BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS
Man can count on no one but himself; he is alone, abandoned on earth in the
midst of his infinite responsibilities, without help, with no other aim than
the one he forges for himself on this earth. - Jean-Paul Sarte
We stand on the shore of an ocean, crying to the night and the emptiness;
sometimes a voice answers out of the darkness. But it is the voice of one
drowning; and in a moment the silence returns. - Bertrand Russell
The haunting echoes are drowned out by the heavy electric rhythms of acid
music as we try to forget the reality that has stripped us, ripping us of
value. Life is a myth! Do your thing. Do it! do it! do it! The stage is right
NOW. We are the actors. Cry, "No one understands" but wink out of the corner
of your eye, because you know if we are understood we are rendered impotent.
But sometimes we forget - as the rape of the earth and the exploding
population tell us we are up against the wall. Famine, they say, is inevitable
this next decade. Five hundred million people will starve to death or die
because of resulting plagues. For those of us who survive we must face an
environment ravished by our own greed.(1) We know we cannot continue to mark
the earth with ruin - and escape! It will come up over the horizon one day and
destroy us.
-And man dizzily plunges on toward an explosion point, speaking peace and
pouring out virulent hate. Without a radical change in man by the year 2000,
according to Dr. Isaac Asimov of Boston U., "the growth of present pressures
will have burst our fragile balloon and our world will be in fragments."
Tell us different you pseudo politicians-scientists-educators. Tell us we will
usher in utopia. Tell us we will bring peace to this shattered world. Tell us,
Oh Revered Ones, there is meaning.
We consult the stars and astral world for guidance and sit open-mouthed at the
feet of the Ouija Board signaling for a deal in life.
One man's claims ring down the corridors of history to us today throbbing with
answers
I am the light of the world, he who follows me will not walk in darkness but
have the light of life.
It is the man who shares my life who proves fruitful. The man who does not
share my life is like a branch that is broken off and withers away.
I have told you all so that you may find your peace in me. You will find
trouble in the world - but never lose heart, I have conquered the world!(2)
The world has yet to understand that revolutionary man. Religion has failed
miserably. Jesus Christ is Unique. No other life lived on this planet has so
widely and deeply affected mankind, as that one solitary life, Jesus of
Nazareth.
-And He said he would return to earth again!
It would happen when civilization would be threatened by its own destruction.
Describing this period as the most terrifying time in the history of mankind,
Jesus warned it would be introduced by the birth-pangs of "wars and
revolutions... There will be terrible earthquakes, famines, and plagues
everywhere," he said, "whole countries will be in despair... men will faint
from fear over what is coming over the whole earth."(3)
This, Jesus continued, would lead to an explosion where "unless those days
were cut short no life would have been saved."(4)
Pinpointing it in time, he said it would happen in the generation that would
see the ancient city Jerusalem returned to Jewish control.(5) The Israelis
retook the city for the first time since 70 A.D. in the six-day war in 1967.
The explosion of the world would be centered around that city.(6)
However domineeringly oppressive the political and economic establishments of
society would be, Jesus knew that the real problem that would hurtle man
toward destruction lay within himself.
"For from the inside," Jesus said, "from a man's heart, come the evil ideas
which lead him to do immoral things, to rob, kill, commit adultery, covet, and
do all sorts of evil things."(7) Self-centered man eventually will ravish his
environment and destroy himself. There must be a new man, radically liberated
and changed from within. "Every man" he said, "who commits sin is a slave. If
the Son then sets you free, you are really free."(8)
With deliberate knowledge, Jesus Christ allowed himself to be taken and
killed. Compressed in time the sin of the world was placed on him. "And he
personally bore our sins in his own body on the cross."(9) His death for us is
the source of our liberation.
Three days later he was ALIVE. No one has been adequately able to explain the
revolutionary impact of that event in history.
Of course there are always some skeptics and cynics. One such famous one was
Dr. C. E. M. Joad, head of London University's Philosophy department, who
together with fellow colleague, Bertrand Russell, sought to destroy the "myth"
of Jesus Christ. Dr. Joad shocked the academic world by saying:
"I have subscribed all my life to the Life-force philosophy which is: God is a
part of the universe - should the universe be destroyed God would be
destroyed. I have ridiculed the idea of man's sin. I believed that given a
little time man would have heaven on earth. However two world wars and the
imminence of another have demonstrated conclusively to me that man is not
good... the only solution for man's sin is found in the cross of Jesus Christ.
The one whom I have denied all my life I must now embrace."
The French physicist and philosopher, Pascal, said, "There is a God-shaped
vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing
but only by Jesus Christ."
He is the end of our quest. Today, you also can make the wonderful discovery
of knowing him. Jesus said, "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one
hears my voice and opens the door I WILL COME IN TO HIM."(10) Turn to him with
an attitude that says, "Lord Jesus, I need you. I am a sinner and need a new
life. I believe you died for my sins. Come into my life. Start changing my
life and making me the kind of person you want me to be." Jesus Christ living
in you by His Spirit is the Revolution of Life!
Maybe you have never studied the claims of Christ before, as an adult. Why not
begin by reading the Gospel of John in the New Testament?
Life is real; it is meaningful; it is NOW and forever! and Jesus is the
answer. HE IS THE BRIDGE OVER TROUBLED WATERS.
1 The Population Bomb, Dr. Paul R. Ehrlich
2 John 8:12; 15:5-6; 16:33
3 Luke 21:9, 11, 25
4 Matthew 24:22
5 Luke 21:24-33
6 Zechariah 12:3
7 Mark 7:21, 23
8 John 8:36
9 1 Peter 2:24
10 Revelation 3:20
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