DOLEZAL: Jesus can save you

Dear Rachel:

Listen up! You have taken a lot of abuse from a number of various sources and you have my sympathy. The cities of Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, the police, the Coeur d’Alene Press and the Spokesman Review, Eastern Washington University, the national media, and now the NAACP.

I want to encourage you! All of your tormentors are sinners just like you and me. The difference is your recently discovered sins are a little more newsworthy, and the rest of us have been fortunate enough to have escaped detection.

But God is different. He delights in forgiving people’s sins — no matter how grievous.

I am sure that somewhere back in your experience you have heard that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for people’s sins so He could save them and take them to heaven. Oh yes, there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. Don’t let anyone tell you that when the grim reaper comes for you that you just die like a dog and turn back to dust. The Bible is clear on all these subjects. All you have to do is read it. Now, let me show you just how simple this is.

Jesus suffered and died on a cruel cross to pay for the sin debt of all believers and He was raised from the dead to justify us for believing in Him. Here, He put all this in His own words and more simply and succinctly than any human writer could have done:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son (to die on the cross) that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting Life.” (John 3:16)

Read the whole 3rd chapter of John’s Gospel; meditate on it ‘til you understand it, and believe it and “everlasting Life” is yours. (John 3:16)

But beware: Neither baptism, church membership, observing “sacraments” nor any other religious rituals are required. In fact, if you trust in any of the these human concoctions it will void your faith in Christ. You cannot trust wholely in Jesus Christ and something or someone else. God is a jealous God and He says He will not share His glory (for saving you) with another. “I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another.” (Isaiah 42:8 and 48:11)

Rachel, I am praying for you. God has saved many thousands worse than you. And if you will believe His words, and trust His sufferings and death on the cross to pay for your sins, He will save you also.

ERNIE RANSOM

Coeur d’Alene

P.S. Jesus will destroy your ego, which is the culprit that has nearly destroyed you, and you will experience what it means to be humble. To be humble is to be free from this damning disease.