'THE NAME' by Franklin Graham
 
    The Name of Jesus Christ is a lightning rod because Jesus Christ
represents the division of life between good and evil, God and Satan, light and darkness, righteousness and sin, heaven and hell.

    The Name of Jesus shouts out a choice:  "Whom will you serve,
give your life to, depend upon?"  Rebellious, self-willed, sinful people
want to retain the right to decide for themselves which way they will take.

    Jesus denies this option.  Speaking on His behalf, the Apostle Peter said, "For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

     Jesus is gentle, but He is not weak. He loves the sinner but is
absolutely intolerant of sin. He is not a negotiator.  He is LORD!

     It is this bristling truth that invites intolerance toward Christians.
Jesus did not say, "Do your own thing; all roads lead to God."  That
would have made Jesus "politically correct," but Jesus is not politically correct.  HE IS LORD.

     His followers today must accept the eternal truth of what He said
to His disciples:

   If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated
you.


    If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you.

   Remember the word that I said to you, "A servant is not greater
than his master." If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you.  If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

   But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake,
because they do not know Him who sent Me."  - John 15:18-21
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.