Day 24.

In dealing with Lucifer’s insurrection in heaven and this planets consequent rebellion God has placed before man two alternatives “I set before you life and death blessing and cursing therefore choose life……..” Deuteronomy 30:19. We are the masters of our own destiny because God has given us the choice between this life and all that it offers – fame, fortune, fun or whatever strikes our fancy or the alternative, eternal life. We are free to choose the things of this world but the end is nothing. A hole in the ground. Death! Or we can choose God’s way and stand on His side in the great rebellion and the end of that is not only a more satisfying life here, because it has purpose meaning and direction, but also its end is a place in the earth made new with out the curse of sin. It is eternal life!

The choice is ours! You are the master of your own destiny! Scripture is clear, this planet’s rebellion has almost run its course and soon God must draw the curtain, that the entire universe might see that sin and rebellion has been dealt with.

Yet Calvary, the death burial and resurrection of Jesus, was 2,000 years ago and to a finite being that’s a long time. Today it almost seems like a “once upon a time” story with the “ and they all lived happily ever after” still in the future.

How does the death of Christ have any relevance today? Sin is still real today. Look at the world, the hunger, starvation, destruction, hate, war, strife, death, heartache and pain. These are the fruits of Lucifer’s rebellion yet all are things caused by man’s actions! Sin is still real. Look within your own heart to know that. In fact, it is more manifest than it ever was (if there is ever a greater sin than murdering the Son of God) and it was for sin that Christ died.

The problem can be that Calvary seems so far away so disconnected from the restless age in which we live. As Christians we reverence it to be sure, but to many it is little more than a devotional exercise that we put on and take off like a cloak. And when we stop to think about it how many of us really know what it all means or why it had to happen. To many it is just an emotional release from the tensions of the week.

I believe one of the reasons many churches have trouble keeping their young people, apart from irrelevance, is because they are confronted with rules instead of Jesus Christ. They never come to know what the gospel is all about. They are never “born again.” They never experience life I the Spirit, they don’t find Christ and He never becomes a reality in their lives and so it is easy to go with “the world.”

Their perceptive eyes see that to many, religion is just a devotional exercise and emotional release from the tensions of the week. Knowing right from wrong is not a motivation for doing right. You can’t expect young people to be serious about religion if we are not.