Don't trash the Bible
I had been booked for two consecutive speaking engagements. One was on a Friday night about 40 miles south of our home in Southern California, and the other was further south, in the San Diego area.
After I had spoken on Friday night, I checked into a hotel and began unpacking my bag. I no longer needed the printout of the directions and the information for the hotel check-in, so I ripped it into small pieces and threw it in the trash. I remember thinking that I was doing a wise thing because of the many problems with identity theft. It felt good to be finished with the Friday event, and I turned my attention to my next engagement.
After not being able to find the directions to the meeting, it suddenly dawned on me where they were. They were in the trash can, ripped into tiny pieces. The directions to both engagements were stapled together, and I had ripped them up together. I spent some time sitting on the bed putting together a paper jigsaw puzzle.
Many in this sinful world will tell you that the Scriptures are filled with unscientific statements, mistakes, contradictions, and atrocities. They will claim, among other things, that the Bible says if you mix cotton and wool you won't get into Heaven, that we are instructed to stone homosexuals, and that God is guilty of genocide. But if you believe them and trash the Bible, you will shred the directions on how to find everlasting life.
If you've been duped into believing that the Bible isn't worth searching, please, pick it up and take the time to put the pieces together again.
Where you spend eternity has nothing to do with not wearing mixed fabrics. That was a ceremonial ordinance given to Israel three thousand years ago, perhaps to symbolize purity or avoid the practices of their pagan neighbors.
Rape, murder, kidnapping, adultery, and homosexuality were crimes in Israel and were given capital punishment. We don't instigate another country's laws in our country, and so we don't execute homosexuals. As Christians, we instead show them love and kindness, and because of our love for them, we tell them that the Bible says adulterers, fornicators, thieves, and homosexuals will not make it to Heaven:
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9,10)
We don't want anyone to end up in Hell.
The Scriptures tell us that salvation has nothing to do with being religious, being kind to other people, or giving to charity. The directions to eternal life are very clear. If you and I continue the way we are going, we will end up in Hell. We are heading in the wrong direction. This is because God is holy, and He considers lust to be adultery and hatred to be murder, and promises that He will uncover our secret sins on Judgment Day.
The Bible says that there is only one way to Heaven, and until we find that way, we are lost. We must do a U-turn and put our faith in Jesus Christ alone, who suffered and died on the cross and rose again on the third day. And once we know the right way, we must share those directions with others.
