Living Waters has produced a short movie on depression & suicide, called "Exit: The Appeal of Suicide." I've embedded the movie on the side bar to the right. Please take the time to watch this. If you are struggling with depression & suicidal thoughts, let me tell you:
THERE IS HELP!
YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT.
GODDID NOT MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN HE CREATED YOU, AND YOU ARE NOT LOST FROM HIS SIGHT.
YOU ARE LOVED.
YOU ARE HERE FOR A PURPOSE:
TO KNOW YOUR CREATOR & TO LIVE IN A FAMILY RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM AS HIS CHILD-FOREVER!
JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO THIS WORLD
TO SET YOU FREE!
If you have friends or family members struggling with this, would you please share this with them? And pray that God would use this movie to help those who are overcome by depression & suicidal thoughts or actions, that they may come to know Him as Abba Father, through faith in Jesus Christ.
I was in Wal-Mart with Mary the other day, picking up a birthday present for our son. Mary needed to stop off somewhere, so I went over housewares/furniture section to wait for her. I found some bookshelf units we were thinking of buying, and I was browsing around at other stuff when I noticed it: someone had left a gospel tract on the shelf. No way!
I picked it up to check it out: not from The Watchtower, not from the Mormons, not some other cult. Just a simple Christian gospel tract with the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. COOL!
I was excited. Why? Because some brother or sister in the Lord was doing something to reach the lost in my community for Jesus Christ! Think that's not a big deal? Trust me, it's huge. Most Christians do not regularly engage in evangelism with strangers; it's something like 2% or less in the professing church who regularly share their faith with strangers.
Leaving a gospel tract in a place like Wal-Mart is a good stepping stone to handing a tract to a stranger, which leads to actually talking to a stranger about Jesus Christ and the gospel message they desperately need. I drop tracts in various places all the time: ATM machines, the credit card slot in gas pumps and Red Box machines, on parked cars while out walking around. If you think its silly, what did you do today to reach these men and women who do not know Jesus Christ?
Now the location where I found this tract was a little obscured - back behind some items on an end cap. So, I stuck it on an island display, hanging out into the main aisle where it could not be missed.
God bless the person who left that, and may God get that into the hands of someone who needs it. Thank you for your boldness. If nothing else, unknown brother or sister in the Lord, you got me fired up!
"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:"
We had a good group come together for our annual gospel outreach at the 2017 Oktemberfest celebration here in Marshalltown, Iowa. We gathered at our home on Friday, planning to head downtown around 6 PM. Mary had everything ready, including tracts for the team to take with them.
I took my light-up "JESUS SAVES" witnessing cross and a backpack full of tracts & some Bibles, and took my usual spot on the northwest corner of the Courthouse square, on the corner of Main Street and Center Street. I had several good gospel conversations, passed out a lot of tracts, and got thoroughly smoked out by the Bubba's Barbecue stand (the wind and his smoker were just right that night, and I was downstream of the smoke most of the night).
We headed back to our house around 9:15, and Mary had a great meal ready for us. We all sat around and ate, and shared about our experiences downtown. For some of the younger folks, this was their first time going out and sharing gospel tracts and talking to complete strangers about Jesus Christ. It's a joy to be part of their stepping out in boldness to reach the lost in our community. I pray that other Christians were encouraged to get out of their comfort zones and reach out to those around them as well, and we pray for everyone that took a tract, or that we spoke with, would seriously think about the gospel message and their eternal destiny, and we hope they reach out by faith to Jesus Christ and are saved.
In the aftermath of the October 1st attack on concert-goers in Las Vegas, Nevada, I read about how people in or around the concert venue put their safety and their lives at risk to protect not only loved ones, but also complete strangers, shielding them from the rain of bullets coming from Stephen Paddock, helping them escape from the field of fire, aiding the injured or getting them to the hospital. This puts me in mind of an accident I saw reported on the internet from a few years back.
On September 15, 2011, an accident occurred near the campus of Utah State University in Logan, Utah. Brandon Wright, a 21 year old college student, slammed his motorcycle into the front end of a BMW, and his motorcycle burst into flames. The accident was caught on video by a nearby film crew.
It is a compelling video:
The first video I saw of this had no sound. As it begins, all you can see is the damaged BMW and the motorcycle totally engulfed in fire and furiously spewing flames. You can't see anyone in the vehicle, or the motorcyclist Wright. Smoke is beginning to come up from under vehicle's hood as the fire spreads.
