pete." Yes, I did. Karen and I got married one week later.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about THE LIFE-OR-DEATH VERB.
My friend summed it up pretty well - I REALLY believed in this girl named Karen. Not just intellectually . . . with everything I had. Believe, as in committing your whole life to.
When it comes to God . . . to where we spend the next hundred billion years . . . believe is the deciding action word. It is the life-or-death verb. Not in the official or intellectual sense - like "Pete, I believe this girl is a great catch." No, like "I am trusting my life to her."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from Acts 16:30-31, a man asks the great missionary Paul this timeless question - "What must I do to be saved?" The answer is clear and unmistakable - "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." Obviously, saved is a life-or-death word - just ask the people who were saved from that bombed out Federal building in Oklahoma City - or someone who was saved by an emergency medical team. If the rescuer saves you, you live. If he doesn't you die.
The kind of saving the Bible talks about is being rescued from the death penalty we are all under with God. Why? The Bible says, "All of us have wandered away like sheep; we have turned each one to his own way." That's my way instead of God's way - ultimate rebellion against the ultimate authority - the One who gave me my life - to live for Him. The death we suffer in this life is trying to live without God's love, without God's peace, without God's purpose for our days. And if we die still away from Him, the penalty is what Jesus called hell.
But that's where believing in Jesus comes in - because He is the only Rescuer, the only Savior that can keep you from dying spiritually - because HE died on the cross to bear all the guilt and penalty of the sins we've committed. That's how much He loves you. But you have to "believe in the Lord Jesus" if you're going to be saved.
You say, "I believe in Jesus" - with your head . . . or your heart, too? The Bible says in Romans 10:10 - "It is with your heart that you believe and are justified" - that's made right with God. Believe, like committing yourself in total trust to the One who died in your place. Here is a question on which your eternity can hang - has there ever been a time in your life when you told Jesus, "I'm putting all my hopes in You and what you did on that cross to rescue me from my sin." If there's never been a time like that, you are not saved . . . you are in eternal danger.
But that could change in the next few minutes - if you would reach out to this Savior you've known ABOUT, but never really known. If you want to know Him for sure, please allow me to send you "Steps to Peace With God". . . in just a moment, there will be an address you can use to let me know you're ready to make THE Savior YOUR Savior. (For those on the Internet wanting to know more about this relationship please check out "Yours For Life".)
One day I walked into a church not married, and walked out married - because I really believed in someone. You need a day like that - a day to commit yourself to the One who loves you most, Jesus Christ. A day like today.
Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc. Permission to reproduce this material is automatically granted on the condition it will be used for non-commercial purposes, will not be sold, and will be distributed for the sole purpose of expanding the Gospel.
Last Update: 03/23/1997
