Trust
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"1
Speaking of dreams, rock-climbing definitely is not a dream of mine. I've seen rock climbers scale the face of El Capitan in the magnificent Yosemite National Park in California. The thought of my doing what they are doing terrifies me. What if they fell? It can happen. Imagine the terror that rock climber, Lynn Hill, experienced in May of 1989 when scaling a cliff face in France. As she reached the top of a 72-foot ledge, she leaned back into her harness to take a restâ€"and her rope didn't hold. She hurtled backwards into space. Amazingly, she survived the fall. She shared this in her autobiography, Climbing Free.
Hill was an experienced rock climber and relied fully on her equipment. Her experience, however, is a powerful reminder of the dangers of putting our trust into something that can fail.2
Think of all the people who held stock in companies such as Enron. Thousands thought their future was secure but lost all their retirement funds. Same with me, I put my trust in my broker and he stole my entire retirement fund. True, we can't go through life being suspicious of everyone, but having said that, we do need to be wise and careful about who and what we put our trust in.
In some situations where we have been let down, we can recover, but when it comes to putting our trust in planning for eternity, there's no recovery if we place our trust in the wrong religion or in a false "god."
Many religious leaders besides Jesus Christ have and still claim that their religion is the true way to God. But Jesus was emphatic in stating that heâ€"not religion nor Christianity for that matterâ€"but that HE was the only way to God. "No one," he said, "comes to God except through me!"
While Jesus Christ is not the only religious leader who claimed to be God, he is the only one who ever convinced a great portion of the world that he is. He is also the only leader who ever claimed that he would rise from death,3 and according to historical evidence, he did. Following his resurrection, he was seen by the women who visited his tomb and found it empty, by the disciples, and by more than 500 other witnesses.4
Christ's resurrection was also recorded by Josephus, the Jewish historian, in his Antiquities (18:3). Josephus was a Jew writing to satisfy the Romans, so his report of Christ's resurrection would not have pleased the Romans at all. He would not have included it had he not believed it to be true.*
Had there been any other way to save lost mankind from sins' eternal destruction, why would Jesus, the Son of God, have come to earth as a baby to identify with mankind and then die in our place to pay the penalty for all our sins on the cruel Roman cross?
So be extremely wise and careful in what and in whom you put your trust when it comes to life after death. Your life depends on it. Eternity is forever!
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please be merciful to me, a sinner. Help me to see your truth. Help me not to depend on anyone other than you, the one and only God, to reveal to me the way to you and the way to eternal life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
*Note: For further evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ see the article, "Jesus Christ: God or Man?" at: www.actsweb.org/articles/article.php?i=24&d=1&c=1&p=1. And, if you are not sure that you have placed your trust in Jesus for your eternal destiny, be sure to read the article, "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: www.actsweb.org/articles/article.php?i=2&d=1&c=1&p=2.
1. John 14:6 (NIV).
2. James B. Meigs, "Extreme Living," O, The Oprah Magazine, July 2002, p. 35-37.
3. Matthew 16:21.
4. Luke 24:13-43; 1 Corinthians 15:5-8.
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