3 years ago, my beloved dog Leo was in the midst of his last month on this earth. Time would stop for him. On this day, he was given a report of a full remission from his cancer, but it also marked the last 10 days of his life. I had no idea as to when his time would stop as my own time clock, but I knew it was imminent. All I could is pray for another day with him.

Looking back, God really taught me that tomorrow is never promised. We shouldn’t think we have this unlimited time because that is our desire and want. The death clock is set, and we can’t add a minute to it.

Which leads me to saying that MANY believe they have an unlimited future to get their life in order. One day they say they’ll sit down with their Christian friends and study these things they have been saying, but not today. One day day in the future they’ll make time for it, but not today or this week or this month or this year. Not realizing their death clock cannot be changed.

And when time stops, that is it! If you die in your sins unforgiven, it is off to hell. God won’t care how nice you thought you were, or entertain all those excuses you made. Leo was given less than 8 years, but he is just a dog you’ll say and dogs have a short life. But now compare your life to an ETERNITY, it never ends. And if in hell, it will be torture, sadness, pain, suffering, darkness, despair on and on and on. It will be an incurable cancer so to speak which never lets you die.

All for what? Because you thought you were smart and all those religious do-gooders were just hypocrites? Those bible bangers you made fun of, chastised, ridiculed for their faith will all be a regret for an eternity. And when time stops, there will be no chance to turn back, no chance to repent, no chance to make amends with God. You made your choice, and JUSTICE is what you will receive.

You followed the beat of your own drum, and those Christians you will discover were right all along. You thought by going to church and being a good person would be enough. And now what? There is just darkness, suffering, and despair. There will be no one to hear your excuses, complaining, and mocking. There will be no one to hear why you procrastinated and why God got His justice wrong on your sins.

So if you haven’t done so, TODAY place your faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ alone! There are many who will have their funerals prepared tomorrow who didn’t have a tomorrow to repent. So why put it off? Why fight against this truth which has not changed since the beginning of time? There is just ONE way to salvation, and it is through Jesus Christ. If placed in Him, you have been (past tense) forgiven by His death and by His rising from the dead, you too will rise.

Don’t believe in Jesus because I say so or other Christians say you should. If you believe in Him, you will see just how rotten of a sinner you are in God’s sight and how desperately you needed Him! It will be only then your internal and external mocking, your doubts, your silly pride will leave! Only then you will realize just how very stupid you were to put this off! Time can then stop at any moment with a full realization that you are secured for an eternity in Jesus Christ!

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

YOU WILL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH OUTSIDE THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST!

Many unbelievers have been spurned by a world religion which basically teaches that BEFORE God could save the sinner, that sinner must reform themselves, to be “good enough” in effect for God to save them. Scripture teaches the opposite!

The sad fact is many unbelievers give up all hope by these false world religions. As they then say, “look, I am such a nasty sinner, I have done so many BAD things, so according to what I have heard, I am beyond saving”. I am here to tell the one who thinks this way, that you were LIED to!

Thousands of years before you were even a blip on the radar so to speak, Jesus died on the Cross. He waited for no one to reform themselves, He went and died on your behalf if you so believe in Him. As Paul stated above “while we were still sinners”. So the world religion who says “you need to” do anything BEFORE Jesus will save you, are deceiving you!

Jesus died (past tense), at that moment He paid your sin debt knowing each and every sin you would commit in your entire lifetime. He paid for them ALL including the ones you are ignorant of. This is the Good News! The bad news is that if you died not believing He did this, you were not saved. Which means an eternal torment in hell, no matter how “good” you thought you were, and many in those world religions are heading to that eternal hell.

You see, God demands ABSOLUTE perfection. There is no lee-way here. Adam and Eve committed simple disobedience, and they were cast out of the Garden with no second chances. God didn’t take into affect their good deeds before that point, they sinned and that is all it took! They were no longer going to be able to dwell with God eternally.

God knowing that you can NEVER be “good enough”, sent His Son Jesus Christ to die on the Cross to ATONE for your wicked rotten self. Jesus did this willingly! Again, He didn’t wait until you got your act together, He paid the price on your behalf knowing full well you’d never get your act together nor would you have the perfection needed to dwell with God. This is the heart of the Gospel, the Good News! By Jesus rising from the dead, by which the secular world celebrates “Easter”, you too are promised to rise again IF you have placed your faith alone in Him!

What is the evidence of being saved? First and foremost is an innate and genuine desire to REPENT, to turn away from a life of sin and to turn to God’s holiness, a striving for it. Again, Jesus didn’t wait until you repented, He already PAID your sin debt, you rather repent out of thanksgiving for what He DID on your behalf! This repentance is natural, not forced, and if a burden, you most likely were never saved but deceived. The call to REPENT should be a head nod, not a fight, you don’t seek ways to get away with sin, but are now seeking ways not to commit sin. If an adulterer in your former life, you naturally seek to stop being an adulterer for example, know what Jesus did for YOU!

Romans 4:5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness

You see? God justifies the UNGODLY, not the godly who think they reformed themselves by goodness or morality to make themselves somehow self righteously worthy for God to save. Jesus DIED on the Cross, He rose again!

²³ Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

²⁴ Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24)

With unbelievers, I love this truth from Scripture because of just how man is in light of God. This father whose child was demon possessed was at a loss on what to do. This demon it is said was “deaf and dumb”, and nothing the disciples of Jesus did or said could cast it out. The child got even more violent.

The father was desperate, but was at his breaking point as well when Jesus arrived. He asked Jesus to show compassion and help him. Jesus responded with “if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”. The father immediately understood what Jesus was saying, that he must first examine himself for faith.

Now the interesting part comes in his response. His first reaction was a lie, “Lord I believe” but knowing who he was speaking to, God in the flesh, he stopped and then said “help my unbelief” which was the truth. He didn’t believe in other words, and admitted this to Jesus. He tried to believe, but didn’t have faith that God could help him. Probably after seeing the disciples fail miserably to help him.

Jesus then cast the demon out, leaving the disciples wondering why they couldn’t do this since Jesus employed this power unto them. And Jesus in a very short admonition responded with “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.” Mark 9:29

What was the prayer Jesus was talking about? “Lord help my unbelief” Something the disciples skipped was this prayer. The fasting is mentioned, because fasting leads to repentance. The teaching was both to the father and to the disciples. So by this, Jesus was indicating that they were not going to be able to just willy nilly cast out demons, prayer and fasting must accompany this, which was also a call for DISCERNMENT. They were to discern the asking, was it one who if this sign was performed would just go on unbelieving?

The point here is the sheer honesty of the father, he admitted his unbelief to God and asked for help! Some go a lifetime thinking all the while by pride shouting “I believe” but internally they have NO faith, and usually this comes out in a dire circumstance. It is easy to say “I believe” when great and wonderful things occur in your life, but when your child is dying or some terrible thing occurs, will you be able to say this? If not, say that prayer “Lord help my unbelief”, be honest and watch how God works!

It should cut to the heart at the external believers who get angry and vitriolic if their faith is questioned. Make no mistake, Jesus questioned the father’s faith and instead of getting angry, he lied,and then quickly repented and told the the truth.

The children’s story of the “The Little Train that Could” is a mirror to this. It wasn’t until that train in the fictional story internally believed he could, that he reached the top. Before this, he just said the words “I think I can”. God changes that “I think I can” to “I know I can”.