Just a thought on choices.

Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”

I want to take you back to the foot of the cross. I want you to imagine that you are the solider standing opposite the cross that Jesus is hanging on and you witness the following dialogue, a dialogue that has two different perspectives and two different outcomes by two people in exactly the same situation:-

Thief 1

“Who are you? You are the Christ aren't you? Ha, what nonsense, you are no different to us otherwise you wouldn't be here hanging on a cross like me. I tell you what, here's a challenge, get yourself off that cross, save yourself if you are who you say you are, Oh, and while you at it, saving yourself, save me as well.”

Thief 2

“Will you just be quiet. We're here for a reason. We did wrong and we are getting what we deserve. Don't you fear God? This man has done nothing wrong. Jesus will you remember me when you come into your own?”

Jesus

“Today you will be with me in paradise”

You then witness the cry from Jesus' lips “It is finished” and then total silence.

You whisper to yourself “This man really was the Son of God”

It is recorded that Jesus said in John 10:9-10 “I am the door and the person who enters through me will be saved and will be able to come in and go out and find pasture. A thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I come to give life, life in all its fullness.”

and in Matthew 10:38-39 Jesus says “whoever is not willing to carry the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who try to hold onto their lives will give up true life. Those who give up their lives for me will hold onto true life.”

There were two thieves and there are two choices. Are we going to be like the first criminal only wanting to be saved for our own benefit? All he wanted was to get down from the cross and continue doing the same things he had been put on a cross for. There was no repentance only regret that he had been caught.

Jesus never responded to this man.

Or are we going to be like the second criminal who saw Jesus for who he really was, not just a man on a cross, but the Son of God. This man realised that there was no hope and having made the public declaration of rebuking the other criminal he asks Jesus to remember him. He felt that it was too late to ask for forgiveness, after all he was going to die anyway.

Jesus responds to this man with the words “Today you will be with me in paradise”

That response still comes today to all those who recognise that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God and the one who gave His life for us all.

The first criminal went to his death full of anger and bitterness, hurling abuse, kicking and screaming all the way to hell. The other criminal went in peace knowing forgiveness all the way to heaven.

What will our choice be today.

Methuselah

What do we know about this man?

The bible tells us that he is the oldest record human that ever lived. In Genesis 5:21-27 we can read about this man.
Just to say a few things about this man and the family that he was born into. According to the Bible we know that Methuselah was the son of a man called Enoch. Enoch was a Godly man, a man who “walked habitually” with God. We know this because in Genesis 5:22 we read that Enoch “walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.” Here was a man so taken up with God that his life is described as one with God. 
This life is the kind of life that propels the being we know as God into the lives of those around us. This was certainly true of Enoch. 

We read that Enoch fathered Methuselah when he was 65 years old and gave him a name with meaning, it was a kind of prophetic name that means “in the year that he dies it will happen”. 

Methuselah fathered Lamech which means “powerful” and the bible says that Lamech fathered a son and named him Noah, which means comfort or rest, because “this one will comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.”

There appears to be some kind of repentance and awakening in these four generations of Godly men, men who had found God and who were pained to be concerned for the souls of men and women who were lost and without hope. They were men who recognised that without God intervening in the world that they inhabited it was headed for destruction and the lives of future generations were in danger of being left without hope.

We find in this short account four generations that were prepared to walk with, and listen to God at all costs with little or no regard for their own status or standing in society. This is certainly true of Noah who “found Grace” because he was a “just” and “perfect” man, a man who had proved God in a fallen world. 

We can read how bad the world was in Genesis 6. This man Noah whose name means rest or comfort, built an ark upon the instruction of God. This is a story in its self and I may get to write that one day, but for now I want to concentrate on Noah's grandfather and set you a little puzzle.

Methuselah means “in the year that he dies it will happen” can you tell me what happened in the year that Methuselah dies?

The answer is as follows:-
Methuselah was 187 when Lamech was born.

Lamech was 182 when Noah was born so Methuselah was 369 (187 + 182).

When Noah was 600 years old the flood started so Methuselah was 369 + 600 = 969, the age that the bible records that Methuselah was when he died, Genesis 5:27.

It is as if God was extending Grace for as long as possible in order for mankind to repent and renew a right relationship with God and His creation, a relationship which He had purposed at the outset of the world, one where mankind could walk with God and not be ashamed.