May 2011 – Page 4 – Michelle Lesley

Hi Facebook Fans-

I found out some important information today about Facebook’s policies regarding holding contests and promotions on my “Michelle Lesley-Author” page.

In a nutshell, they’ve made it virtually impossible for “little guys” like me to hold any sort of competition or drawing where there’s a prize at stake. If you want to read the official policy, you can find it at– face book dot com slash promotions underscore guidelines– I’d provide the actual link, but I’m afraid they might be “watching” (and if you do any sort of promotions on your own page, you will definitely want to read and abide by this, because if they find you in violation, they can terminate your page without warning).

Does this mean I’m going to stop doing competitions and give aways? No way! They’re too much fun! So here’s what we’re going to do:

Take a look at your News Feed on your own personal page. Not your Wall (Profile), where you can only see things you’ve posted, but your News Feed– the part where you can see everybody else’s statuses and stuff. Are we all on the same page? Good.

Ok, in the upper left corner, you’ll see your profile picture and your name. Under that, it will say “News Feed”, and under that it will say “Messages”. Click on the word “Messages”. When you do, the word “Updates” should appear.

An Update is a message from a fan page to all of its fans. Now, from time to time, I’ll have some “VERY VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION” to share with you that I won’t be able to share with you directly on my Facebook page, so I will send you an Update. You’ll be able to tell that it’s “VERY VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION” because the subject line of the message will say “VERY VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION”. In order to read that “VERY VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION” you’ll need to come here to my web site. Don’t worry, I’ll give you a link to click on. (If you don’t understand what I’m getting at here, e-mail me at michellelesley1@yahoo.com and I’ll explain further.)

So, to sum up, CONTESTS AND PROMOTIONS WIL NO LONGER BE HELD ON MY “MICHELLE LESLEY- AUTHOR” page. They will be held here instead. It would be a very good idea to subscribe to this web site (there’s a “subscribe” button to your upper right on the side bar) so you’ll also receive e-mail notifications about any contests that take place in the future.

My apologies if this inconveniences anybody. Tomorrow’s “125 Likers” drawing will take place tomorrow as scheduled, but it will be handled here instead of on Facebook. Be sure to check and see if you’ve won!

Osama Bin Laden is dead. Across the globe, people are celebrating. There’s a general sentiment, even amongst non-Christians, that he is in hell, because that’s what he deserves.

I’m guessing that, some of those people, if you had shared the Gospel with them two days ago, would have said they didn’t believe in hell. Or that a loving God wouldn’t send people to hell. Or that God just forgives everybody when they die, and everybody goes to heaven.

If you hold any of those beliefs, the law of non-contradiction requires that they be applied across the board to everybody. In other words, you can’t say you don’t believe in hell and at the same time believe that Bin Laden is in hell. If it doesn’t exist, he can’t be there.

So I’d like to pose two questions to people who hold the aforementioned beliefs:

1. If God decided not to send Bin Laden to hell, but rather allowed him into heaven, has justice been done?

2. Do you think it’s fair that you will have to spend your own eternity in heaven with Bin Laden? And Hitler, and Nero, and Mussolini, and Caligula, and Jack the Ripper?

As broken and messed up as we are, even we humans demand that there be justice –punishment– for people who have committed such heinous crimes. If God doesn’t punish these awful people, what does that make Him? How could He be perfect in every way and let such people off scott free?

I can tell you how. Because I used to be Bin Laden. And Hitler, and all of those other people rolled into one. Me. A good little Sunday School girl. Guilty. James 2:10 tells us:

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all.

In God’s eyes, when I broke curfew to stay at Bible study just a little bit longer, I was as guilty as a serial murderer. When I said, “Oh my G-d!” I was on par with a child molester. When I refused to forgive someone, I might as well have flown one of those planes into the Twin Towers myself. And I deserved the same punishment as all of those horrible people. Hell.

God is perfect. He’s perfectly holy and perfectly just. And that’s why He can’t let any sin slide, no matter how small. But He’s also perfectly loving and compassionate. He knew none of us would measure up to his standard for us –perfection, no sin whatsoever– so He made a way for us to escape punishment, yet still serve justice: Jesus.

God Himself came here and lived out His perfection as a human being. And when it was time, on the cross, He took the punishment for our crimes against God. He got our sin and our punishment, and because of His death and resurrection, we can get His sinless perfection.

We can get it, but it’s not an automatic thing that just happens to everybody when they die. As I said in a previous post, you can’t have it both ways. If you decide to get married, you give up the single life. If you decide to become a star athlete, you give up being a couch potato. And if you decide you want God’s forgiveness for your sin, you give up a life of embracing sin, and, instead, embrace Christ and the new life He has for you. Here. Now.

Is Bin Laden in hell? I can tell you with certainty that if he did not, in the last moments of his life, sorrowfully turn from his sin and bow his knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, yes, he is indeed in hell.

And there, but for the grace of God, go I. And you.