Amy Nelson of Fox News story

CPR Saves Lives

His team won the game. But that was not the most important play that
involved basketball player, Myles Copeland.

During the game, one of the minor league referees fell to the floor. He was
suffering a heart attack. Copeland, who is also a firefighter, sprang into
action. He ran across the court and immediately started administering CPR
to the referee. He continued for 10 minutes until paramedics arrived.

"The basketball game just didn't matter anymore, it was about saving his
life," Copeland told "America's Newsroom" last Monday.

The referee's wife, a nurse, assisted Copeland in the care of her husband.
She thanked Copeland with a hug when their life-saving procedure was
completed.

Copeland said the referee was coherent and talking as the paramedics whisked
him away on a stretcher. Later, the referee had to undergo triple bypass
surgery but is now resting - with great gratitude for his rescuer.

"I'm very thankful I was there, and I'm sure he was thankful that I was
there as well," Copeland said. "It seemed that everyone was in a panic at
the time I was there, but from all our training I was cool, calm and
collected."

When we were dying because of our sins, Jesus came to our rescue. He
administered "CPR" - "Christ-Powered-Redemption" so that we might live. It
was "Christ-Powered" because only the sinless Son of God could provide the
means for our redemption. It is "Redemption" because we are "bought back"
from the cruel, fatal bondage to sin (John 8:34; Romans 6:23). It required
the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary, for only His blood could pay the
price for our redemption.

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace" (Ephesians 1:7).

The Apostle Peter reminded Christians of the price that was paid for their
redemption: "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as
silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down
to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb
without blemish or defect" (1 Peter 1:18-19).

The need for Jesus' "CPR" is universal, "for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

The Good News is that Jesus' CPR is available to all who come to Christ for
salvation.

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust
in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts
17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized
(immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). He will
continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His
Word (1 John 1:7-9).

Copeland's timely response with CPR saved a man's life. Jesus' CPR -
Christ-Powered-Redemption - saves lives for eternity. He will save YOUR
life if you will just submit your life to His care.

-- David A. Sargent

* Information gleaned from "Hero basketball player saves referee's life with
CPR following heart attack: 'I went into firefighter mode'" by Amy Nelson of
Fox News, www.foxnews.com, published 6/20/2022.

"YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT ANYTHING!" (Part 1)

Sometimes when a person sets forth his religious convictions in a clear, positive, and unwavering way, he is told, “You do not believe that you are wrong about anything!”  Occasionally I have been told that by people who do not agree with my religious and spiritual views and convictions, or with what I have said about religious doctrines and practices that I believe to be wrong.  Perhaps a reasoned response to the statement is in order.

 

No, I do not believe that I am wrong about anything that I believe, teach, or practice religiously.  But, those who say that to me also believe that they are not wrong about anything that they believe and practice religiously.  If they did believe that they were wrong about something, and if they were honest, they would change from what is wrong to what they believed was right.  Tell me, you who say to me, “You do not believe that you are wrong about anything” – “What do YOU believe and practice that you know you are wrong about but you still believe and/or practice it anyway?”  The fact is that everybody thinks they are right in what they believe and practice religiously. Even when they believe that something is a matter of opinion and that there is room for a variety of views about a matter, they still think that they are right and not wrong in believing that it is a matter of opinion and of varying views!  Let me ask: Why would anyone continue to believe, teach, and/or practice that which he knows to be wrong?  That would be dishonest and hypocritical, and those things themselves are wrong!  So, I repeat: We all think that what we believe and practice is right and that we are not wrong about what we believe and practice religiously. 

 

On the other hand, if someone were to say to me, “Do you think that it is possible for you to be wrong about anything?” that would be a different matter entirely. Yes, it is very possible for me (and anyone else) to be wrong about many things! But, if I am honest, when I am shown that I am wrong about something I will change from what is wrong to what is right.  So will anyone else.  In the ordinary, everyday affairs of life, I (and all of us) have been wrong about many things.  When we were shown the error of our way, we changed.  This is honorable in all and the only right thing to do.

 

Suppose, for example, that I said, “I do not believe that God really exists, but I am wrong about that.” Yet I continued to teach and believe that God does not exist. Or, suppose I said, “I do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but I am wrong about that.” Yet I continued to teach and believe that Jesus Christ is not the Son of God. When a person is shown from the Scriptures that he/she is wrong about what they have believed, taught, or practiced religiously, then honesty demands that they change. To fail to do so is to be dishonest, and, I repeat, that itself is wrong!

 

Here are some things I believe, teach, and practice religiously.  Read the biblical texts cited, study them in their context, and see if I have misused them and am wrong in what I believe they teach.

 

* I believe that God is, that He exists (Genesis 1:1; Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20; Hebrews 11:6. 

* I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Matthew 16:13-17; Matthew 17:1-5; John 3:16; John 20:30-31). 

* I believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, a member of the sacred Godhead (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 13:14). 

* I believe that God created the world and all things in it in six days (Genesis 1; Exodus 20:11; Acts 17:24-28).

* I believe that God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26-27).

* I believe the Bible is the divinely inspired and completely authoritative word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:3, 21).

* I believe the Scriptures, and particularly the New Testament, set forth a pattern of sound words/sound doctrine that is unchangeable, and that is binding on all mankind until the end of time (Matthew 28:18-20; Galatians 1:6-9; Colossians 2:8; 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; Titus 1:10-14; 1 Peter 4:11).

* I believe that we must be governed by the authority of Christ as expressed in the New Testament in all that we teach, believe, and practice religiously (Matthew 17:5; Matthew 28:18; Hebrews 1:1-2; Hebrews 12:25; Colossians 3:17; 2 John 9).

* I believe that Christ died for the sins of all mankind (Matthew 26:28; John 3:16; Romans 5:8; 1 Timothy 2:5-6).

* I believe that Christ is the one and only way of salvation (John 8:24; John 14:6; Acts 4:11-12).

* I believe that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-10).

* I believe that we must do the will of the Father in heaven in order to be saved (Matthew 7:21; Hebrews 5:8-9).

* I believe that faith in Christ is essential to salvation (John 8:24; Mark 16:15-16).

* I believe that all people must repent of their sins in order to be saved (Luke 13:3, 5; Luke 24:46-47; Acts 3:19; Acts 17:30-31).

* I believe that we must confess our faith in Christ in order to be saved (Matthew 10:32-33; Romans 10:9-10).

* I believe that baptism is a condition necessary to being saved from sin (Mark 16:15-16; I Peter 3:21).

* I believe baptism is for the remission of sin and in order to have sins washed away in the blood of Christ (Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16).

* I believe that baptism puts one into Christ where salvation and all spiritual blessings are found, and that until one is baptized into Christ he is not in Christ and has not been saved (Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3-4; Ephesians 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:10).

* I believe that acceptable baptism is only by immersion in water (Matthew 3:16; Acts 8:35-40; Romans 6:3-4; Colossians 2:12).

 

What we think, what we have always believed, what we were taught by our parents, what our ancestral church (denomination) or our religious “tradition” believes and practices about these matters will never override what God’s word says about these matters.  Let us not be as the lady who said, “I don’t know much about the Bible, but I know what I believe!”  Hmmmm.  In that case, she did not know if what she believed was what God wanted her to believe or not!  (See Acts 17:11).

 

 

Hugh Fulford