From the Pulpit: 'One way' - believe it!
What will you remember about 2019? Will you remember it as one of the coldest years on record, one where the thermometer stayed below freezing (with weeks where it hovered below zero degrees) from early January to March without a break? Will you remember it as the year school got out on May 30 due to all those snow days? I will always remember 2019 as the year Brandon became the “one way” town.
Due to all of the flooding the week of Sept. 15, we woke up to the news that there was only one way out of town, Splitrock to I-90. All over town people asked, “Are you kidding me? There’s no other way out?” With Splitrock Creek flooding the roads by the golf course and south of Husets, the Big Sioux flooding over Madison, and Rice Street closed due to construction, believe it, there was only one way out. Thank you, Brandon Police, for the extra traffic duty you put in to help frustrated commuters!
Did you stop to think during that time how perfectly “only one way out” illustrated a Biblical truth? There is only one way out of this sin ruined world that leads safely to heaven. In Acts 4:12 Peter witnessed to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
During the flooding in Brandon, some people drove around the barriers to check and see if there was a way through the flooded roads. Thankfully, I didn’t hear of anyone drowning from doing this, but many had to turn around and come back. At the end of the world many will find out too late that Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me.”
There are several other important “one way” verses in the Bible. Peter affirmed in John 6:68 that Jesus is the one source of truth when he said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Jesus is also the only nourishment, as he declared in John 6:35 when he said, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” He is the only foundation for the church as St. Paul declared in 1 Cor. 3:11, “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
People will try to tell you that all roads lead to heaven and that other religions besides Christianity can save you, but don’t you believe it. There are only two religions in the world: the religion of the law, where you try to save yourself and will fail miserably, and the religion of the Gospel, where Jesus saves those who can’t save themselves. Remember the week there was only one say out of town, and believe it!
