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3 Minutes to Live: What Would You Say?
As I was standing in the Cry Out! studio this past Friday, listening to the young emcees writing and spitting some freestyle, I stood up and read something on the wall. It was a challenge by Celestine and Tara. It simply asked, "If you had 3 minutes to live, what would you say?" I thought about this. Would I declare the love I have for my wife? For my children? What would I do? I think that what I would say, or what I think I would say would have a lot to do with what I worship or idolize the most. The one thing I do know about myself is that I am a finite sinner with zero prominence or power of persuasion. I won't be remembered much after I die. I won't have people bringing flowers to my grace in the thousands, like some famous celebrities. Because of this understanding, I figured why wouldn't I say something that has stood the test of time and has real power over the thoughts and minds of people? My wife and kids know I love them, as I tell them so much that my oldest son has repeatedly told me, "Dad, I get it...you love me..."
If I had 3 minutes, this is what I would say, what would you say?
“Men and women that have come to hear me speak or will read of this later, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through this earth and examining the objects of your worship, I notice that you all worship different things, with different thoughts and ideals. They seem to change yearly, if not daily. You worship money, you worship self, you worship your good deeds, you worship sex, and because of this, you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like the dollar, or gold, or an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead. For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a dirty tampon; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our sins, like the wind, take us away. Because of this, Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Now I make known to you, my wife, my children, my family, my friends, my enemies, those unknown to me, the gospel, which I am delivering to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to Paul also. Afterwards, at the right time, appointed by God, Jesus spoke the truth into my heart and revealed to me His Gospel that was passed down from the prophets of old, to the church of history and to the continual truth bearers until Jesus returns. For I am the least of the children of God, and not fit to be called His child, because I persecuted the church of God and everyone else I came into contact with. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
What must you do? You must repent, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Turn to him and believe, knowing that there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. Do this and know that you and I will worship the one true God forever in heaven. No work, besides the work of Christ will save you. Know that it is not because of who you and I are, but because of who Jesus was, is and always will be.
