“IT AIN’T EASY TO GET TO HEAVEN WHEN YOU ARE GOING DOWN”
“Just whisper this prayer after me”, they said. “Right where you are, right where you are seated, repeat this little prayer after me and you will be saved”, they said. “It’s easy”.
Yeah, right! But you forgot to tell me…
I have watched as the Christian Church has turned aside from the clear teaching and example of Jesus to find a better way, an easier way, a fun way, a way to fit the desires and passions of men and women, boys and girls.
Let me tell you, there is no other way than what Jesus taught and demonstrated, and the way is clearly recorded in the Bible, and IT IS NOT AN EASY PATH!
If you call yourself a Christian, please read and consider what is presented, and ask yourself, is the “hard road” worth it? If you are not a follower of Jesus, you too, please read, think and consider, could it be worth it?
THE BIRTH OF JESUS – It was not easy!
We are told amazing stories, we see magnificent plays and hear beautiful music about the birth of Jesus – especially around the Christmas holiday.
But let me tell you, nothing about the birth of Jesus was easy. It was hard. Very hard. Consider this:
A young Jewish woman named Mary was betrothed to a young Jewish man named Joseph. Beside satisfying the tradition and the law surrounding marriage at that time, complications arose when Mary discovered she was pregnant; but she had not been with any man. The ramifications of this discovery could have been devastating. Besides the humiliation, the shunning and rejection by Jewish society, Jewish law proscribed severe penalties. This would not be easy.
Joseph, upon hearing about Mary’s condition, decided to keep matters private and to send her away, secretly. But Joseph, upon hearing from an angel sent from God, through a dream, was told the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit and that she would give birth to a Son; and Joseph was told not to be afraid. He was to name Him Jesus, for The Child will save His people from their sins.
Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded. He took Mary as his wife, kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and named The Child, Jesus.” This was not easy, either.
Next, a census was ordered by Caesar Augustus, requiring all Jews to travel to their hometown to register. Joseph and Mary went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, in order to register. If the trip would not be hard enough, Mary was near the end of her pregnancy and had to travel by foot and from the city of Nazareth in Galilee, to Bethlehem in Judea, a trip of about 70 miles. This trip would have taken between four and five days.
It never gets easier, in fact, things seem to get worse. While they were in Bethlehem, the time came for her to give birth. The Bible tells us that there was no room at the inn, so they had to go to a barn, or as it was called in those days, a manger, to give birth.
Finally, word of the birth of a “King of the Jews” reached King Herod, so he began a search for this child with the intention of killing him. God forewarned Joseph to run to Egypt with Mary and Jesus to be saved. Herod was so thorough, that he had every boy child under the age of two years killed, in all of Bethlehem. Finally, when Herod died, Joseph, Mary and Jesus returned to Nazareth.
There was NOTHING easy about any of this! So, maybe the question we should ask: “Was It Worth It? Is It Worth It?”.
Please stay with me as we hear more about what it takes to be saved, and we can try to decide: IS IT WORTH IT? WOULD IT BE WORTH IT?
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
NEXT: THE PREACHING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST – IT AIN’T EASY
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