In many Science Fiction movies, you might here someone say something like, "The answer to
whether or not we are alone in the Universe has been answered."
After which the Aliens Attack.
Gee, thanks a lot for dropping by.
But it came to me while watching these movies, that we have Never Been Alone, if we believe in Christ. As Christians,
we know that He is always with us.
Thinking about this, I wanted to write my own little story.
Once upon a time, there was a very wealthy man. He had everything he could want. But he hadn’t always been honest in
how he acquired his wealth. In fact, he’d done many things that he was not very proud of.
Now he’d been raise in a church going family, but had forgotten
most of what he’d heard in that church. He’d spent his life making money. He had the Million dollar home,
the fancy cars, he took expensive trips all over the world. He’d been married several times because he was so much involved
with his business, he couldn’t find the time to make any of them work. To him, making more money was everything, and
if a wife got in the way, he just dumped her and found another.
His life was going from one business deal to another. He didn’t
even have time for his kids. He’d been so busy, it’s a wonder he’d found the time to even have kids.
Well, as time past, and wives came and went, his kids grew up and started off
on their own. As you might imagine, they were not that crazy about their dad. He’d never been there as they were growing
up. He’d always been to busy for them. They were much closer to their mothers and even their stepmothers. And as they
started out on their own, they began to see what their dad had done in his life, and they didn’t like it.
As you might expect, there was no love loss between them. And one day, it broke
out in the open. His oldest son, who had done quiet well for himself and was off to a good start, was visiting, when, in an
out burst of anger, he said to his father, "You think I don’t know how you made your money? You think you’ve been
so clever. You think no one knows what you’ve done? Well, God knows you old bastard, God Knows. And you’ll get
yours, you’ll get yours… And when you do, don’t ask me to bail you out, you were never there for me, and
I’m not going to be there for you." With that, his son walked out on him, slamming the door behind him.
Well, the man was stunned, he couldn’t believe his son had talked to him
that way. He couldn’t believe the boy knew some of the things he’d done. He’d always been so careful to
keep his business practices secret. He was sure no one knew. And he was shocked to hear from his son that he knew the things
he’d been doing all his life. All the dirty little deals he’d made, the shady things he’d done to get ahead.
He’d thought he’d covered his tracks so well. "I’m not that bad," he thought to himself, "I’m an upstanding
member of the community, I serve on all these different boards and committees, people come to me for advice all the time.
They invite me to they’re dinners and parties. Everyone listens when I talk about business… I’m well liked,
aren’t I? Sure I’ve had to bend a few rules to get where I am, but who doesn’t? And no one really knows
the things I’ve done, not even him." He thought about his son as he watch him drive away.
He tried to push it out of his head, but he couldn’t sleep that
night or the next night. He tossed an turned, hearing his sons voice in his head, over and over again. "God knows…
you’ll get yours…" Did God really know what he’d done? Did God really care? Was God even real? And what
if He was?
The man spent the next weeks thinking about all this. "Did God
know, and was He even real? How could God know? If He is real, He’s got to be to busy to push His nose into my business."
He thought to himself. "After all, there’s war and famine, people suffering and calling out to Him all the time. Of
course, if there is a God, He’s far to busy to bother with me."
That thought satisfied him for a while, but then another thought came
to him, "What if God was interested in his business? What if God knew the things he’d done?" And that thought terrified
him.
His business started to fall off as these thoughts consumed his mind. One by one,
all of his business friends abandon him. The boards and committees he was on started voting him off. The dinner and party
invitations stopped coming.
Finally, he realized that if he didn’t do something fast he was
going to lose everything he’d built up over a lifetime of business. But he couldn’t get those thoughts
out of his head. He knew his time in the business world was over if he couldn’t control these thoughts. But try all
he might, he couldn’t shake the thought that God knew what he’d done.
"Before it’s all gone," He thought one day while sitting in his
office, "I’ve got to do something." He’d already lost so much of what he’d made, and he wanted
to get it back. So, he liquidated much of his fortune to get the cash he thought he would need to make a come back. And when
he had millions of dollars at his finger tips, he set up several deals that he was sure would pay off big, if he did what
he’d done all his life.
He spent the next few months going all over the globe setting up and trying
to close his deals. But everywhere he went, he saw signs of God all around him. There were the Bibles in the Hotel
rooms, the Church steeples and crosses that seemed to appear everywhere, even the telephone poles reminded him of God. And
God was talked about on bumper stickers, on road signs and no matter where he drove, he always seemed to be going by a Church
with some message that spoke to his heart outside the building. He couldn’t get away from God, no matter how he tried.
