At 9:11 tonight I walked outside to take in the beginning of the total eclipse.  I stood there marveling at the beauty of it.  Immediately I wondered if the saints in heaven could see it.  I didn’t dwell on it long because I quickly thought how trivial a super moon on planet earth would be compared to being in the constant presence of God.  After all, it only took God a single day to create the sun, moon and stars.  Small potatoes for Him.

As I ponder the creation of the world, some important ideas hit me.  The first is that I was loved enough by the Creator to be thought into existence.  I wasn’t an accident.  Like all of you, I was created for a purpose.  Dalton was created for a purpose.  Jesus exists for a purpose.  That is what brings me to the second point.  I want to tell you why Jesus matters.

The way I see it, you have two options.  You can believe this world is all an accident and “poof” the seven billion billion billion atoms it took to create the first human being was all by chance.  Also with that theory, you must buy into the idea that the earth, space, time, atmosphere, and all the animals arrived here accidentally.  Your entire existence is coincidence.  When you die, everything fades to black and you return to the nothingness of which you first began.  Perhaps you are “reincarnated” or you reach nirvana.  Either way, you are absent from God.

Your second choice is to put your faith in what you can’t see with your eyes, but can feel with your heart.  You know it’s there.  Put your faith in Jesus and what He accomplished on the cross.  Think about it.  Everything comes down to the resurrection.  If Jesus was just a man and wasn’t resurrected, then this is all a fraud.  And if this “Jesus thing” is all a fraud, the Bible is nothing more than a good Hollywood blockbuster and many, many men and women died proclaiming the words of an imposter.  Does that sound as unlikely to you as it does me?  Would we be willing to die for Christ today like the ones did who walked with him, talked with him, and watched him perform miracles?  The apostle Peter suffered a horrible death.  However, he didn’t even feel worthy of dying in the same fashion as Jesus.  He asked to be crucified upside-down.  After encountering the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul (then Saul) was converted and became one of most influential Christian leaders we have ever known.  He would eventually be beheaded.  Shortly after turning Jesus over to the Sanhedrin for thirty pieces of silver, Judas Iscariot hung himself out of anguish and shame.  Would they, as well as many other martyr’s, have done this for a fake?

Jesus is the reason you can see that grandfather again that thought you could do no wrong.  Jesus is the reason you can walk and talk again one day with that brother that died too soon.  Jesus is the reason you can hold that baby girl again who never took her first breath.  Jesus is the reason you can look again into the eyes of your mother who lost her battle to cancer.  Jesus is the reason you can have a second chance with that baby you aborted when you thought you had no other choice.  Jesus is the reason you can ask forgiveness from the young man whose life you selfishly took.  Jesus is the reason that once again you can crawl back up into the lap of the dad whose smile you can see every time you close your eyes.  Jesus is the reason you will laugh again with that high school friend who died in a car wreck your junior year.  Jesus is the reason I can put my arms around Dalton again one day and kiss his head.  It is because Jesus matters.  But you must make a choice.

If there ever was a time to commit yourself to Jesus, the time is now.  Turn on the news.  Look at what the radicals are doing to Christians.  They hate us.  They want us dead.  Your tomorrow is not promised.  Get right with God now.  I once heard Rick Warren say that if you took a ruler and measured the distance between the U.S. and China, our life on this earth would be like one little millimeter dash.  Our life in eternity is all that other distance.  What does that tell you?  I know what it tells me.  I was made for a purpose.  I am called to be a disciple of Christ.  If God wants me to share the gospel and He and I both know how flawed I am, He can call you too.  Knowing nothing about this person called Christ, Peter and Andrew ditched their fishing nets and decided to become fishers of men.  Why?  Did Jesus see them as being superior to other fishermen?  Of course not. He simply told them to come follow him.  Out of pure faith, Peter and Andrew made the choice to follow Jesus that day and they would go on to be the first of the twelve apostles.

Last weekend my best friend’s daughter, Caydie Beth, went public with her faith at New Spring in Wichita.  I didn’t get to see it live, but I saw the video of the baptism.  Caydie said that Dalton’s accident had a profound effect on her since she had been very close with him since they were young.  She knew Dalton had been baptized long before his accident, but the reality of never knowing how much time is promised to you on this earth, weighed on Caydie.  She was ready to get on the right side of her salvation.  It was emotional, but beautiful.  I couldn’t help but think that DD was watching in some way.

On Monday evenings at St. James Catholic School in Augusta, we meet as small groups, have a wonderful meal, sing songs of praise, listen to short video and then answer some follow up questions such as about Jesus and why he needs to matter to you.  The name of the program is called Discovering Christ.  Anyone is welcome – not just Catholics.  Bring anyone.  It is from 6:00-8:30pm.

In his book, The Purpose Driven Life, author Rick Warren says, “Everyone wants to be remembered when they’re gone.Ultimately, what matters most will not be what others say about your life but what God says about you,  How will you answer God when he asks, “What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ? and “What did you do with what I gave you?”