Only What’s Done for Christ Will Last

For the last couple years I’ve been thinking about life and death a lot. I’ve been thinking about eternal life and the importance of the spiritual world but how earthly-minded I really am. I’ve been feeling how meaningless and temporary everything that is earthly. Last morning I was listening to John Piper’s message “Don’t Waste Your Life,” and he said the words of the title of this picture which describe perfectly how I’ve been feeling for a long while now.

In the evening I went to downtown and the lakeshore with a Christian Iraqi friend, and it was a fun day filled with taking pictures. We talked a lot about Christianity and our purpose on earth. When I came home I started post-processing my photos but I felt a very heavy burden. At around 4 in the morning I decided I needed to pray because I knew I couldn’t sleep feeling like this. As I prayed I started crying because I realized I saw thousands of people that evening that are going straight to hell. These were people like me, each one of them is unique and important, but they had absolutely no regard for God. I wondered how much I’ve been wasting my life, and I wondered what have I done to save a single soul lately. The Bible says in James,

“Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.” James 5:20

A bookmark fell from my Bible as I picked it up and when I returned the bookmark to its page I noticed it was 1 Corinthians. At the beginning of the book there was a short article titled ‘The Last Place to Start a Church–No one expected much from crazy Corinth’, and I realized the great spiritual need in downtown Toronto.

We have a responsibility to preach the truth of the Gospel—the Good News of salvation only through faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God–to the world, whether it is crazy or not. God called me to two thing: to live a holy life; and to go into all the world.

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15-16

That is why I hate the prosperity “gospel” and the “preaching” of false prophets. They have made a mockery out of salvation and Christianity: they are concerned with the temporary and worldly and neglect the eternal and spiritual. They promise you your best life here and now while our Lord promised us our best life when God’s Kingdom comes. They promise financial wealth, physical health, and comfort while our Lord Himself said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Their teachings are contrary to Psalm 23:4 which says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” God did not promise us a rose garden but inner peace through the storms if we abide in Him. Two things our Lord promised are: a cross to die on, and eternal life after death. False teachers attract such huge crowds and congregations because few people are chosen—few people have godly discernment and choose the narrow road and gate.

We are wasting our lives and we are becoming increasingly useless for God’s Kingdom. Churches are becoming more like clubs than the house of God, decisions are being made by votes, and their main concern is growth in number by following business practices and psychological manipulations! I’d so much rather join a small congregations that is truly the body of Jesus Christ, than join a large congregation where everyone shakes hands and says to one another, “God bless you”, “God bless you”, “God bless you”, when I know that the last thing God intends to do to these unrepentant, hardened-heart, unholy people is to bless them. We are trying to be nice so we water down the truth, and we try to be relevant and so we lose our saltiness. A turning point in my conversion was when an Iraqi man told me something in the least nice tone, which embarrassed me since he was older than me, and that made me re-evaluate my thinking. It was because of that truthful short sentence that I started to have a positive attitude toward God, which lead to me accepting Christ a short time later. I’d so much rather someone be firm and truthful to me than be nice and lying to me, especially when it comes to my eternal destiny!

If you claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ then preach the truth—that is what you are called to do. If you don’t preach the truth the way it is then you are a liar and an enemy of God. The Bible teaches that if you want to be relevant then you have to be different. A sinner won’t seek a change by observing your sinful way of life.