who are the real fanatics? . . . 

Most people today think nothing of fans (same root word from which we get the word "fanatic") jumping up and down and shouting at a football game, or going to a rock concert and raising their hands and working themselves into a frenzy over a rock concert (see photos above), but if they see Christians raising our hands and praising Jesus . . . we’re called fanatics! (See photos at bottom of page). That’s right, let’s not get too excited about this Jesus business. It's all a matter of perspectives. Let’s take a look and find out who are the real fanatics . . . 

*Some years back I had a dream in which I saw multitudes, millions, of people heading for a cliff. As I looked closer, I saw that all the people were blind and completely oblivious to the fact that they were headed for a horrible death. And yet, they came. They came by the tens of thousands and they continued to plunge to their deaths at the edge of the cliff. And in the dream I saw a few men and women who were, against all odds, standing at the edge of those cliffs shouting, trying to warn the people that if they didn’t stop and turn around they’d fall to their death.  A few heeded their warnings but most did not. Even an atheist would try to warn them, wouldn’t you?  

That dream was immediately followed by another in which I was driving down a dark and winding road during a terrible storm. The road was in the middle of a forest, and just as I rounded a bend I immediately came upon a bridge that had been washed out, and I just missed a headlong plunge into a gorge hundreds of feet below.  In the dream I turned my car around and headed back up the road a ways, parking my car as best I could to block the road.  I then set off flares in the road up ahead because I knew that if the oncoming traffic were not warned, they would certainly plunge to a horrible death.  I’m sure that even an atheist would try to block the road for them, wouldn’t you?   

The dreams continued.  Next, I was in a laboratory, and somehow I had been given the cure for cancer, a formula that would cure one of the most damnable diseases mankind has ever faced. I actually had the cure—a formula, if you will—and it was all neatly written down on a sheet of paper. I folded the piece of paper and put it in my back pocket. As I left the laboratory, I was suddenly surrounded by people, people everywhere, who had cancer and would die without the cure—the cure that I had in my back pocket.  Even an atheist would share that cure with them, wouldn’t you?  

Would I be too embarrassed to share that cure with them? Would I be too worried they might think me a fanatic if I told them about the cure? 

What man or woman, even an atheist, would not willingly share the cure with a cancer-riddled world? What kind of a human being would hide that cure, keep it in their back pocket, and selfishly deny it to those in need? 

What man or woman, even an atheist, would not attempt to block the road and warn the oncoming traffic that the bridge was out and that to continue would mean certain death?

What man or woman, even an atheist, would not try to warn the multitudes before they plunged off a cliff to their deaths?  Who’s a fanatic? 

Is it fanatical to tell a lonely, frightened, and dying world that the Son of the living God  “became flesh and lived among us,” to take our punishment on himself for our sins? He took the unimaginable pain of crucifixion, the shame being hanged naked and nailed to a cross, and for that brief moment he suffered the separation from his fellowship with the Father, and it was then and there that he became sin itself so that we could escape our deserved death sentence. When He took our sins upon Himself was when a righteous Father God could not look upon the sins of the world and when He cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" He was fulfilling the prophecies found in the Book of Psalms 22:1 - 18*

Did you know that He actually descended into hell itself, forcefully took the keys of death, hell and the grave from Satan and made an open spectacle of him, forever conquering it all (see Ephesians 4:9, Revelations 1:18). Yeah, don’t get too excited about Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the Living God – the greatest hero the world has ever known – because you don’t want anyone to think you’re a fanatic. Who’s a fanatic? Who, indeed, is the fanatic? Aw, don’t get me started!

*(NOTE: In the Book of Psalms, 1:1 - 18 King David describes in excruciating detail the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.  See v. 16 "They pierced my hands and feet," and v. 18 "They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots." Wow, nearly 1,000 years before it happened and hundreds of years before crucifixion was even invented!!) Share this with your Jewish friends. It amazes them every time.

*(excerpts from Ken's autobiography "The Prodigal Diaries," available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iTunes, and Kobo).

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If you would like to schedule Ken Simmons to speak to your church or organization he can be contacted at: Ken Simmons Ministries, Ontario, California, kensimmonsministries@gmail.com or call (909) 957-8882.