​    "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both..."  It's the beginning of a poem by Robert Frost published in 1916.  It's the dilemma all of us face.  Looking down the road and wanting to see the end of it before taking that first step.  Life is fleeting, well we know it, the wood once vibrant with life and green is now yellowing.  The beating heart, the soft voice in the ear, almost a whisper calls "Follow me." (John 1:43)
     "Count the cost.." the voice says.  It's not possible to cling to the desires of life and follow the Master down the road.  Thousands thronged Jesus in those early days of his preaching and teaching.  He knew that many loved the gifts (healing, miracles) he had to offer but weren't prepared to follow in his footsteps.  They would stick around for whatever they could get but vanish when the going gets tough.
     Jesus said to the twelve, "Will you go away too?"  Peter replied, "Where will we go?  You have the words of eternal life." (John 6: 67-68).  Peter was right to put his faith in Jesus.  When Jesus came to the ship at 3 o'clock in the morning and answered Peter's request and said, "Come", up jumped Peter into the water.  But Peter, like all of us, sometimes falter.  He looked down and saw the tempest beneath his feet and began to sink.  Out he cried, "Save me!"  Jesus caught him and on they went to the boat. (Matthew 14:22-33)
     The road is not always smooth.  Sometimes the tempests appear.  But like Peter Jesus is there to walk with you, or maybe even carry you just like the "Footprints in the Sand" speaks of.  It's a poem written by Mary Fishback Powers.  Life is fleeting and the time to make a choice is now.  No one is guaranteed the next breath, the next day, or the next week.  Which road will it be.  The one that beckons, "Follow me" or the one that leads to many things in life that are desirable.  Both roads offer much the same with just one big difference.  When the tempests come, will Jesus be there to catch you?

    "And the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat." (Genesis 8:4)  Mount Ararat is the highest peak at the end of a chain of mountains.  It's believed to be the most voluminous (immense) mountain in the world.  It stands at around 17,000 feet above the plains below it which are 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level.  Because of its immense size and the connection with Noah this mountain is called "the finger of God" by the locals.
     Just think.   The world is covered with water.  Is it any wonder that this mountain is called "the finger of God", the one place that beckons the boat with all living species aboard.  Surely, it must have seemed so to Noah and his family, too.
     Stories about the finger of God must have gotten around in those ancient days.  The magicians to the Pharaoh of Egypt referred to the finger of God (Exodus 8:19) when they were unable to turn dust into lice.  The tablets of stone that Moses took with him were written with the finger of God. (Exodus 31:18)  It doesn't really say that God used his finger to mark Cain (Genesis 4:15).  Cain had a mark on him, nonetheless, that God had put there to protect him from being slain.
     It's interesting that in John 8 where the Pharisees were plotting to trap Jesus by bringing an adulterous woman to him that the first thing he does is stoop down and write on the ground with his finger.  This particular incident the Pharisees quoted the law of Moses that she should be stoned.  They continued to badger him over the law to which he replies, "He that is without sin, let him cast the first stone."  And what does he do but stoop down and write on the ground again. (John 8:8)  A look back at Exodus 34:1 tells us that God wrote the ten commandments on the tablets a second time.
     The parallel here causes one to stop and wonder.  The Son of God who is God in the flesh remembers writing those tablets a second time.  So do the Pharisees.  And they know why they were written a second time.  Jesus' actions spoke louder than words to them that day.
     Surely they remember the story of the writing finger in Daniel 5 that resulted in the death of Belshazzar for his wickedness in taking the holy vessels from the temple and using them for drinking at his party.  Surely they remember the mark that God put on Cain.  Surely they remember the Psalm of David's that speaks of God's fingers designing creation (Psalm 8:3)
     Last of all they may have remembered the visions of Amos and the chastisement of Israel.  "Though they dig into hell, thence shall mine hand take them..."  (Amos 9:2)  Today, for us, it's Hebrews 10:31, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."    ​

