Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." --- John 14:6
A major catastrophe occurred with the collapse of a bridge on I-35W during rush hour traffic in Minneapolis MN. A large number of vehicles were on the bridge at the time it crumbled and fell into the Mississippi River. There were fatalities and injuries. Divers continue to struggle in searching the murky waters for more victims. Some of the vehicles lie under tons of broken debris from the bridge. The Navy is bringing in a small unmanned submarine to check areas which are too risky for divers to explore.
News media people have focused intensely on this event and out of it have arisen questions about not only the safety of the bridge in question but bridges on highways all over the United States.
Local media in our area in central Pennsylvania are jumping on the coat tails of the national media and asking questions about the safety of bridges in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The state does rank pretty high when it comes to the grand total of bridges within its boundaries.
We have been shown video clips of bridges with crumbling concrete and badly corroded structural steel which is supposed to hold those bridges steady while we citizens travel over them.
The PA Department of Transportation has never made a serious effort to use materials in winter time which do not have a corrosive impact on bridges, a deteriorating effect on highways, and a major polluting effect on the environment. Rather, toxic substances are used to hasten melting of snow and ice. In the application of those substances our bridges suffer an accelerated process of corrosion and weakening to the point of eventual collapse. But this toxic junk tossed on PA highways in the winter time also does a major assist in shortening the life of highway surfaces. And it is impossible to measure the negative results the release of this stuff has on the environment – vegetation, water streams, etc.
D.E.R., where are you when we need you, or do you just turn your eyes the other way and pretend you don’t know what is happening?
But alas! I digress! The point of this little discussion, as the news media folk and politicians go all out to get a few sound bites in on the bridge issue, is to let you know there is one bridge in existence – and one bridge only which is absolutely trustworthy – it will not collapse, ever!
But you have to cross it by an intentional choice on your part, just as large numbers of persons chose to cross that bridge in Minneapolis day after day until it fell into the Mississippi River recently.
However, this bridge is not really a physical structure made of concrete and steel. It is spiritual and supported by the cross upon which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for us sinners. He bore our sins upon Himself and satisfied the demands of God’s justice completely on our behalf.
Sin must be and will be punished – either we bear that punishment or we make an arrangement whereby someone else takes the punishment for us! By honestly acknowledging that we are guilty of having sinned against God and our fellow human beings, sincerely repenting (turning away from our sins – quit practicing them) of our sins, asking God’s forgiveness, and by faith receiving Jesus Christ into our lives as Savior and Lord, we are forgiven and experience peace with God. There is clear recognition that our forgiveness is possible because Jesus died for our sins on the cross and was later resurrected from the dead.
The above illustration, crude as it may be, is an attempt to depict the fact that it is possible to abandon a life which leads us down a path to condemnation and destruction, and to get on the “bridge” of God’s grace and mercy, traveling to the other side where we are accepted as citizens of His eternal Kingdom!
Details of the experience of becoming a Christian as revealed in the holy Scriptures are given at How to Become a Christian A link at the bottom of that area will bring you back to this place.
So, the big question is this – have you crossed over on the “bridge” which assures you that you have been forgiven and Jesus is real in your life as Savior and Lord?
Only 2 persons really know the answer to that question – you and God!
Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him."
--- Jude 1:14,15
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