imagine you're going about your normal business day. you're walking along the street as usual, when a man rushes up to you, grabs your arm, says, 'they're trying to kill you!' and pulls you into the alleyway! what is going on?!
he says a few things to you, but in the rush and the confusion and the fear, you barely hear anything at all, and none of it makes sense.
then there is a sound at the end of the alley. before you can register much at all, the man pushes you to the ground and says, 'i'm going to take your bullet!' as he throws himself across you, a gunshot shatters the air.
and that's it. no more sound. nothing except your pounding heart.
you don't move for fear of alerting the 'bad guys' you didn't even know existed 5 minutes ago. but the man of top of you doesn't move either. he has gone completely limp, and with horror, you realize he really was shot, and he really is dead.
after waiting till you're sure the coast is clear, what do you do next?
what if the following is how i wrote the next part of the story?
hearing nothing more, you roll out from under the mysterious man. looking both ways and seeing nothing, you take a deep breath, gather your things, and straighten your clothes. you shrug, muttering, 'i wonder what that was all about?!' with no answer at the ready, you go about your day as usual.
'wait, what??!' you may be thinking. 'that's not how the story would go! i wouldn't do that! what happened? who are the bad guys? was someone really after me?what was that guy talking about? no one would just shrug and go about their day after that!!'
but i say that is exactly what most people, maybe you included, do every day.
what most people don't spend time thinking about is that there was a man who threw Himself over you and took a bullet meant for you. His name is Jesus.
and there really is a 'bad guy' who hates God's guts and wants you dead. his name is Satan.
the thing about the real-life story is that though Someone threw Himself over you and took your bullet, you have a choice. you don't have to be under His body, letting Him take the fall for you. you can refuse the help, ignoring His offer of salvation, and chance it out on the streets. but the killer will find you, and he will kill you.
what is your choice going to be?
if you're not familiar with the story, maybe you should spend some time learning about the 'bad guy,' and about the guy who offers to take your bullet.
he says a few things to you, but in the rush and the confusion and the fear, you barely hear anything at all, and none of it makes sense.
then there is a sound at the end of the alley. before you can register much at all, the man pushes you to the ground and says, 'i'm going to take your bullet!' as he throws himself across you, a gunshot shatters the air.
and that's it. no more sound. nothing except your pounding heart.
you don't move for fear of alerting the 'bad guys' you didn't even know existed 5 minutes ago. but the man of top of you doesn't move either. he has gone completely limp, and with horror, you realize he really was shot, and he really is dead.
after waiting till you're sure the coast is clear, what do you do next?
what if the following is how i wrote the next part of the story?
hearing nothing more, you roll out from under the mysterious man. looking both ways and seeing nothing, you take a deep breath, gather your things, and straighten your clothes. you shrug, muttering, 'i wonder what that was all about?!' with no answer at the ready, you go about your day as usual.
'wait, what??!' you may be thinking. 'that's not how the story would go! i wouldn't do that! what happened? who are the bad guys? was someone really after me?what was that guy talking about? no one would just shrug and go about their day after that!!'
but i say that is exactly what most people, maybe you included, do every day.
what most people don't spend time thinking about is that there was a man who threw Himself over you and took a bullet meant for you. His name is Jesus.
and there really is a 'bad guy' who hates God's guts and wants you dead. his name is Satan.
the thing about the real-life story is that though Someone threw Himself over you and took your bullet, you have a choice. you don't have to be under His body, letting Him take the fall for you. you can refuse the help, ignoring His offer of salvation, and chance it out on the streets. but the killer will find you, and he will kill you.
what is your choice going to be?
if you're not familiar with the story, maybe you should spend some time learning about the 'bad guy,' and about the guy who offers to take your bullet.
"Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man;
though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners,
Christ died for us..."
Romans 5:7-8
"For God so loved the world
that He gave His one and only Son,
that whoever believes in Him
shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16
Nice job, Lis. We all have a bullet with our name on it... so glad that He took ours... if it ended with that, people would say, "You're glad He's dead? How selfish!" But didn't He do it out of love, and because we couldn't do it on our own? Didn't He give us a gift? And shouldn't we be grateful, grateful enough to no longer live for our own selfish desires but for Him who loved us enough to die for us?
ReplyDeleteAnd isn't He alive? Oh, yes He is! And we will be with Him, forever!
ReplyDelete