​     There are two kinds of people.  Those who serve God and those who don't.  That's all there is.  A preacher's viewpoint indeed.  Pastor Josh firmly believes that if you're a Christian, your duty is to do something about the ones who don't serve God.  He's like our coach on the sidelines doing whatever is necessary to get us out of the pews and into the work of serving God.  He is even willing to go into overtime to drive home the point.  Today was one of those days.  "Yes," he said, "I see the clock on the wall but..." he still had more to say.
     The example was in Acts 18:7-11.  Paul has run up against the haranguing of the Jews again.  He has had it up to here and tersely replied, "Your blood be on your own heads;" and went to preach to the Gentiles.  He moved in with a fellow Christian, Justus, which was right next door to the synagogue.  Living next door to Paul, there's no way anyone is going escape Paul's preaching.  In short order, Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue becomes a believer along with his household and many others.
     Fear must have been creeping into Paul's heart because in verse 9 the Lord speaks to Paul and tells him not to be afraid because He has his back.  Not exactly in those words but verse 10 does make it clear that the Lord does have his back.  Fear.  There's a list as long as your arm.  Fear of snakes, death, heights, pain, disappointment, mice, dogs, flying--and the list goes on.  Paul was no stranger to being threatened.  He may have started thinking that someday, someone might make good on their threats.  After all, the conversion of the synagogue ruler must have stirred up some deep emotions.
     Many Christians sit in the pews on Sunday mornings.  Sitting and listening to Pastor Josh gives one pause.  He tells anyone in earshot that the "harvest is great and the workers are few" (Matthew 9:37).  Also, there is always a group who is lost that needs to be preached to.  He went on to say that the lost can't be reached by pew sitters and preachers unwilling to be a witness to others.  Jonah is an example.  What did he do?  As soon as God told him to go to the people of Nineveh, Jonah hopped on the nearest boat and went to the furthest reaches of the known world.  The boat started sinking and the sailors tossed Jonah overboard.  God sent along a submarine (aka big fish or whale) that swooped Jonah up.  After three days in the belly of the whale, Jonah was ready to go to Nineveh.  It took some convincing but God had not forgotten the lost of Nineveh and Jonah was the man for the job.  The story is in the Book of Jonah in the Bible.
     Don't run from God's will.  Carry God's Word.  There's no need for fear.  God told Abraham, "I am your shield." (Genesis 15:1)  Like it or not, he was Jonah's shield, too. God also says, "Fear not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I am thy God:  I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." (Isaiah 41:10)  God has reassured his children time and time again.  There are folks out there and God wants us to bring them to Him.  He will make sure that no harm comes our way.  The Lord has our backs, too.

​    As far as is known, the Apostle Paul visited Athens, Greece around 53 A.D.  The famous Mars Hill is the location of his only recorded sermon to the Gentiles that has survived.  Acts 17 contains that sermon.  (There is a sermon to the Jews which is also in its entirety.  It's in Acts 13.)  Mars Hill itself is across from the Acropolis.  Near the steps leading up the to Hill is a plaque containing Paul's sermon in Greek.  Imagine having a sermon posted in one of the oldest known cities of the world.  What a blessing it is.
     Paul was no slouch.  He must have had amazing training and a great memory.  Here he is in Athens which during his lifetime had been in existence for at least 2000 years.  He sees all the gods and idols practically on every doorstep.  They are everywhere.  It really bothers him.  But there is one that really catches his attention, the one TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Yes, in Athens, they honor a god who has no name.  And there's a story that goes with this unknown god.
     Around 600 B.C. Athens suffered a terrible plague.  Thinking that one of their gods was the cause of this calamity, they made offerings to them but to no avail.  Epimenides, a philosopher that ranked up there with Aristotle and Plato, was fetched to remedy the cause of the plague.  Epimenides made a prayer to the unknown god and told them to put hungry sheep out to eat on the green pastures of Mars Hill.  If any of them laid down and didn't eat, then there was another god they didn't know of whom  they should beseech.  Several of them did lie down.  These animals were given as offerings.   Very soon after people began to recover. 
     Paul comes along some 650 years later and tells them who the UNKNOWN GOD is.  It's the one and only God of the Universe,  The one who sent his Son and raised him from the dead. (Acts 17:31)  How simply amazing it is to see God's hand in this story.  Paul even refers to Epimenides again in Titus 1:12.  Epimenides was from the island of Crete.  Imagine.  Centuries before a Greek philosopher acknowledged that there is a God that he was aware of but didn't know.  Man's heart is always and forever drawn to his Creator.  Some deny it which will be to their doom.  But not Epimenides.
     There were others who believed that day on Mars Hill, too.  But still Paul is hounded by naysayers and he continues on his journey.  Just as then, it is so today.  People live through tragedies, heartache, and pain.  Many go to church and leave just as lost as when they came.  Paul carried the Word of God to all who were within hearing distance.  And, yet, today just as then, there are naysayers.  Hebrews 4:12 tells us that "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  One who kicks at that is either very brave or very stupid.  Either way, no one should want to come face to face with God, who has given everyone on this earth chance after chance, and then turn his nose up to his very Creator.  I mean no one should want to.