A man enters the picture: he looks like a construction worker. He crouches down, looking, trying to decide what to do. A few more people approach the vehicle, and that first man steps over to the car and tries to lift or push it, with no effect. A young lady steps into the picture, and she gets down on the pavement, looking under the vehicle, but you can't see what she's looking for or looking at. More people show up, and now several try to push it sideways, but it's too heavy.
You see the young woman drop down to the pavement again, looking, and she gets up and points towards the front end, and you realize there is someone trapped under there. Now more people swarm to the side of the vehicle, and they lift it up on two wheels, and a man reaches down and drags out the body of Brandon Wright like a rag doll, and he is left laying there on the pavement, spread eagle, motionless. He looks dead. Everyone backs away. I was stunned at what I just watched.
Remarkably, Brandon Wright survived the crash, suffering 2 broken legs, a broken pelvis, some burns and smoke inhalation, and some road rash. He was so grateful to those bystanders who rescued him, that he asked for a press conference from the hospital:
I also saw an interview of that first man who approached the vehicle. He witnessed the accident and apparently knew Wright was under the engine. He said, "I was sure he (Wright) was dead. But I thought about my own son, and I wouldn't want him left there to burn." Let that sink in.
Brandon said during the press conference:
"That car could have blown up at any time. How brave they are is crazy."
"I should have died several times, really."
"They're definitely heroes."
"I am forever in debt to them."
The Las Vegas tragedy and the way people responded brought this story back to mind, and like the heroes of Las Vegas, I say that the rescue of Brandon Wright was:
An act of mercy
An act of love
An heroic sacrifice, and
The rescuers gave of themselves
In many ways the incident parallels to the message of the gospel, and what God did for us. I spoke about this recently down at the Des Moines Farmers Market, and you can listen to the audio of that message by clicking HERE.
Brandon Wright found himself in a perilous spot, under the engine of that BMW that was beginning to burn: injured, passing in and out of consciousness, and helpless to get himself out. He was in desperate need of rescuers, and if those bystanders stood around with their cell phones out, shooting video of the accident (as we sadly see too frequently today) instead of taking quick action, he would have been, literally, toast.
You and I find ourselves in a much more perilous spot: by turning away from the light that God has given us and choosing to live and act contrary to that light - by choosing to sin against God - we have put ourselves under the judgment and wrath of a Holy God (Romans 1:18-20). And we are more helpless than Wright was; there is nothing we can do on our own to extricate ourselves from this terrible spot, and if left without rescue, we will suffer the judgment of God, and spend eternity in the hopeless misery of Hell. Religion won't rescue us, or good works, or trying our best, or being sincere in our beliefs. God's standard of righteousness is perfection; it is so high, that none of us can attain that by our own efforts. The 10 Commandments show us we are all guilty, our conscience accuses us, and if left in this condition, we perish.
Brandon Wright needed someone to rescue him, and we need a perfect Someone to rescue us from the consequences of our sin. God promised in the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, when man turned his back on God (Genesis 3:6-25 the seed of the woman), that He would send a "Rescuer" - a Savior. God makes this promise in Genesis, and then the entire Old Testament is how God controlled history to bring this Savior to us, Jesus of Nazareth, born of the virgin Mary, born in Bethlehem, a descendant of Abraham, a descendant of King David, just as all the prophets had foretold.
The message of the gospel is that Jesus lived a perfect life, and then laid down his life on that cross as a substitute - a perfect substitute - a Rescuer - to bear the judgement of God we deserve, so that God could offer us mercy and forgiveness. So God could give us grace.
1. An Act of Mercy
Ephesians 2:4-5 "But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ...,"
Titus 3:5 "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"
2. An Act of Love
Revelation 1:5"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,...."
Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
John 15:13 "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
3. An Heroic Sacrifice
1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:"
Hebrews 9:26 "....but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
Hebrews 9:28 "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
Hebrews 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
4. God Gave of Himself
John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
Jesus has paid the price for our salvation - our "rescue" - in full on the cross. And you may access this rescue, if you want it, friend. The Bible says that if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be saved (Acts 16:31). There are not many ways to be rescued, for Jesus is the only one who can do it (Acts 4:12). If you haven't trusted Jesus Christ for eternal life, will you do it now?
If you're like me, if you've turned to God and put your faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, I have a question for us: what should our attitude be toward our Rescuer? Brandon Wright's response to his rescuers was totally reasonable in light of what they did for him, wasn't it? Jesus Christ has done something infinitely greater for us.
