This past week-end at an outdoor event, I heard testimonies from young men who have come through horrible home life and drug conditions. It is terrible how some parents treat their children—beatings, vilification, compulsory drug and alcohol use, sexual perversion, and on it goes, and this from a very young age. I also hear this in our prison ministry. That’s why they are in prison. Prison is actually a haven from the home life and environment they were raised in. It is common for them to go from one rehab program to the other with only temporary freedom from drug enslavement. This can go on for years. These testimonies, and other testimonies I hear from changed lives, all have one thing in common: it was not until there was a total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ, that permanent and real inward change took place. They can get off of drugs and go to something else even that might be religiously good, but still not have a heart surrender to the Lord Jesus. We can be addicted to religion, and still not know the Lord Jesus. It was people who were addicted to religion who put Jesus on the cross. Just because we live a good, clean life does not mean we know Jesus. Then a few days later I visited with a man who believes all the old, elderly, feeble people who “don’t care should be taken out and shot in the head like China.” He also believes Covid and the Twin Towers were all arranged and funded by our government. The conversation about battery powered weed eaters, mowers, motorcycles and pistols was filled with the worst kind of expletives. He knows what I stand for, and I had made reference to some mission trips I had been on, after which the expletives seemed to increase. Wanting to plant a seed of the gospel in our conversation, I said, “Well, when we die, all this stuff passes away. My job is to get people ready to die. We can be ready through the gospel of Jesus Christ.” With that, he “had to get back to work” weed-eating and mowing. People are shaped by inherent sin, their homelife and life’s experiences. We don’t know what they have been through to form their beliefs and perspectives. That is why Jesus condemns no one—nor should we. The disciples of Jesus Christ are marked by love and truth. We in ourselves cannot change our hearts or other people’s hearts. As we see what Jesus did for us, and we make that total surrender to Him, He changes our hearts. His love never fails. His truth to our inward man sets us free. No matter where we are in life—addicted or not addicted, religious or not religious, self-sufficient or weak and dependent—the loving, truthful Lord Jesus Christ has done the work to give peace, righteousness and eternal life. We can take it or leave it. It is up to us.
Take It or Leave It
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