Vernon Eaton, commenting on the book, Ways of the Ant, by John Crompton, writes: “A pleasure-mad society needs to take a lesson from the Sanguine ants and their affair with the Golden-Haired beetle.”

“The ants’ normal diet is plain, often to the point of austerity, but they love unusual and exotic tidbits and will go to any lengths to satisfy this craving. For example, the Golden-Haired beetle exudes from the base of its golden hairs some secretion which ants find irresistible. So it is allowed to do anything it likes, even lay its own eggs, which soon turn to grubs. So besotted and obsessed do the worker ants become that they feed the beetle with food intended for their own infants, and even with food reserved for the queen.”

“Worse, much worse, they allow the beetle to kill their infants and eat them. They even kill their own infants themselves and feed them to this stranger. The beetle repays them with a generous allowance of the secretion they crave…. The end is not immediate. The colony may last two years more, but the end is certain.”

“How like Satan is this picture. Promising the ‘pleasures of sin’ and then enslaving us with our own cravings. The ‘dead-end’ may not be obvious at first, but it is inevitable.”

The good news is that while the end result of sin is eternal death, which is eternal separation from God the author of all love and life, the gift of God is both forgiveness and eternal life. Both are available for all who believe and ask. For help be sure to read “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/aricles.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me always to remember that sin always has its consequences and that I will reap what I sow. And I thank you that you have provided an escape from sin’s ultimate consequences—eternal death and separation from you—by giving Jesus to die in my place on the cross. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Romans 6:23 (NIV).

Not so long ago I had an urgent phone call from a good friend in Australia—one of my closest friends when I was growing up. Two of his granddaughters on their way to a Bible College in Florida were stranded at the Los Angeles International Airport. My friend wanted to know if there was any way I could help them as their passport and entry papers were not in order. We offered to have them stay over with us until this got sorted out. No chance. They were not allowed out of the airport and we were not allowed to see them—not that we could have done anything but it would have been nice to at least give them a sympathetic ear.

They were put on the next plane and sent back to Australia

How terribly disappointing it was for them. They were just kids and didn’t know any better as their travel agent hadn’t given them the correct instructions. The good news is that all is corrected and they have returned to the U.S. and are now in college in Florida

This is a good reminder about making sure that we have our passport for heaven. All religions, as many would have us believe, do not lead to heaven. Good works, as many others claim, will not get us into God’s heaven either. There’s only one way and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ who has paid the ransom price for all our sins and wrongdoings through his death on the cross. There is no other way.

Accepting Jesus as your Savior is providing your passport for entry into heaven. Whatever you do, don’t leave earth without it. Unlike our friends from Australia, there will not be a second chance to come back to get it right.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you gave your Son, Jesus, to pay the ultimate sacrifice in giving his life as a ransom price to pay for the penalty of all my sins, and that in accepting him as my Savior gives me my ‘passport’ to heaven. Please help me to be sure that I have my passport to heaven. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

For your “passport to heaven” be sure to read “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/articles.

1. John 14: 6 (NIV).

Phil Parrino, a Daily Encounter reader, tells the story how in “World War I there was a young American ambulance driver who personally witnessed all kinds of death and suffering. After the war he wrote dark brooding novels and finally committed suicide. His name was Earnest Hemmingway.

“But there was another American Ambulance driver even younger than the first. The dead and dying he witnessed were mostly from the great influenza epidemic that swept Europe at the end of World War I. After the war he drew cartoons and made people laugh. When he died he was loved by millions. His name was Walt Disney.

“As you have said, it’s not only what happens to us, but how we react to it. Our personality predisposes us to a certain extent, but in the end we make the choice.”

Life is a series of choices. I am today where I am because of choices I made years ago. I will be where I am tomorrow based on choices I make today. And I will spend eternity based on the choice I make about accepting or rejecting God’s great gift of salvation.

As Paul challenged King Agrippa to become a Christian, he challenges you and me today to make that choice and not to be an almost-persuaded. For help be sure to read, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/articles.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to see that my life has been shaped in so many ways because of choices I made in the past. Help me to make choices today for where I want to be tomorrow. And above all, help me to make the right choice about eternity by making sure I have accepted Jesus as my Savior and am a true follower of him. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Acts 26:27-29 (NIV).

In, James Michener’s novel, The Source, he describes an ancient family. The father of the family sacrifices his son to Malek, an ancient God. The mother grieves while the father then goes and visits the temple prostitutes. She is deeply grieved at what her husband is doing in the name of religion. She laments: “With a different god, he would have been a different man.”

How true these words are in real life. Time and again we’ve seen the carnage caused by those with a different god. Bali—until the Islamic terrorist attack a few short years ago which killed almost 200 people—was looked upon as Paradise by Westerners.

