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The Plan of Salvation—as explained by others:
9—You think Abraham, Isaac & Jacob may have had a few hits during the 60's.
8—You open to the Gospel of Luke and a WWII Savings Bond falls out.
7—Your favorite Old Testament patriarch is Hercules.
6—A small family of woodchucks has taken up residence in the Psalms of your Bible.
5—You become frustrated because Charlton Heston isn't listed in either the concordance or the table of contents.
4—Catching the kids reading the Song of Solomon, you demand: "Who gave you this stuff?"
3—You think the minor prophets worked in the quarries.
2—You keep falling for it every time the pastor tells you to turn to First Condominiums.
And the number one sign you may not be reading your Bible enough:
1—The kids keep asking too many questions about your usual bedtime story: "Jonah the Shepherd Boy and His Ark of Many Colors." |
In addition to the other features on the site that are intended to meet your needs, I must include the most important need you have in this very temporary life of yours: you need a right relationship with the True and Living God. Without that, all other attempts to cope with the life of a child with cancer are temporary at best. This is the thing that you can do for yourself and your family that will last for all eternity. Will you please give me a moment?
...are in shock and feeling very much out of control because of the recent diagnosis of childhood cancer,
  
 Read it. Say it. Repeat it. Recite it over and over again and memorize it because it summarizes the Truth of what you are about to learn. The fact of the matter is that God is holy. That's not nearly so simple a statement as it may seem. One thing you will learn as you strive to grow in your knowledge of God is that He cannot be defined (or confined) in human terms. When I say "God is Holy," I mean that not only is He Himself free from sin and unable to sin, He cannot even tolerate sin or be in its presence. Reflect on this statement for a moment. I hope its significance will become crystal clear to you. It is the reason for the need to be saved—your suffering right now notwithstanding.
Romans 3:23 - "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." So if God cannot be in the presence of sin and we are all sinners, what hope is there? Left at that, there would be no hope. But God loves us—saved and unsaved alike—and has provided a way for us to become "right" with Him in order that we might have a personal relationship with Him.
2 Peter 3:9 - "… not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."
The gruesomeness of the act of killing (and imagine if you will what Israel's altars must have looked like because everyone had to sacrifice an animal for their own sins) was supposed to be a true-to-life illustration of how abhorrent God finds sin. Jesus was a perfect, sinless and blemishless male who took our guilt—the whole guilt of all humankind—on Himself. At the moment He did that, you and I had the opportunity to be cleansed from our sins merely by believing that God sent His Son—Jesus—to serve as our one time and everlasting sacrifice in order to wipe away our sins from His view.
This isn't such an easy question for many—at least the answer isn't easy for many to take. One of the first steps to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior is to understand and acknowledge that you have something to be saved from. You must recognize that you are a sinner. Once you accept this truth and realize that God finds sin abhorrent, you can then begin to comprehend the enormity of what He did for us to give us the opportunity to become right with Him: He sent his only Son to the world and offered Him—Jesus—as a one-time and final sacrifice for our sins. Jesus came to earth to die for our sins.
"... confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, (and) you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." (Romans 10:9-10.) You can't earn a right-standing with God of your own accord, you simply have to have faith that accepting this free gift from God is all that is required to become a child of God. Yet another stumbling block for some who feel they must do something in return for this gift (which, of course, means it isn't really a gift at all!). |
In order to illustrate His holiness in Old Testament times, God directed an intricate and detailed system for offering sacrifices to atone for one's sins. The sacrifices involved symbolically transferring ones' sins to an innocent, perfect and blemishless male animal and then killing the animal who now held their guilt.
All you need to do is to
Scriptures tell us that..."All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isaiah 64:6.) If you need more proof that you can't do anything to become right with God, here's some:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9)." So complete is our salvation experience that once we become children of God, He no longer sees our sinfulness!
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
Dear Lord, I know I am a sinner and that I can't save myself—I need You. I believe that You sent Jesus, Your only Son, to die on the cross for MY sins. Thank You, Lord, for this great gift and thank You for all You are going to do for me. Amen.Whether you said this prayer just this moment or a lifetime ago, the Lord has bestowed on you some further gifts that come with salvation: You have eternal life. Whether Jesus returns in a moment or it is still generations away and we experience a physical death departing these physical and flawed bodies here on earth, we have the assurance of knowing that our eternity will be spent in the very presence of God always and forever. God sent His Holy Spirit to indwell in us.
John 14:15-17,26 tells us "If you love Me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
 It is true that the Way to Eternal Life is easy. It's a gift! It's a mystery why so many reject it. You can't do anything to earn it, so banish that notion from your head. Reread Romans 10:9,10 and Ephesians 2:8,9 for assurance. If you're still struggling with that and think that you have done enough good deeds to be noticed by God when you die, Isaiah 64:6 confirms that your best deeds aren't able to save you. If, on the other hand, you believe you've sinned too much to be saved, you don't understand the power and majesty, grace and mercy of our God. 1 John 1:9 assures you that there is no sin so great that He won't forgive—if you ask.
I John 1:9 - If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you're struggling to find a reason why a loving God would allow your child to be stricken with cancer ... I will freely admit that I don't know. But this much I do know:
An absolute God speaks in absolute terms and when He says that he causes ALL THINGS to work together for good to those who love Him, He means that ALL THINGS—including your child's cancer—will work together for good to those who love Him. How will it manifest itself? I don't know. But what a great way to begin building a solid foundation of prayer and fellowship with the Lord your God. Go to Him in prayer and ask. Colleen has shared that as a result of Morgan's leukemia, the two of them have had opportunities to share the Gospel that they never would have had before. It seems like a heavy price to pay, but certainly not when you compare it to the price Jesus paid. Your child's cancer is not a punishment for sin. There is much Scriptural support to back up this statement, not the least of which is
John 9:1-3 - "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. - His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." What a statement of faith it is when visitors and staff members see you handling your situation—one that none would choose—with prayer and faith. When you do that, you're allowing the work of God to be displayed in your life! There is volumes more I could say, but my aim on this page is to offer you encouragement—that the burden you're carrying doesn't have to crush you.
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Salvation—that free and wonderful gift—is available for the asking. If you believe you're at this point and are not sure what step to take next, and you believe you're ready to confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, so you will be saved, review this prayer and say it yourself (or words to the same effect):
If there is any way I can support you in your search to know God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, please ask. It would be my honor to do what I can.
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