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Get the Real Diseaseby Greg Quinn January 9th, 2006 It’s a new year. I have great hopes for 2006, and perhaps many of you do as well. Yet, even as I write this message, many I know lie sick with the flu, and many have taken the flu vaccine. While thinking of this vaccination process, it brought into my mind a significant spiritual revelation that all of us should ponder upon this New Year. Before we go there, however, let me say that I thank God for vaccines and the technology that prevents disease and death from earthly diseases. Vaccines have prevented countless thousands of deaths. Because of this technology, we don’t have problems in the world with terrible diseases like polio, chicken pox, and diphtheria anymore. Diseases that once killed thousands are now held at bay by the process and technology we call vaccination. By exposing the body to a very small dose of the disease, perhaps just a ‘germ’ of the disease, we prevent the body from catching the real disease. From a spiritual perspective then, many people are vaccinated with Christianity, but never get the real disease. They get the ‘germ’ of Christianity. They get a small dose in order to prevent them from catching true, genuine Christianity. They go to church, sometimes occasionally and often regularly. They may even be a church leader or teacher. They may or may not tithe and give money to the church. They may have been baptized. They can tell you a time, perhaps, when they made a profession of sorts in order to appease others, or based on an emotional decision or pressure, but they cannot tell you with any degree of certainty that they know they are right with God, and that they know without a doubt that one day they will spend eternity in Heaven with God and our Lord Jesus Christ. They may have small symptoms of being a Christian, but certainly don’t have the full-blown case. They got vaccinated with Christianity, but never got the real disease. What are some of the symptoms of suffering from the germ of the Christian vaccine while not having the disease? You may be practicing what you think is Christianity, but perhaps it is only a series of religious rituals. You may enjoy helping others in church, but perhaps have never felt that God was really there to help you. You perhaps even work with religious fervor, but you lack the peace that can only come from a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You may know who God is, but you really don’t know Him personally. You may open your Bible to follow the preacher, but you don’t open it any other time to obtain knowledge and deliverance. You may have been baptized with water, but you may never have been baptized with the Holy Spirit of God. You may say profoundly that you are a Christian, but your life actions do not show it. You may state that you have been saved, but you have never shared your salvation experience with another. You may feel comfortable playing the part of a Christian in the comfortable pews of your church, but you prefer to mix with the worldly group from your job. You may have given money, but you lack the knowledge that freedom and peace cannot be bought, but is a free gift from Jesus Christ who paid the sin-debt in your stead. So, you suffer with the symptoms, but never have had the real disease. Christianity is a disease you certainly do want to catch. Only through having a real, true, full-blown relationship with Jesus Christ can you achieve peace in this world, and comfort that one day you will spend eternity with God and our Lord Jesus Christ. You don’t want the symptoms only; they will confuse you into thinking you have the disease. The symptoms alone may carry you through your life until it is too late, death touches you, and you awake with the knowledge that you were never truly saved, never truly a Christian, and you will suffer for all eternity the tortures of a life in Hell, separated from God and all that is good. How can you catch Christianity? It cannot be bought at the drug store. It cannot be given by your church, only introduced there. It cannot be purchased. It cannot be directed. It can, however, be easily avoided. So, how can you catch true Christianity? First, realize that you are a sinner. The Bible tells us that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)” and that “there are none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10)”. There is nothing in you that justifies salvation from a death that was based on the penalty of sin by the first man, Adam. The Bible tells us that “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23)”. Just as you work a job, you expect wages as payment. And, just as you live your life, since all of us are sinners and have done wrong which separates us from a holy God, your wage for this sin is eternal death. So, if you realize that you are a sinner and that the penalty for this sin is eternal death, how can you inherit eternal life? How can this sin curse be broken? The only answer is summed up simply in John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him would not perish but have everlasting life.” And, how do you receive this everlasting life? Romans 10:9-10 tells us this, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Christianity is simply recognizing that you are a sinner, that God is holy and cannot accept sin, and that while you have done nothing to deserve such, God sent his son Jesus into the world to provide for you a free gift of eternal life and peace. To receive Christianity, you must receive this free gift that Jesus provides, and understand that through his death on the cross for your sin, and his defeat of death by rising from the dead, that you too can inherit eternal life only through Jesus who defeated death and provided a means for you to live a life on earth in peace and love, and live forever with God in Heaven. Once you truly receive the disease of Christianity, once you get the full-blown disease and not just a germ, once you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord and choose to live a life according to His teachings in the Holy Bible, then you will realize one thing. That life without this disease isn’t worth living. Forget the vaccine. Get the real disease. Become a Christian. I wish you joy, peace, happiness, prosperity, and fulfillment that can only come through a relationship with our Lord Jesus this New Year.
If you have questions or comments in general related to this article, please click: gregscorner@gunblast.com If you have specific questions as to how you can develop an inner peace that only comes from a personal relationship with the one true God, please click: peace@gunblast.com If you have specific prayer requests and you'd like the Quinn boys to pray for you, please click: prayerline@gunblast.com
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