Even since 9-11 many Western leaders and others have stated how Islam is a peace-loving religion claiming that we worship the same God. The fact is we don’t. Allah is not the triune God. For Muslims Jesus Christ is not God the Son nor is he the Savior of the World. He is only a prophet and second to Mohammad. True, not all Muslims are terrorists by any means and while most Muslims are moderate, there are many who take the Qur’án seriously and are dedicated to the destruction of Jews, Christians, and the West.

As Chuck Colson points out in BreakPoint, “If you want evidence of Islamic extremism, just ask any Indonesian Christian. For nearly three decades, Indonesia’s Christians have endured one outrage after another at the hands of their Muslim neighbors. In 1975, Indonesia invaded and annexed East Timor, killing hundreds of thousands of East Timorese Christians. Twenty years later, as East Timor gained its independence, the government again did nothing as more Christians were slaughtered. In the mid-nineties, Indonesia’s Christian Chinese were made the scapegoat for the country’s economic woes. Again, the government stood by as Christian businesses, homes, and churches were looted and burned.

“And in the last few years, an Islamic militia, the Laksar Jihad, has declared war on Christians living on the islands of Sulawesi and the Moluccas. The militia, which includes members from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Albania, and Bosnia, has attacked Christian villages and forced Christians to either convert to Islam or be beheaded.”

So, says Colson, “Overlooking the true nature of Islam is not only wrong, it’s folly—the kind of folly that can turn any paradise into hell on earth.”²

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, forgive us Westerners for overlooking the plight of Christians in other lands where they have been and are being slaughtered in your name by the thousands. And help us to wake up and realize that if we continue to turn from you—the one and only God—we too (or our children’s children) may very well be facing the same kind of terrorism as Christians in other lands are facing. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. I Timothy 2:5 (NASB).

2. Copyright 2002 Prison Fellowship Ministries http://www.breakpoint.org.

I recall having read in a college newspaper about a student who painted in big white letters right across the side of a garbage truck, “Where is God?” Perhaps he was thinking at some level, why does God allow garbage to happen?

It’s an age-old question, as old as Job and as fresh as today: “Where is God when tragedy strikes … when a loved one dies and the heart is torn with grief … when innocent children are kidnapped, sexually abused, and murdered? And where was he on September 11, 2001? And again, when terrorist bombs blasted a resort hotel in Bali? Or when a sniper in the Washington, D.C. area was shooting and killing innocent people at random?”

I don’t want to sound callous by any means but we are asking the wrong question because God is where he always was and always is. The Apostle Paul said it best, in that God “is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’”²

So the question needs to be, “Where is man?”

Our problem lies in the fact that we as nations have left God—or are fast leaving him. As God’s Word, the Bible, says, “Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord.”³ And what of those nations whose God is not the Lord? Perhaps history can best answer that question.

But the great tragedy is, as Friedrich Hegel said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please open our eyes and help us to see that when we leave you, forsake your Word and throw out your commandments, we open the door to evil. Grant that we will see in today’s senseless acts of terror a wakeup call to turn back to you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Psalm 33:12-19 (NIV).

2. See Acts 17:24, 26-28.

3. Psalm 33:12.

G. Franklin Allee wrote how, “Years ago, a young mother was making her way across the hills of South Wales, carrying her tiny babe in her arms when she was overtaken by a blinding blizzard. She never reached her destination alive, and when the blizzard subsided her body was found beneath the snow. But the searchers discovered that before her death she had taken off all her outer clothing and wrapped it about her baby. And when they unwrapped the child, to their great surprise and joy, they found he was alive and well. She had given her life for her child, providing the depth of her mother love.

“Years later that child, David Lloyd George, when grown to manhood, became prime minister of the United Kingdom, and without doubt was one of Britain’s greatest statesmen. The UK was a better place for a time because a mother gave her life for her son.”

On a much greater scale the world today is a better place because on Good Friday 2,000 years God the Father gave his Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cruel Roman cross to pay the penalty for the sins of all mankind. Thank God that includes you and me. And now, because of Jesus’ death, all who put their trust in him will live forever in Heaven with God where there will be no more sickness, sadness, sorrow or death.

Thus Good Friday and Easter Sunday—when Jesus rose from the dead—are two days that changed the world forever.

Note: If you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior, be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: www.actsweb.org/articles.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, how can I ever thank you enough for giving your Son, Jesus, to die in my place on the cross. Because you died for me, Lord Jesus, I give my heart and life to live for you all the days of my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Isaiah 53:5 (NKJV).

Some time ago someone said the following about Nietzsche who declared that God was dead:

Nietzsche: “God is dead.”

God: “Nietzsche is dead.”

