What Will You Do?

 Imagine this:

People all over town are getting sick – some have died from a strange ailment. Public health officials and doctors are working night and day to discover the cause. Because of the recent outbreaks of viruses, they focus their attention there but cannot identify any viral infection in those who are affected.

Finally, someone decides to look for a common toxin rather than a viral infection. Voila! Each individual they test has a high level of arsenic in their system. Then the search begins to find the source of the arsenic. It has to be something that is widely used because so many people across various social and economic divisions in the city are being affected.

One day, you begin to feel sick. Soon, you can barely stand on your own, so you go to the hospital. You are in such bad shape that they have to feed you intravenously. The only thing that you take by mouth is water, yet your condition worsens. At last, someone asks if it could be in the water. The official answer is no; the concentration of arsenic in the water supply is below the acceptable level for human consumption.

You are doubtful. You ask to be given only bottled water rather than water from the city system. You drink gallons of bottled water, and within days your symptoms subside. The doctors see your improvement and prescribe an arsenic antidote. You recover fully. 

When you get home you are so thankful to be able to return to your normal life. As you begin to consider the people you know who are not getting sick, you realize that all of them had been drinking bottled water because they didn’t like the taste in the city water. Naturally, you drink only bottled water from that point on. You don’t think much about it until one of your neighbors is taken to the hospital with the same symptoms you suffered from. You are confident that the doctors will know what to do, so you ignore it.

A few days later, a friend of yours is taken to the hospital with arsenic poisoning. When you go to visit him, you notice a cup of water on the bedside table. You ask if he is drinking it, and he says that the doctors insist that he drinks lots of water to wash the arsenic out of his system. They are administrating an antidote, but the symptoms are not abating. You are flabbergasted! You tell your friend to request only bottled water.

You march to the nurses’ station and ask why they are giving patients city water after your experience with the arsenic poisoning. They tell you that the hospital has been assured by the city that there is not enough arsenic in the water to cause a problem. Your case was an anomaly. Now you are dumbfounded! How can they say that after your experience proved the water was the source of the poisoning?

You go back home deflated. You can’t understand how everyone could be so blind. Either the acceptable arsenic levels are wrong, or the city is not being truthful about how much arsenic is in the water. You are confident that your experience coupled with that of your bottled-water-drinking friends proves your theory. The city water is the cause of the poisoning. What will you do?

Because most of my readers are aware of my purpose for writing this blog, they have probably already figured out where this is going. The Bible teaches that all of us are sick with sin. “No one is sinless; no not one,” says Paul to the Romans. Paul also tells them that “the wages of sin is death.” In other words, every human being is born with a terminal illness, but there is good news: God has provided an antidote for our sickness. If we “take the cure” offered by God ie. believe in His Son, He promises not only to cure our sickness but to give us eternal life as well.

If you have chosen to follow Christ – decided to place your trust (faith) in His sacrificial death on your behalf – you are reaping the benefits of the cure now, and you are looking forward to a life after this life living with God for eternity. Nothing could be better than that. Nothing! Nothing? What if you let your neighbors know about the “cure?” Then you could know they will have peace now, and they will be joining you in a blissful eternity. Do you need to be reminded that Jesus gave every believer the responsibility to make the “cure” known? Remember what He said about hiding your light under a basket.

Sharing your faith is not an optional activity or something only certain professionals are asked to do. “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation” was not directed to Jesus’ Apostles alone; everyone who claims Jesus is Savior must also obey Him as Lord. You have the gospel, the good news, the cure for sin’s disease. Failure to share it is disobedient. Disobedience will result in one of two things: If are following Jesus, you will suffer chastisement from your Heavenly Father for ignoring His commands. The other possibility is that your disobedience may prove that you are not a true believer at all. Again, what will you do?

Related Posts: Why Witness? Necessary Obedience; Strict Obedience