Christianity Declared “Outdated and Irrelevant”!
Yes, according to certain periodicals, popular opinion has declared Christianity to be outdated and irrelevant! Actually, it is neither.
Christianity deals, mainly, with two critical issues: Sin, and Guilt, both of which are getting a lot of bad press these days.
Sin is a disease, much like cancer, except that it attacks the spirit instead of the body. Sin attacks the innocent as well as the guilty, the infant as well as the aged. It is no respecter of race, religion, geography, financial strata, or political affiliation.
Sin is terminal in 100% of its cases, and everyone on earth is born infected with it. It has a list of symptoms ranging from offensive to grotesque, with names like despair, alcoholism, drug addiction, rape, greed, hatred, murder, war, prostitution, pornography, abortion, child abuse; the list goes on and on.
There is, however, one symptom of sin that can be beneficial, and that symptom is called “guilt”. Guilt is your spirit’s way of telling you, “Something is wrong! Fix it!”. Pain sends your body similar messages in much the same way.
A friend of mine once went to a doctor complaining of back pains. After giving my friend a thorough examination, the doctor asked, “Do you ever suffer from headaches?”, to which my friend replied, “All the time, but that’s normal for me.”. The doctor exploded at that saying, “Headaches are NOT normal! Nobody was made to have headaches all the time. Something is wrong, and the back pains and the headaches are symptoms. If we fix what is wrong, the symptoms will disappear.” And they did!
In the same way, my friend's headaches were a symptom of an underlying physical issue, guilt is one of the symptoms of sin. That is the bad news. But the good news is that if you fix what’s wrong, the symptoms will disappear.
“People from around the world claim 2000-year-old remedy
‘Good for what ails you!’”.
It sounds like a cover headline for one of those newspapers you see at the checkout line at the grocery store, but this story is true. For every person who is still suffering from that age-old, horribly debilitating sickness of sin, there is a cure that has been found 100% effective, when applied according to prescription, and to top that off, it’s free!
What is this miracle cure? Why it’s nothing less than the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ!
“I’m telling you the most solemn and sober truth now: Whoever believes in me has real life, eternal life. I am the Bread of Life. Your ancestors ate the manna bread in the desert and died. But now, here is Bread that truly comes down out of heaven. Anyone eating this Bread will not die, ever. I am the Bread—living Bread!—who came down out of heaven. Anyone who eats this Bread will live—and forever! The Bread that I present to the world so that it can eat and live is myself, this flesh-and-blood self.”
At this, the Jews started fighting among themselves: “How can this man
serve up his flesh for a meal?”
But Jesus didn’t give an inch.
“Only insofar as you eat and drink flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, do you have life within you. The one who brings a hearty appetite to this eating and drinking has eternal life and will be fit and ready for the Final Day. My flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. By eating my flesh and drinking my blood you enter into me and I into you. In the same way that the fully alive Father sent me here and I live because of him, so the one who makes a meal of me lives because of me. This is the Bread from heaven. Your ancestors ate bread and later died. Whoever eats this Bread will live always.” John 6:47-58
Where can I get it? How do I take it?”
These are both good questions, and the answers are just as straightforward. The only one you can get it from is the God of the Bible, and the only way it can be administered to you is by your believing (that is, putting your trust, your confidence, your reliance) in Jesus as the only real cure for what ails you.
I know it sounds like a hard pill to swallow, but there is an old quote that says, “If you have enough faith in the skills of the doctor, you will take whatever medicine he prescribes to you.”. This is the prescription, the only prescription. Believe in Jesus as the cure, and receive the healing.
Millions have tried it and will gladly tell you, “It works!” And it has, for over two thousand years!
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