There’s nothing to it. You may do it a dozen times a day. Yet 6,000 people were killed in one year—just crossing the street. And 165,000 people were injured in one year—just crossing the street.

So it isn’t so simple after all, not just something you do as a matter of course. Not anymore. Crossing the street these days is grim business. Maybe you cross, maybe you don’t.

Maybe you meet your friend across the street; maybe you meet God! It may be that you will reach the corner drugstore, or will it be a miserable corner in hell that you carelessly dash into? The expected hours of thrill in the movie theater across the street may suddenly become an unexpected hourless eternity of terror forever beyond relief.

Grim business, yes! But there is something you can do about it. Look before you leap. Be ready before you attempt to cross. Life in an armchair is dangerous—without God. And crossing the street without God is a gamble with death and eternity.

Be ready. “[Jesus Christ] came; and they that were ready went in with him . . . : and the door was shut” (Matthew 25:10). “Be ye therefore ready . . . : for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luke 12:40).

There is only one way to get ready. It is a simple way. A man in danger of his life cried out, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” The answer came, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:30, 31). “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

The answer was not: be baptized, unite with our church, turn over a new leaf, begin doing good deeds, or anything of the kind. But—as soon as the man experienced “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:21), he wanted to be baptized and unite with God’s people. He experienced more than merely turning over a new leaf; he received a new life— the divine life! He was “born again,” and that newly born life showed itself in good works.Salvation comes first as a gift from God, without any merit of our own; this salvation is outwardly evidenced by the Christian’s works, which follow. “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).

Before you cross another street, prepare for a safe crossing. It may be just across the street— or to eternity!

—Harold Brenneman

Language

English

Author

Harold Brenneman

Publisher

Rod and Staff Publishers Inc.

Topics

Evangelism