Please welcome guest blogger David Jett!!!!



David, now pastor of Crossgate Baptist Church in Brandon, Mississippi, is a long-time friend of mine who baptised my wife and kids, married my wife and I, and has been a prayer partner of mine for many years. Please enjoy his post...



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Mike Burkett (aka Buckett) has been one of my close friends for many years. We have laughed together, hunted together, and cried together. He can tell stories on me but knows better, because I can tell better ones on him! As a pastor, I don’t have the opportunity to be just David around many people. With Buckett I am just David.

When he asked me to write something for his blog I felt at first a little intimidated. As I have read his blogs I hear his heart crying out telling the story of life as a daddy who has experienced the great sadness in the death of his baby. What can I add? Not much, but as he shares in his blogs, I also hear the heart cry of a believer in Jesus who knows more now than ever the realities of eternity.

What I have written is the cry of both our hearts to you, one of his readers. Our burden is for you to know with certainty that heaven is your destination. So please read the following and allow the Lord Jesus to speak to your heart. Don’t allow the arguments in your mind to keep Him from speaking to your heart. Enjoy the journey!

Are You Holding Real Gold or Fool’s Gold?

The California gold rush of 1849 forever changed the American landscape. Thousands of get-rich-quick idealists traveled cross country hoping to find their fortune. A few struck it rich, but many fortune seekers ended up empty handed.

Though many never found gold, they were not the most to be pitied. Some of the saddest stories are of those poor souls who thought they struck it rich, only to be later called a fool. Several discovered gold – or so they thought. They ran to tell all their family and friends only to discover the bitter reality. Rather than discover gold, they had unearthed pyrite. Pyrite is an iron sulfide that gives off a yellow metallic luster much like gold. To the casual observer pyrite can be mistaken as gold. Because of this, pyrite earned the nickname, fool’s gold. In an instant, men went from wealth to worthless, famous to foolish. Many became so overcome by their “foolish” mistake they deserted their family and reclused to hiding the rest of their life.

Many in our churches today are falling for a new “pyrite”. This new “fool’s gold” looks like the real gold to a casual observer, but upon closer inspection it proves to be worthless. Jesus warned of this fool’s gold. He said that many would come to Him convinced they had discovered the real gold only to find out they had fallen victim to “fool’s gold.” Jesus said that on judgment day those poor fools are going to hear the seven most frightening words they will ever hear. He will say to them, “Depart from me, I never knew you” (see Matthew 7:22-23).


So how do we discover the real gold of biblical salvation and not fall victim to the fool’s gold of cheap imitations? First we must dig in the right places. Many people dig for the real gold of biblical salvation in the mountains of religion. What they discover are many nuggets of religious rules and rituals. In haste they think they have found what they are looking for only to discover religion to be fool’s gold. Religion is man’s attempt to work his way up to God. Jesus called these people whitewashed tombs. They looked pretty on the outside, but on the inside were full of dead men’s bones (see Matthew 23:27).

Another place people dig for the real gold is in the mountain of facts about Jesus. These people discover the facts about Jesus and then believe those facts, thinking themselves to have the real gold. This “fool’s gold” is tricky because it looks so right on the surface. A person hears the information about Jesus (i.e. His virgin birth, sinless life, death on the cross, and resurrection), agrees with the information and considers that enough. These poor souls have fallen victim to the “fool’s gold” of information with no transformation. Jesus has become for them a great historical figure who really lived, died, and rose again. As the Son of God, He is the only way to heaven, but He has brought no transforming reality to their everyday life.

So where do we find the real gold? Where is the right place to dig for the treasure we are longing to find? The real gold is found in the mountain of TRUST. Jesus one day took a religious leader named Nicodemus to this mountain. Nicodemus knew there was something different about Jesus. But Jesus confused him when He told him that he “…must be born again” (John 3:3). Jesus then proceeded to explain Himself by telling him that, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus showed Nicodemus the key to finding the real gold. He told him that he must “believe in” Jesus to be saved.

I know that some of you have just become confused, but let me explain. The word used for “in” in the Bible when referring to the believing that is the real gold is the word, “into”. The difference may seem small, but the distance is eternal. To believe INTO something means to trust your life to that something. For example, I may believe a plane will fly, but until I get inside the plane and trust my life to my belief I have not believed INTO. It is this believing INTO Jesus that brings the real gold of genuine salvation. Jesus concluded His teaching to Nicodemus by saying, “Whoever believes in [INTO] him [JESUS] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe [INTO JESUS] stands condemned already because he has not believed in [INTO] the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:18). And this real gold is tested through the fiery trials of life.

The Bible tells us that the real gold of biblical salvation is proved genuine through fire. Listen to what Jesus said about people who believe IN, but not INTO Jesus. “Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away” (Luke 8:13). C. S. Lewis said, “You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

I will never forget the phone call I received on Sunday, July 20, from Mike. Like many of you, the shock of Katie’s death cut deep in my soul. We were on our way back from our oldest son’s wedding in South Carolina. When we heard the news Kathy and I began weeping as we were driving through Atlanta on our way back home. Our youngest son, Caleb, was in the back seat and I suddenly had the urge to stop the car, get out and hug him for a while. As the hours, days, and weeks following Katie’s death have crept forward we have all watched Buckett’s faith prove genuine. He has the real gold! Do you?