What can happen in a minute?

 

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A lot can happen in just a minute. 

It is reported, that in sixty seconds: 255 babies are born, a healthy adult takes 12–20 breaths and their heart beats, on average 72 times. Google processes over 3.8 million search queries. This message has contributed to 3.3 million Facebook posts and 29 million WhatsApp messages sent.

In 1967, a famous radio panel show began, called ‘Just a Minute’. It was created by Ian Messiter, whose history teacher once caught him daydreaming in a class and asked him to repeat everything said in the last minute without hesitation or repetition. A further ‘deviation’ rule and scoring system was added and Nicolas Parsons hosted the show for over fifty years.

I remember, as a child, taking the kitchen timer and trying, and failing miserably to talk for even 10 seconds on the subject of ‘Tomatoes’ without Hesitation, Repetition or Deviation. I am sure I would still fail hopelessly. Nevertheless, I would like to share with you for ‘Just over a Minute’ the subject of ‘The Salvation of your Soul’. As to the potential challenges, I’ll deal with these in reverse order.

First:

WITHOUT DEVIATION

In relation to such a serious matter, we need to be sure that we do not deviate from truth. And so we turn to God’s Word, the Bible. After all, He is the one who breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, He is the Creator of the soul and upholds all life. Our need for salvation is clearly identified, for we have all strayed from God’s pattern, for ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. The Bible also points out to us the Saviour, Jesus Christ: ‘There is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved’. So, let us not deviate in this matter, there is only one way to be saved. Jesus said: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’.

Second — and this is particularly wonderful; it requires:

NO REPETITION

Christ has died and God is satisfied with the price which His Son paid to save sinners. He has proved this by raising him from the dead. This is because the Lord Jesus offered Himself as a spotless sacrifice. The righteous One offered Himself for the unrighteous that He might bring us to God. Being a perfect sacrifice, there is no further sin-offering required. The priests of Old Testament times (before Christ) had to offer daily sacrifices which could never utterly take away sin, but ‘this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God’. Seeing as God is satisfied with His sacrifice, there is nothing else that we can bring, because the work is all done, the price has been paid and there we must rest. Furthermore; as far as God is concerned, those that have agreed with Him about their need for forgiveness and accepted the sacrifice which God has approved by Jesus’ resurrection, are saved, and that forever. Those who believe in Jesus are made right with God — salvation requires no repetition. No-one can condemn those who have once believed and had their sins forgiven. Neither the sacrifice nor the moment of salvation require repetition.

And so on the subject of salvation so far, God is unchallengeable, but here is a very important matter: salvation of the soul must be received:

WITHOUT HESITATION

In Just a Minute, a soul may be lost, but thankfully, it takes Less than a Minute to receive eternal salvation. The reason is that God ‘will be very gracious to you at the sound of your cry, when He hears it, He will answer you’. ‘If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved’. A story in the Bible records that the fisherman, Peter, as he began to sink into the water cried out, ‘Lord save me’. We read that ‘immediately (or, without hesitation), Jesus stretched out His hand, and caught him’.

The Bible says, ‘To day, if you will hear his voice, harden not your heart’. Let us be like Peter, who, without Hesitation, with no need for Repetition, and without Deviation, call out three words — ‘Lord save me!’.

Used by permission of Your542Day. Written by Tom Merriman for Messages with Meaning