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Imagine this scenario in your town.

 

You've been hearing about an ordinary looking but unusual man in the town you live in.  You understand this guy's got a savior complex, says he has the power to forgive you personally of all your sins. 

 

This savior talking dude also even goes as far as to say if you'd give up everything to follow him, he'll guarantee you eternal life.  Not only eternal life but peace of heart and mind even now.  But, if you don't give up everything, his message is clear that you've sentenced yourself to a hell hole beyond human imagination.

 

You'd probably think, how out of your mind can one person be.  What a loon!

 

But then you happen to run into this born cripple guy you work with who's now walking as well as you.  He says the savior-claiming guy cured him on the spot last week. 

 

A few weeks later, a friend tells you about a man the guy raised back to life by merely speaking to his corpse that had been in the grave for days.

 

The out-of-his mind character now has become all anyone can talk about.  But then the clincher.  Some leading church leaders in town - you know them to be mostly religious types - are spazing over him.  They've even petitioned and persuaded the courts to convict him for high treason - for some unthinkable crimes against society. 

 

The next incredulous thing you hear is that he's been executed.  Dead.  Gone.

 

Wow, you think, what strange, confusing events these have been.  Never have you heard the likes of them.  But, oh well, just let it go, you tell yourself.  Perhaps he deserved what he got because of some obvious trickery.  I mean, how else could you explain the miracles surrounding him?

 

A few days later, however, you run into someone who tells you she saw the executed guy alive at the park.  Then others tell you they actually not only saw him alive but observed him physically ascend from the earth and disappear into the skies. 

 

Uh oh, you're going to have to ponder this one again.  What would the impact of these events be on you personally?  Would you believe all this really happened, that this guy actually is the redeemer of mankind and the forgiver of sins, just as he claims to be?  After all, he'd have to be if God, wouldn't he, if he indeed rose to life from being dead for three days? 

 

But even that being the case, at the same time, you have things urgent to do than just think about this savior.  For instance, there's the super bowl party at my house I have to plan for.  Plus, I've must figure out how I'm going to pay off the credit cards from all the happy holiday presents I bought.

 

Would this be how you'd respond to such scenario? 

 

Of course, the purpose behind my newsletter here is to ask how should I respond to a man who rose from the dead in order to prove his claims to be the only path to God and eternal life, and by doing so offers forgiveness for my own foul corruptions that separate me from God?

 

Would I chose a casual get-ready-for-the Super Bowl approach?  Or would I chose an all out committed surrender to Him?  And if planning a Super Bowl party, it'd be for the purpose of hoping to have a opportunity to share him with others.  An opportunity to explain to somebody that everyone makes a Super Bowl decision about life one way or the other - either making a decision to follow, or by default, not to follow Christ (John 3:16-21).  

 

If you have a nagging sense of restlessness or loneliness or feel isolated, please read

A Man's Big Question from my little quick-read book, Save the Males.

 

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