He was going crazy. Even when someone swore and used God’s name in vain, he thought to himself, "There He is again,
God is here. He’s everywhere."
All his business deals went bad, nothing seemed to go the way he’d
planned. Finally, he was down to his last few dollars and about out of his mind, when he found himself standing in
front of the Church he grew up in, walking up to the door and knocking. The current Pastor opened the door and let him in.
Sitting in the Pastor’s office, he finally broke down, and crying, he told
the Pastor everything that had happened to him. Ending with a soulful cry, "I can’t get away from God, He’s everywhere…"
The Pastor stood up and cross around his desk and put his hand on the man’s
shoulder and said, "In Psalm 139, verse 7 through 13 we read, ‘Where
can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed
in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your
hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light
around me will be night, Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are
alike {to You.} For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb.’"
And the Pastor added, "In the book of Jeremiah 23, verses 23 and 24, we read,
‘"Am I a God who is near," declares the LORD, "And not a God far
off? "Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?" declares the LORD. "Do I not fill the heavens and the
earth?" declares the LORD.’"
The man looked up at the Pastor with tears in his eyes, "It’s true,
He’s everywhere. I can’t get away from him, and I’ve been so wicked. I’ve lied and cheated
to get ahead all my life and I can’t get away from it. God knows what I’ve done, He knows, and there’s nothing
I can hide from Him. I’m lost. I don’t know what to do." And he buried his head in his hands and wept.
The Pastor sat on the edge of his desk and looked down at the man, and then said,
"You’ve made a good start by knocking on my door. You’ve done the right thing by coming to Church."
The man looked up at him again, "I can’t run away from God anymore, I’m
just to tired."
"Why don’t you try running to Him, instead of running away from
Him?" The Pastor said with a gentle smile on his face.
"How can I run to Him," The man said, "I’ve done so many bad things in my
life, how can I even think He’ll want anything to do with me?"
"That’s the Good News," The Pastor said, "He loves you, and it doesn’t
matter to Him what you’ve done in the past. The point is, you’re here now. Ask Him to forgive you, and He will."
Over the next hours, the Pastor shared with the man the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The Pastor shared many scriptures with the man…
1 John 1:8-9,
If we say that we have no sin, we are
deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Matthew 19:23-26 really hit home with the man,
And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 "Again
I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" 26 And looking at them Jesus said to
them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible. "
John 3:16-21 opened his eyes to the truth,
"For God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
17 "For God did not send the Son into the
world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 "He
who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God. 19 "This is the judgment, that the Light has
come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 "For
everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.
21
"But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having
been wrought in God."
Matthew 28:18-20 sealed the deal for the man,
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,
"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 "Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,
20
teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end
of the age. "
After this, the man looked up at the Pastor with a puzzled look on his face and
said, "You mean Jesus died for me and forgives me, no matter what I’ve done?"
"That’s right." The Pastor replied quietly. "God knows
what you’ve done, but He loves you just the same as if you never did them. He’s with us always, He’s right
here in this room with us. And He’s been with you all your life, waiting for you to feel His presence."
The man looked up and around the room and a warm feeling crept over him.
"He loves me, He really loves me."
"Yes, He does." The Pastor said.
Slowly, the man got up and moved toward the door to leave. Stopping, he turned
around and said, "Thank you for opening my eyes."
"No, thank God." The Pastor said with a smile.
And the rich man walked out of the Church, as a new man, reborn, and he made a
vow to God, to live up to the Faith the Lord had shown in him.
That night, he called his son and asked for his forgiveness. And as he
put down the phone, after a long tearful call, he walked down the stairs of his home to his current wife and really looked
at her for the first time, and with tears in his eyes he said, "Forgive me…"
In my little story, the rich man came to know that God had always been with him.
Through all that he had done, God was there watching, and waiting for him to notice. And it’s the same with us. God
is with us, We Have Never Been Really Alone.
And unlike the aliens in most movies, He’s not here to attack us, He’s here to save us, to save us
from ourselves. He is watching us, guiding us through out our entire lives. Even if we don’t feel His presence, He’s
there.
1 John 3:18-20,
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. 19 We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our
heart before Him 20 in whatever our heart
condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
God is with us Always, We are Never Alone.
Ephesians 4:4-6,
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
