What does it take to persuade you?

If you had it all to do over again would you change anything? Of course you would, or at least I know that I sure would. There is hardly any area of my life that I would not change, if I could somehow re-live it.
I wonder if 20 years from now, I will feel the same about the period that I am currently living through; undoubtedly so. Unfortunately we cannot go back in time and make improvements. There is no dress rehearsal in life; we live each day and it is what it is. Compared to the eons and billions of years of eternity, the 70/80 some odd years that we have in this life seem insignificant. Not so, the time we have here sets the course for those eons.

It is during this period that we make our decision regarding acceptance or rejection of Jesus Christ as the living Son of God who died for our sins and was raised from the dead. There are many lost souls who look back and regret making the wrong decision. It is too late for them. It is impossible for us to go back and change some mistake that we made in our early lives. Once we die, it is too late to accept Jesus as our savior. Don’t be looking up from the pit of Hell like the rich man looked at the poor beggar Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom in heaven, and regret your rejection of Jesus. It will be too late then, but today you can make that decision. Jesus once told a parable about this decision and how hard-headed some people are about accepting His death and resurrection. The parable is longer than the ordinary verses I include each day, but I hope that you will take time to read it. (If it is any comfort to you, it took me longer to type it than it will for you to read it.)

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Luke 16:19
There was a certain rich man
who was clothed in purple and fine
linen and fared sumptuously every day.
But there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus, full of sores, who
was laid at his gate,
desiring to be fed with the
crumbs which fell from the rich
man’s table. Moreover the dogs
came and licked his sores.
So it was that the beggar died,
and was carried by the angels to
Abraham’s bosom. The rich man
also died and was buried.
And being tormented in Hades,
he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham
afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom.
Then he cried and said, ‘Father
Abraham, have mercy on me, and
send Lazarus that he may dip the tip
of his finger in water and cool my
tongue; for I am tormented in this
flame.’
But Abraham said, ‘Son
remember that in your lifetime you
received good things, and like-
wise Lazarus evil things; but now he
is comforted and you are tormented.
And besides all this, between us
and you there is a great gulf fixed,
so that those who want to pass from
here to you cannot, nor can those
from there pass to us.
Then he said, ‘I beg you there-
fore, father, that you would send him
to my father’s house,
for I have five brothers, that he
may testify to them, lest they also
come to this place of torment.’
Abraham said to him
they have Moses and the prophets; let
them hear them.’
And he said,’ No father Abraham;
but if one goes to them from
the dead they will repent.’
But he said to him,’ If they do
not hear Moses and the prophets
neither will they be persuaded
though someone rises from the
dead.’



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