2 Samuel 12—13, Luke 16 • Key Verse: Luke 16:29
I always have trouble seeing the 3-D images in those pictures that look like nothing more than
colorful patterns. You hold them at nose length, stare through them as you slowly move it away
from your face and, voilal, the Statue of Liberty (or something like that) appears. Only once have
I successfully seen the image.
Some of my friends, more adept at staring through pictures, get frustrated that I don’t see the
hidden image. “If only you . .their futile attempts at advice begin. Sometimes when trying to
convince someone that Christianity is true, we think in “if-only” terms. “If only” Noah’s ark were
found, then people would believe. “If only” Sodom and Gomorrah were found or this miracle
would happen or that thing would appear. We think that indisputable evidence would end
unbelief.
Try this one: “If only someone would come back from the dead.” Even that would fail. If a
person will not listen to the Word of God, he will not be convinced even if someone rises from
the dead.
That’s what Jesus said. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, Abraham answers the rich
man’s request to have someone go to his father’s house to warn them. He says, “They have
Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them” (v. 29). He goes on to say that a person coming
back from the grave will not make a difference when the Word is rejected.
Give people the Word of God. That is what will change them, not our evidences or our stories.

Woodrow Kroll & Tony Beckett
www.backtothebible.in