   ​Paul, formerly known as Saul of Tarsus, had to have been specially prepared for the work of one of the foremost Christians of his era.  Thought has it that he was probably born around the year 10 in the town of Tarsus which is now located on the southern coast of Turkey.  His parents were Jewish and probably strict Pharisees.  Paul's parents are also Roman citizens.  Most Jews did not hold Roman citizenship.  His parents must have had considerable influence to have been given such an honor.
     When he's 14, he is sent to Jerusalem to train under Gamaliel, a leading authority of the Sanhedrin, to become a Rabbi.  While training to be a Rabbi, he also learns a trade to support himself, a tent-maker.  Now, the stage is set.  He is a fiery young man by temperament. He's well educated and knows the Torah as well as and better than most.  He's devout and acts on his beliefs.  He defends Judaism with fervor.  
     Christianity is an abomination in the eyes  of Saul of Tarsus.  That is, until he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus.  "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Jesus said. (Acts 9:4)  Jesus, this Jesus who was crucified and rose from the dead, has stopped Saul, changed his name to Paul, and turned his thinking completely around.  Up until that moment, Saul believed that Jesus had not been the Christ, the Messiah that the Jews had been waiting for.
     Paul who was steeped in the Old Testament of the Jews had to know the prophecies of the coming Messiah.  His parents had to know them, too.  So, too, with Gamaliel.  But his parents and Gamaliel hadn't experienced first-hand knowledge of a visit from Jesus Christ.  What a difference it made in Paul's life!
 Most everyone agrees that there's between 331 and 355 Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. Thanks to the modern age of laptops and tablets a quick Google search will list sites that give these prophecies.  It's an impressive list.  What it must have been like for Paul to sit and listen to Jesus and remember the training he received.  The very training that schooled him in what to look for.  What it must have been like to sit and marvel at Jesus and wonder how so many of his time got it wrong.  Now it was up to Paul to set as many people straight as he could.  And, so, begin the missionary trips spreading the gospel of Christ, the risen Savior. 
     It's not easy for Paul.  He endures hardships, fear and hatred.  Friends are few, the work is hard.  But remember, too, that this is a fiery man who is devout in his beliefs.  He has met the Master and knows the importance of his task.
     While in Macedonia, Paul and Silas are jailed as a result of upsetting some schemers.  They were making money off a girl who was a soothsayer and Paul called the spirit to come out of her in the name of Jesus Christ.  The story is in Acts 16.  Were they unjustly jailed?  Of course they were but that doesn't stop the cries against them.  The judge releases them but runs them out of town also.
     Chapter 17 of Acts and Paul and Silas are in Thessalonica.  Paul first goes to the synagogue to preach before going to the Gentiles.  Paul felt compelled to go to the chosen people first.  He stated in Romans 1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."  Many were converted while there; but, the Jews were angry and caused a riot in the area.  They set up such a fuss that the brethren smuggled  Paul and Silas out at night.  
     And so it goes.  Christianity has taken it on the chin for centuries.  The devil's handiwork is in it.  All know that deep in their heart of hearts God has left his mark as the Creator.  All have the same chance for redemption.  Some will listen and believe the Pauls of this world and find God through Jesus Christ his Son.  And some will be like the Jews, so intent on hardening themselves against a loving and caring God.  Prayers go up daily for unbelievers.  Churches and the ones who go to them wait anxiously for the lost to come and claim what is theirs to have--belief in Jesus Christ and eternity.  Won't you come?

​    "Suddenly" according to dictionary.com means unforeseen, unanticipated, unexpected, abrupt.  Suddenly there is no chance for preparation.  The event is here.  That's what happened in Acts 16:26, "And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed."  That's what happened when Paul and Silas were imprisoned.
     The story comprises all of Acts 16.  There were some local schemers who were making money off of a bedeviled girl who was a soothsayer.  Paul called the evil spirit out of her and there went the schemers source of income.  Of course, they were irate and went to the local magistrates and reported them as being unlawful and Romans to  boot.  They incited enough people that Paul and Silas were whipped and thrown into prison.
 Paul and Silas, being missionaries, did what missionaries do.  They began praying and singing praises to God.  It's midnight, everything is quiet except the  worshiping heard up and down the prison.  Then suddenly everything changes.  Everyone in the prison is no longer bound.  The doors fly open.  They can walk out if they so desire. The guard would rather kill himself than be tortured for not keeping them imprisoned.  But, lo and behold, Paul and Silas shout out to him that they have not gone.  The prison guard, so moved by the events, is saved.
     There are other "suddenlys" in the Bible.  One is in Daniel 5--the hand that suddenly appears and writes on the wall and dooms the king of Babylon.  He was slain that very night.  In Matthew 25 Jesus gives the example of five foolish virgins who didn't bring oil for their lamps.  When the bridegroom came, they weren't prepared and opportunity had passed them by.  Verse 13 of that chapter says to watch (be ready) because no one knows the hour or the day that the Son of man will come.  First Corinthians 15:52 it says, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye...".  That's pretty sudden.  Life is going to change that fast--probably faster than you can snap your fingers.  Only God can do something like that.  We must be ready for a suddenly.  Keep our lamps trimmed and full of oil.  Jesus will be here suddenly and ready to receive the ones who are prepared.

