GOSPEL NUGGET #370

The Myth That Reading The Bible Makes One Insane

There are many myths about the Bible. One of them is the one I wrote above. They might as well say that God makes one go insane. God was the one who inspired the Bible. He used human authors to produce it. And then reading it makes you go loco?

It is essentially a blasphemy against God. A bad press for its divine Author. Sure, there were cases of unstable minds who twisted the Bible to their own destruction, but it was definitely not the Bible's fault.

Nobody faults secular manuals when people do not follow its instructions to their own misery. Why say that against the Bible? If the truth be told and read, here's what it says:

2Ti 3:15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

The Bible does not make one go nuts. On the contrary, it makes one wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Read the Bible. Find out what Christ Jesus did for your salvation. Trust in Him and what He did and you'll be saved.

GOSPEL NUGGET #369

The Good Man Challenge

A preacher stood before a group of people offering a hundred dollars to anybody in the crowd who is truly good. One man stepped forward and claimed to be a good person.

"Have you told a lie in your life?" the preacher went at his conscience. 
"Yes" was the answer. 
"How many? Ten? Twenty? Fifty? More than a hundred?" the preacher went deep. 
"More than a hundred" the man replied with obvious uneasiness.
"What do you call someone who tells lies?"
"A liar" the man replied with guilt on his face.
"Have you stolen something? Have you borrowed something that you did not return?" the preacher further queried.
"Yes" the man replied looking down.
"What are you then?" the preacher probed deeper.
"A thief" replied the man almost in a whisper.
"No" the preacher countered, "you are a lying thief to be exact according to your own admission."

The preacher then told the man frankly that he cannot give the one hundred dollar bill to him based on who he was. He was not a good man at all. But the preacher said: "I will offer this one hundred dollar bill to you as an undeserved favor. Will you accept it?"

The man's face beamed with joy and nodded. He could not believe his ears. The preacher then approached him and laid on his hand a crisp one hundred dollar bill.

The preacher then said: "You see, God is like that to us sinners. We are all sinners. We don't deserve to be saved. But God offers His salvation to us for free as an undeserved favor. Anyone who humbles himself and relies solely on Christ and what He did on the cross will be saved."

GOSPEL NUGGET #368

Blessings For Free

Jos 24:13 'I have given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not build, and you dwell in them; you eat of the vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant.'

Israel enjoyed God's blessings without breaking a sweat. It was all given for free. They did not earn it. They did not labor for it. They did not build it. They did not plant it. All were freely theirs for the taking.

You see, God can give blessings for free. It should not surprise us therefore that He can offer the blessing of salvation for free as well. He has been doing it to people who trust in Christ and what He did on the cross for salvation ever since. Look:

Eph 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

9 NOT OF WORKS, lest anyone should boast.

2Ti 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, NOT ACCORDING TO OUR WORKS, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

Tit 3:5 NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH WE HAVE DONE, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,

Ro 4:5 But to him who does NOT WORK but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness,

Ro 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith APART FROM THE DEEDS OF THE LAW.

GOSPEL NUGGET #367

Taking Sin Seriously

Sin is serious. Fatally serious. It is a heinous crime against the Almighty of the universe. It is to fly in the face of a thrice holy God. It is an act of revolution against Him.

It is shocking. A scandal in heaven. Traumatic to the holy angels to see. They gasp. Their eyes dilate. They put their hands over their mouths with their lips quivering.

They take sin seriously because they take God seriously. They know how holy God is and so they know how horrible and horrifying sin is. And yet many of us mortals can just afford to think lightly of it. Our attitude towards sin is an insult to God. We don't love God and so we don't hate sin.

When God says "Repent," He means change your attitude towards sin. Hate and abhor it. Flee from it like its a poisonous cobra. Fling it away like it's poison.

Have you taken sin seriously? Seriously enough to hate it and run to the Savior for salvation from it?

GOSPEL NUGGET #366

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

There is a growing movement circulating around in the internet, especially Facebook, about finding a cure for ALS or Lour Gehrig's disease. It is a fatal neurological disease that has no cure.

It is called the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Famous celebrities in their symbolic support to find a cure to freeze this disease would be poured water on using an ice bucket.

You know, a similar thing happened 2000 years ago. Unlike the symbolic gestures of these celebrities, the Lord Jesus actually poured His blood on account of our sins. He took the "challenge." He died on the cross to pay the penalty of our sin.

We are incurably sick spiritually and are in dire need of salvation. Anyone who trusts in Him and what He did on the cross alone for salvation will be spiritually cured...saved.

GOSPEL NUGGET #365

Who Are Actually Saved By God?

God sent His Son into the world to save sinners. As such, the Lord Jesus Christ is the potential and the provisional Savior of all sinners. However, salvation does come with a condition.

Here read it for yourself:

Joh 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that WHOEVER BELIEVES (trusts) IN HIM should not perish but have everlasting life.

1Co 1:21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached TO SAVE THOSE WHO BELIEVE (trust in Jesus).

1Ti 4:10 For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO BELIEVE (trust in Jesus).

The Lord Jesus is the potential and the provisional Savior of all, but He is only the actual Savior of those who trust in Him and what He did on the cross for salvation.

GOSPEL NUGGETS #364

The Hole In Our Hearts

I remember a story about a man who went into a doctor's clinic for his severe depression. The doctor told him to go into a certain theater where a very funny clown would perform regularly. The doctor guaranteed him that it would surely help his depression.

The man replied: "Doc, I am the clown."

Nothing in this world satisfies. There's this eternal hole in our hearts that only an eternal God can fill. The things of this world are only mere temporary distractions to make you forget about the hole for awhile. In the end, when you are by yourself, you know that it is still there.

It's like a famished and dehydrated man who dreamed that he was in a banquet house. He stuffed himself full. He drank to his heart's content. He had a good time. Only to wake up to the sad reality that it was all a cruel dream.

As they say: "There is this God-shaped hole in our hearts that only God can fill." Let's be tired and weary already in chasing substitutes. Come to Christ.

He died for our sins and rose again from the dead.

GOSPEL NUGGETS #363

Mt 18:2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,

Mt 18:3 "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Lord Jesus is not teaching us here to be childish but to be childlike in our attitude. One must become like a little child for him to enter the kingdom of heaven.

What is it to be like a little child? It is to be marked by humility. Humility is seeing ourselves as to who we really are in the eyes of God nothing more, nothing less and nothing else.

Just as a little child has no exalted opinion about himself, so a humble person does not view himself highly in the eyes of God. He knows who he is and acknowledges the fact that he is a sinner, worthy of God's judgment and condemnation.

He takes the lowly place. He does not look up and say to God: "Look, I did this and I did that. I have been a good person, and so, therefore, I now have earned the right to be saved by You."

No, a humble person simply submits obediently to the terms that God has laid for a sinner to be saved. Just as a little child is dependent on his parents for sustenance, so a humble person depends and relies on Christ and what He did on the cross for salvation.

Have you become as a little child?