It Only Takes A Spark...

The smallest lie can spark terrible consequences. An exaggeration can blow up in your face. A rumor can kill people. A word unwisely spoken against others can lead to their demise. Newsweek magazine is a good example. (see news article below)

James 3:5-6 “Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”

In The News...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Newsweek magazine said on Sunday it erred in a May 9 report that U.S. interrogators desecrated the Koran at Guantanamo Bay, and apologized to the victims of deadly Muslim protests sparked by the article.

Editor Mark Whitaker said the magazine inaccurately reported that U.S. military investigators had confirmed that personnel at the detention facility in Cuba had flushed the Muslim holy book down the toilet. "Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Koran incident in the report we cited," he wrote.

Meanwhile, the report sparked angry and violent protests across the Muslim world from Afghanistan, where 16 were killed and more than 100 injured, to Pakistan to Indonesia to Gaza. In the past week it was condemned in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Malaysia and by the Arab League. On Sunday, Afghan Muslim clerics threatened to call for a holy war against the United States.

"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Whitaker wrote in the magazine's latest issue, due to appear on U.S. newsstands on Monday.

How many innocent Afghans, Pakistani’s and American soldiers will needlessly die due to Newsweek magazine’s haphazard reporting of falsehoods for the sake of sensationalism to sell magazines? How many terrorists will be recruited? What dastardly plots will they carry out inspired by false information from a liberal news media desperate to thwart the integrity of the Bush administration?

When Dan Rather lied, he almost cost Bush the election. Fortunately for Bush, he was found out. Similarly, Bush's credibility was damaged when he reported inteligence reports that said there were WMD's in Iraq. His source was evidently inacurate too. There was other justification for that war and it has brought about many good things, but still our main evidence for war was false. That is not good. The tongue is a fire.

When Newsweek lied, people died from their inaccurate reporting. The United States is rightfully at War with terrorists who would kill them. Who side is Newsweek on? They may be free to publish their garbage. However, we are also free not to purchase or support advertisers of a magazine that use bad reporting to falsely insight civil unrest in countries we are trying to bring peace to.

A lesson to the wise: Be careful what you say. Make sure it’s true and beneficial to those who hear it. Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

All That's Required to Enter Heaven Is Perfection

The Bible tells us the exact number of sins it takes before a person no longer deserves to go to heaven, but rather deserves its overheated alternative.

One.



That's right. Romans 6:23 teaches that the wages of sin, what one has earned for it, is death (separation from God). Just one sin, and a person is disqualified from deserving to go to heaven. This idea is offensive to many, so they don't believe it. They believe in heaven, but oddly enough they don't believe what the One who created it says about who deserves to enter and who doesn't.



Now the notion of perfection being a requirement to enter heaven is a disturbing truth, obviously. Last I checked, the number of perfect, sinless people worldwide was hovering somewhere around zero. And yet millions of them will go to heaven. (By now the logicians among the vast reading audience of The Scripturist are screaming, "But that doesn't make any sense!" Keep reading.)



Suppose you're checking out at the supermarket and your total comes to twenty bucks. You suddenly realize that you've left all your money at home and you haven't a red cent. Seeing your despair, the friendly and independently wealthy person behind you hands the cashier a twenty and you're on your way home with much-needed groceries. The cashier didn't argue that this wasn't fair. She didn't say, "No! It has to be your own money that pays for this!" Nope. The requirement of twenty dollars was satisfied and that's all she cared about.



The same principle will get people into heaven. It was not stated above that no one is going to heaven, but that no one deserves to. Those who enter into heaven will be those who received Jesus as Lord and Savior while on earth. Their admission price of perfection will be paid by Jesus himself.



Put another way, Jesus has traded places with us. We gave him our sin, and he clothed himself in it. While he was on the cross, God the Father looked upon him and saw the sins of mankind, and he let fall on his own Son the wrath and punishment that we deserved. Similarly, Jesus gives to believers his perfection and holiness. We clothe ourselves in it, and when we stand before the throne on the Day of Judgment, the Judge will not see our sinfulness, but will see the perfection of Jesus. He suffered a punishment he didn't deserve so we could enjoy an eternal life that we don't deserve.



Want to go to heaven? Be saved, and have the perfection of Jesus himself credited to you. The alternative is to reject him and be left to suffer your own everlasting punishment for sin.