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 | | From: | Richard Clark | | Subject: | christnet.religion Thanksgiving | | Date: | Fri, 26 Nov 2004 02:04:39 GMT |
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 | A TIME FOR THANKSGIVING
by Richard Clark
Everyone ought to have a time in their life that they can point to,
with Real Thanksgiving, and praise God for that day.
I remember that day, like it was right now. My older brother and I
were driving around the Cincinnati area. We got onto the expressway
(I-75 south-bound) and crossed over a bridge into Northern Kentucky.
We had only traveled a little way after crossing the bridge, when He
said to me, "Can I ask you a personal question?" I was slightly
surprised at such a request, but I said yes. He then said, "If
somebody were to ask you, 'WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?', What would you
say?" I had no idea in the world how to answer a question like that.
Then, on top of that, he said, "If you were to die RIGHT NOW,
are you SURE that you would go to Heaven?"
But of course, I did not have an answer to the question, except to
say, "I don't know." And then he said, "Well, if I showed you from
the word of God how you can know FOR SURE that you would go to
heaven, would you do what it says?" I said Yes in a round about way.
He pointed out to me that, the Bible says, "There is none righteous,
no, not one." and that "All have sinned and come short of the glory
of God." (Rom 3:10,23).
Then he talked about the penalty of sin, "For the wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord." (Rom 6:23). And he said, "But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."(Rom 5:8)
And finally, he talked about how the Lord Jesus Christ died for our
sins and was buried and rose again the third day for our
justification. (Justified by the precious blood of Christ.)
He told me how the LORD had taken my place on the cross and took the
wrath of God which I DESERVED. He took MY place!
And right there, sitting beside me, was someone who also had taken my
place! You see, when I was in the Army in Vietnam, my brother was
also sent there. They had a rule, that they can not require more than
one member of a family to be in a combat zone at one time, so, when
my brother was shipped there, he elected to stay, so I could leave,
and I was shipped out to Okinawa. He took my place! If that hadn't
happened, I might be dead today! But HERE WE ARE!
And there was my brother, telling me how that, THE LORD took my place
on the cross of Calvary. How could I refuse to receive the LORD?
I couldn't! (Can You?)
He said to me, "If somebody gives you a gift and you receive it, you
know you have it, right?" And he handed me something. I think it was
a five dollar bill and I had it in my hand as I said, "I guess so."
Then, since I was a little slow catching on, he pointed to my hand
and said, "Well, do you know that you have THAT?" I looked in my
hand, and there it was! No doubt about it! And of course, that was an
example of the fact that when God gives someone the Gift of
Everlasting life, they can KNOW that they HAVE Eternal Life, as it is
written, "These things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God; that ye may KNOW that ye HAVE Eternal life,
and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."(1John 5:13)
Romans 10:13 says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved." That's a promise, if we call on the name of the
Lord, we SHALL be saved, not maybe...but SHALL! He asked me if it was
allright for him to pray for me and I said OK. He prayed and then
asked me if I wanted to ask the LORD to save me and then I prayed and
asked the LORD to forgive me of my sins and save me, and I received
The Lord Jesus Christ there and then as my Saviour! God's GIFT!
By the providence of God, we had pulled off the road on a section of
I-75 known as "Death Hill" (because of the large number of accidents
there) and also called "The Cut of the Hill" (because the hill was
cut through for the highway). There, in the Cleft of the Rock,
I passed from death unto life on a Real Thanksgiving Day in 1974,
THANKS to the wonderful GRACE of God!
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."
And that's my Testimony of Thanksgiving!
What do YOU have to be thankful for?
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with Y'all. Amen. --Richard
Long version of this message and other messages at URL:
http://members.aol.com/RichClark7/index.htm
The Pilgrims and the Mayflower Compact URL:
http://members.aol.com/RichClark7/pilgrims.htm
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