Published by admin on 30 Sep 2003 at 11:44 pm
ONCE UPON A TIME
We all look back at times in our lives and compare them with what is going on now. It’s just the way we’re made. Some look back with gladness, because life is better now than it used to be. Such is the case with me. But others look back and say “once upon a time” things were better. For example; back when I had more money, or, back when I was healthy, or, back when our marriage was working. Or back before “wrinkles” or “gray hair”. Today seems to be the hard times for the “Baby Boomers”, who had it made for a while, and now many are seeing their jobs being cut back or gone, and now, close to retirement age, their hopes for their golden years have vanished, along with their retirement funds. “Once upon a time” is a very real ending for them, though it is often the beginning of a fairy tale. Fairy tales are supposed to have happy endings, but reality sets in and sometimes life doesn’t have a happy ending. Sometimes, it’s very cruel. Years of good health suddenly evaporate into terminal cancer, and life ends in weeks. Families are devastated by the loss of a loved one.
Or just as bad, that person living on in a disabled state with others having to wait on them constantly, and their lives are disrupted for years and years. Either way, life is no fun, and it’s easy to look back with a sigh and say, Once upon a time….
In my own case, when I say “once upon a time”, I have to think back when I was diagnosed with melanomas and liver cancer and was given a month to live. I didn’t think life was very fair. Truth be known, I didn’t think GOD was fair, either. After all, HE saved people who were a lot worse than I was. Terrible people, scuz bums, if you will.
HE would just up and save them and deliver them from all their afflictions, just like that! WHAM! And they were a whole new person. Addictions just vanished into thin air. Foul speech was a thing of the past. Those who used to steal, stole no more, but rather gave to those in need.
Here I was a church-goer. Every week, man, come hell or high water, I was in church, whether I was tired, or sick, or whatever, I did my two hours a week, and made sure GOD knew it. I would remind Him how diligent I was to go to church. Now, suddenly, I was dying, and I didn’t think it was very fair because there were lots of people out there who didn’t even go to church that were just fine as could be.
Then, one day in July 1993, I found out just how unfair God really is! I caught HIM red-handed at being unfair! That was the month I was told I had a month to live. I went to church as usual. Nothing different than before. I wasn’t saved and I knew it. But then again, most of the people there weren’t saved either. After service I went up and asked the elders of the church to anoint me with oil and pray for me to be healed. I knew I didn’t deserve to be healed. I deserved to die, go straight to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200. I really didn’t care about living a life that pleased GOD. I was too busy pleasing myself. This is when GOD showed me how unfair HE is.
After being prayed for, I asked Jesus to forgive my sins and be my LORD and SAVIOR, because, after all, my time was short. And I didn’t like what my future was looking like. Like the selfish man I was, I wanted off the hook. The LORD immediately showed me Psalm 103:2-3 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all HIS benefits; who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases.”
Why am I saying GOD is unfair? Because HE took all my sins, the entire multitude of them, and all my diseases, and put them upon JESUS! That’s not fair, is it? Jesus never sinned, but yet HIS FATHER put all my sins upon HIM. JESUS bore all my sicknesses and all my diseases in HIS body, so I wouldn’t have to bear them anymore. And HE said in HIS word that HE would do the very same for you. All you have to do is ask HIM to. Just that simple.
“Once upon a time” some 2000 years ago, JESUS was beaten beyond recognition. Isaiah 52:14-15 prophesied about this beating Jesus would take, and said, “As many were astonied at thee; HIS visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” He died the most horrible death imaginable, on a cross, that man could devise. He did it for you!
Now, you can ask Jesus into your heart, right now as you read this, and be saved and healed, right where you sit. And you can look back at your life and say “Once upon a time” I was lost. But now, I’m found. I was blind, but now I see. Once upon a time was the horrible end of JESUS’ life on the cross. But that’s not the end of the story.
For you, “Once upon a time” is the beginning, and for you, it is guaranteed to have a happy ending. And that’s no fairy tale!