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	<title>The Merchant&#039;s Cross Blog &#187; ponder</title>
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		<title>Question of a Lifetime</title>
		<link>http://merchantcross.com/101/question-of-a-lifetime/</link>
		<comments>http://merchantcross.com/101/question-of-a-lifetime/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:52:46 +0000</pubDate>
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				<category><![CDATA[Prayer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christ]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fire]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[god]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[heaven]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hell]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[lake]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ponder]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[question]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[salvation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[satan]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://merchantcross.com/?p=101</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hey you who&#160;calls me a &#39;Bible Thumper&#39;, a &#39;Born Again&#39;&#160;, a &#39;Jesus freak&#39;&#160;&#8230;.or whatever (you know who you are &#8211; and so do I),&#160;I have ONE question for you to ponder&#8230; I believe that when we die, we are either saved (through salvation in Jesus) or if not, then we will burn in the eternal [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><img alt="bible20thumper3" class="alignright size-full wp-image-115" height="250" src="http://merchantcross.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/bible20thumper3.jpg" title="bible20thumper3" width="178" />Hey you who&nbsp;calls me a &#39;Bible Thumper&#39;, a &#39;Born Again&#39;&nbsp;, a &#39;Jesus freak&#39;&nbsp;&#8230;.or whatever (you know who you are &#8211; and so do I),&nbsp;I have <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;">ONE</span></strong> question for you to ponder&#8230; <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);"><strong>I believe </strong></span>that when we die, we are either saved (through salvation in Jesus) or if not, then we will burn in the <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>eternal</strong></span> lake of fire (hell). <strong><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">You believe</span></strong> that when we die, we die.&nbsp; But one thing we can agree upon is that&nbsp;both of us can&#39;t&nbsp;be right. There can only be one answer -&nbsp;the TRUTH, right? Or maybe you believe that we are reincarnated or that our spirits live on to haunt and dwell in this life or elsewhere? Or maybe you believe in something altogether different again. But even still you must agree that we can&#39;t both be right,&nbsp;<strong>there can only be one answer &#8211; the <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">TRUTH</span></strong>. Are you with me so far? Ok, good. We won&#39;t know for certain what&nbsp;the TRUTH is,&nbsp;until that time comes.&nbsp; Sure we hear stories but we won&#39;t <strong><em>really</em></strong> know until it happens. All we can do is wait until we die to find out.&nbsp;</p>
<h2>If you are right, then nothing happens or at least, nothing bad or within our control.</h2>
<p>So my question to you today&nbsp;is;</p>
<h2><span style="color: rgb(153, 51, 102);">If I am right &#8230; where does that leave you? Your family? Your children?</span></h2>
<p>My guess is that your ideas and judgements on this subject are not based on research or gathering up the&nbsp;facts. They are based on what you&#39;ve&nbsp;learned, what you were taught, what others have told you and maybe even&nbsp;from what you see around you and your experiences, but they are not from studying or really&nbsp;looking for truthful answers, right? Would you buy a house, drive a&nbsp;certain make of car, take a vacation, or do a certain job solely&nbsp;based on what someone else says or thinks? Of course not! These investments are for <span style="text-decoration: underline;">you</span> to decide upon. Afterall, it&#39;s you who will pay for them and it&#39;s you who will suffer if they dont turn out the way your want, right? Well then don&#39;t you think that something as important as <strong>ETERNITY</strong> &#8211; suffering forever &#8211; not just you but your whole family, your children, your parents, grandparents and friends, warrants a little checking into before you make the decision of a lifetime&nbsp;and <span style="text-decoration: underline;">choose <strong>not</strong> to believe</span>? <strong>I CHALLENGE YOU</strong> &#8211; right here, right now, to <strong><em>put aside your fears and&nbsp;consider</em></strong> that maybe, just maybe, <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);"><strong>I may have found the &quot;truth&quot;</strong></span>.&nbsp; <strong><em>Fears?</em></strong> Did I say fears? Yes I did.&nbsp; Because if you were not afraid, and you really did love your children (which I believe you do), then&nbsp;I don&#39;t understand why&nbsp;you would not seek the truth, if not for yourself then at least for them. I understand the fear you are feeling&nbsp;because I felt it too for a very long time &#8211; fear of rejection from friends and family who don&#39;t believe (just think about all the names you&#39;ve called me!); fear of the unknown, fear of having to change your lifestyle or lose out on fun stuff, fear of having to give things up, fear of this and fear of that&#8230;so&nbsp;many fears.&nbsp; It&#39;s funny that the Bible talks about this type of&nbsp;fear&nbsp;as being&nbsp;from Satan, because&nbsp;who else but the devil himself&nbsp;would not want to see your soul&nbsp;saved? Afterall, as long as you&nbsp;are blind to the truth and refuse to open your eyes to at least&nbsp;looking for the truth, you&nbsp;belong to him.&nbsp;&nbsp;And I&#39;m <span style="text-decoration: underline;">not</span> talking about church or religion. I&#39;m taking about the God of the Bible and the sacrifice He made for You, for me, for&nbsp;each and every one of us, so that we may be set free from&nbsp;the eternal pit of fire simply by acknowledging Him and receiving His salvation. I love you too much not to at least ask you to open your eyes and <strong>look for yourself</strong>.&nbsp; You&#39;ve looked at other religions; the New World Religion of inner power and secrets, the Occult with its Tarots, horoscopes&nbsp;and spells, you claim you want peace, order, prosperity&nbsp;and harmony in your life&#8230; so why not at least look at&nbsp;what Jesus Christ has to&nbsp;offer?&nbsp; What are you really afraid of? I&#39;m not asking you to go out and preach the Gospel or scream it from the rooftops; no one even has to know&#8230;no one&nbsp;knows you are reading this right now and no one has to know that you&#39;ve decided to at least consider that this may be the answer.&nbsp; But whatever you do, I implore you, I plead with you as someone who cares about you, to open your eyes and at least&nbsp;look for yourself. <object data="http://www.youtube.com/v/GpBuEuagZxE&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" height="344" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GpBuEuagZxE&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /></object> If you have any questions or wish to talk about it, my door is always open to you. You can leave a comment on this post or if you&#39;d prefer to keep it private, give me a call but whatever you do, <strong><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);">do something!</span></span></strong> We never know how much time we have in this life, please&nbsp;don&#39;t wait until it&#39;s too late &#8211; for your sake, for your kids sake. Wishing you much Peace xo <img src='http://merchantcross.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif' alt=':)' class='wp-smiley' /> ) <em><strong>Sally</strong> aka <span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 128);"><strong>@IAmZelda</strong></span></em> <a href="http://digg.com/arts_culture/Question_of_a_Lifetime/"> <img alt="Digg!" height="20" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/100x20-digg-button.gif" width="100" /> </a> P.S.: And&nbsp;as for calling me those names, I forgive you.</p>
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