The following was first posted on October 13 of 2021....the additional comments a little after that.....and the addendum in April of 2023. I try to keep it near the top....hoping that the message is as potentially potent that I think that it is....you are sixty or seventy.....maybe only fifty....you had the advantage for all of those years....with no real concern about having to stand before God....but those years are gone....or almost gone....and now the advantage is with me....for you used up your hope....while mine only built up. Here is good news....you did stall....and balk....but the door is still there for you to knock on....no believer will look down on you for delaying....for every one of us was given mercy that was totally undeserved.
Preface: I'm thinking specifically of two men that I had known in the past....similar in many ways....the opposite in some other ways....but ultimately destined for the exact same future. Both were extremely intelligent.....contemplative. No one could say that they were not thinkers. We had many conversations about God over decades. The one would not only challenge every single thought....and do so with total confidence that they were right....but also do so with a smile....so as to twist the dagger....so to speak. The other was the opposite. He relished the conversation and hearing any and all of my thoughts....and would even expand the questions....not to challenge.....but to welcome the furtherance of discussion. He rarely challenged....and often agreed....and also with a smile....a sincere smile. The former never even considered God let alone the need for salvation. The latter appeared to almost want to believe....but at the same time there was no disappointment in that he did not believe. The following post was not directed to either of these men.....they never entered my mind when I typed up these thoughts....but in retrospect....the post refers to my conversations with both of them. Their advantage is gone today. The passing of time has taken it away. The question in the debate was never urgent to them.....but now.....along with age....comes a certain creeping urgency. They watched forty years pass....and have not a single sentence to add to the defense of their argument....whereas I have evidence of forty years of God's faithfulness....having witnessed and experienced His wisdom and glory.
Advantage Pilgrim
If the whole world were somehow darkened....the sun completely blotted out....and God were to cause every Bible in the world to emit a light....then the earth from space would appear as a lighted globe....that is how many printed copies of God's Word there are....not to mention the same Bible accessible on every computer.
One could hold in one hand the most valuable diamond in the the world....and a cheap paperback Bible in the other hand.....and there would be no comparison in the real intrinsic and eternal value in the hand that holds the Bible.
One could be rich like a Musk or a Bezos....or adored as the greatest celebrity....or the greatest athlete.....or the greatest anything....but have nothing compared to any little old woman anywhere in this world.....hobbling home with a paper sack containing that day's food....who is in prayer and praise to her Lord and Savior....and coming King....Jesus Christ.
Take a look at your watch dear reader....or a clock on the wall....and whether you can see the second hand or not....it is moving....nothing can stop time. No matter how rich....or how happy one perceives they might be....that time is merely rented....with a contract that will run out.
So we debate this.....you and I....and time passes.....years.....decades maybe. In the beginning you had the advantage.....how foolish of me to waste my life.....but as time passes....your advantage lessens....for you once could exclaim with reasonable confidence that you would have many years to enjoy your thesis....and the conclusion of it all was far away.....while I could only say with confidence that the conclusion of all things would prove the Bible true....but now....as the years have passed....you can only say that the past is on your side....while I still point to the future...which is no longer far away.
But this God who you accuse of being unfair....he watched you debate against His righteousness for those so many years.....and yet still says...."Knock....and it will be opened." This God who you accused of being harsh....has offered you mercy for maybe fifty years....and still says to you...."Today is the day." Pick up that Bible that is probably as close to you as the next room....or the attic....or the basement....for the very same words that you may have read before....while you had so much confidence in yourself....may this time bring you to your knees....first in horror at where you are headed....and then humility in how wrong you have been....and then hope in He who opened your eyes....as He had opened all of our eyes.
Addendum....the one man....the one who would talk to me every chance that we had....over many decades....and enjoy the intellectual stimulation....but never seriously considered how the conversation was directed at his eternal soul....who was as health conscious as anyone that I have known in my life....passed away suddenly a few months ago. Our last conversation was only about a year ago....as I ran into him in Barnes & Noble....right there among the books that we so often talked about. As I recall....we talked about the Apostle Paul. He brought it up. It was another mind exercise....where one then puts down the barbell of thought....refreshed in a way....but to no purpose other than to keep the mind in tip top shape.