    Think of it.  Only eight people got on the Ark that day--Noah and his wife, his three sons and their wives.  Noah lived a long time.  He was 600 when the flood came.  Six hundred years, that's plenty of time to have lots of family, lots of friends, and lots of acquaintances.  How is it that only eight got on the boat?  Hadn't Noah told them that a flood was coming?  People passed by  him.  They saw that he was building a boat.  They had to know.  They must have thought that they had "Plenty of Time."
     It's a song that has been repeated from one generation to the next.  It's a song that tells how a young person believes there is plenty of time to live right.  For now they want to get the best that life has to offer.  Before they know it their life on earth is over and they're before the judgment throne.  Now all they have is plenty of time.
     Jeremiah 8:20 sums it all up.  "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved."  Jeremiah was distraught over the fate of Israel.  God's people were worshiping idols and all the vanities that went with it.  They had turned a deaf ear to their creator.  Judgment was coming.
     The Twenty-First Century, the one that is in the here and now.  For all that has been achieved, what is there--really?  What does man have to brag about?  Lying is commonplace.  Crime is rampant.  Marriages are falling apart.  Families are disintegrating.  The list goes on.  Isaiah 5:20 says woe to those who call evil good and good evil.  But, yet, here we are over 2,700 years later and these words are just as  applicable today.
     Can it be turned around?  The woman that Jesus met at the well in John 4 was just a woman with no special training or pedigree.  After speaking with him, she ran into town and told everyone in hearing distance to come and see the Christ.  And the townspeople followed her to Jesus.  It says in verse 39 that many believed.  This is the same chapter that Jesus told the disciples that the fields were ready to harvest (verse 35).
    "Lift up your eyes, and look..."  Yes, look.  There are plenty of souls that need to hear the word of God.  They're everywhere.  Opportunities abound.  Just look for ways to make it happen.  Pray for your moment to help someone find their way to heaven.  We're all going to die.  Where we spend eternity matters.  And where others spend eternity matters, too.     ​

    "Am I my brother's keeper?" spoken by Cain when God asked him where was his brother Abel.  In a sense God gave Cain the answer when he told Cain that he would be a vagabond and fugitive in the earth.  Yes, Cain was responsible for his brother's fate.  And, in a sense; we, too, share in our brother's fate.
       No, we don't spill the blood of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  (At least, I hope that none of us have.)  But at times we behave in ways that can injure them both intellectually and emotionally.  That is why Paul drives home the point in Hebrews 13:1, "Let brotherly love continue."
     We need each other.  If a man says, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (I John 4:20)  Pretty heady stuff right there.  Our religion is based on the love of God--him for us, and us for him.  How then is it possible to love one (God) and not the other (our fellow believers)?
     Clearly God intends for us to treat each other like family.  We may not be related here on earth but we are related through the blood of Christ.  The New Testament many times over has referred to the brethren, and, called believers brothers and sisters.  A  look into Romans 8:16,17 tells us that not only are we brethren, we are joint-heirs with Christ.
     Accepting that to be true, the realization that we love our brethren becomes a part of our witness and testimony that Christ has made a difference in our lives.  So much so that we are bound together like family.  Pastor Josh said in Sunday's sermon that love is the gasoline that fuels faith.  Love is also a fruit of the Spirit along with joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance (self restraint).  If we live in the Spirit, those are the outward signs of who we are.
     God is love.  And, so, love should define us as Christians.  I Corinthians 13 devotes itself to the importance of love in all that we do.  It begins, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.  And, ends with "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity (love)."  If we all acted accordingly, what a difference this world would be.  Yes, we are our brother's keeper. ​