Mr. X will also go the way of all such “prophets” as will all who discard the Ten Commandments and God’s universal moral laws.

In America today (as in many other parts of the world) many “believe that there are no ‘moral absolutes.’ Many hold to a philosophy of ‘moral relativism.’ One poll found that 67% of Americans do not believe in moral absolutes. Among ‘Baby Busters’, those born between 1965 and 1983, the percentage was even higher at 78%. Even 62% of professing Christians said that there was no absolute standard of right and wrong.³

We have taken God’s Word and prayer out of our schools. Many are trying to do away with and prohibit any public display of the Ten Commandments. Others are determined to take the words “under God” out of the Pledge of Allegiance. These same people sarcastically ask Christians when we see senseless violence, random shootings, vicious killings, and acts of terrorism, “Where is your God now?”

God is where he always was and is. It is we who have left God and discarded his commandments, and we are reaping what we have sown.

“James Madison, the 4th President of the United States said this, ‘We stake the future of this country on our ability to govern ourselves under the principles of the Ten Commandments.’”⁴

2. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com, Oct. 2002. Adapted from a sermon by Dr. David E. Leininger.

3. Alan Carr, Sermon: “Ten Commandments.” From www.eSermons.com.

4. Ibid.

In the country of Thailand is a statue of the Buddha that is ten feet tall and made of solid gold. Estimates of its worth range around $200 million. But for many centuries, no one knew this statue’s worth. When the Burmese invaded Thailand many centuries ago, it is believed that the Thai villagers covered the Buddha statue with layers of mud so that the Burmese wouldn’t steal it. It wasn’t until 1957, when workers tried to move the statue to a new location that the mud began to fall away and reveal the true nature of the statue. For centuries, no one had known its true value.²

True, this statue of Buddha, while of great monitory value, in and of itself is worse than worthless in spiritual value; for the only one who can ever forgive sins and grant eternal life and a home in heaven is Jesus Christ.

However, what happened to this statue is a vivid illustration of what God can do for you and me. He sees beyond our outer covering and can take a sin-scarred life—no matter what shape or condition it is in—and make something beautiful out of it if we will come to him through Jesus and surrender our life to his will and control. As Jesus said, “Whoever desires may come to me.”¹

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you that you look beyond my outer appearance and see the value of my soul and spirit and have a wonderful plan for MY life. I come to you today and surrender my heart and life to you. Please make something beautiful out of my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

NOTE: If you would like to recommit your life to Jesus Christ, you can do so at: http://tinyurl.com/pgntm.

Or if you have never made a first time commitment to Christ, be sure to read the article, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian” at: http://tinyurl.com/8glq9.

1. Revelation 22:16-17 (NKJV).

2. Doug McIntosh, Love Full Circle (Chicago: Moody Press, 1999), 76-77.

Some readers will be old enough to recall the once popular song sung by Burt Bacharach and the Posies:

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love,

No not just for some but for everyone.

Hal David (the writer of these lyrics) was right in many ways. But as wonderful and as necessary as human love is, it isn’t enough to satisfy all the cravings of the human heart.

Ravi Zacharias quoted D.H. Lawrence who, writing of his own pursuit of happiness, stated, “We want to delude ourselves that love is at the root of the problem of our emptiness. I want to say to you, it isn’t. Love is only the branches. The root goes beyond love. A naked kind of isolation. An isolated me that does not meet and mingle and never can. It is true what I say. There is a beyond in me which goes further than love, beyond the scope of stars. Just as some stars are beyond the scope of our vision, so our own search goes beyond the scope of love. At least, I think that it is at the root, going beyond love itself.”²

Lawrence is also right about the “naked kind of isolation” we all experience in the depths of our being, which is a spiritual loneliness. The reality is that we were created to have relationships not only with one another, but also with God. However, because our sin has separated and isolated us from God, we have been left with a God-shaped vacuum, or spiritual emptiness, within. As Augustine put it, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” The world’s many religions are all evidence of man’s endless search to find God and fill this vacuum.

But religion cannot fill this vacuum. Only God can meet this need. And because he loved us and wants to be connected to each of us, he sent his own sinless Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins to save us from our predicament. Thus Jesus is the only way to God.³ When we confess our sinfulness and accept Jesus as our Savior, we are reconnected to God and our inner spiritual vacuum is filled and our spiritual loneliness cured. For more help be sure to read, “How to Be Sure You’re a Real Christian—to find God without having to be religious” at: http://tinyurl.com/8glq9.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me to see and understand my spiritual need and my need to be and stay connected to you. If I have never accepted you as my Savior, please help me to do that today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Hebrews 13:5 (NIV).

2. Ravi Zacharias on D.H. Lawrence. Source Unknown. http://www.sliceofinfinity.org.

3. See John 14:6.