Our Footsteps: Black and White - Gospel Thoughts for the Week

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Black and White - Gospel Thoughts for the Week

I like black and white photography. Although there are shades of gray, black and white photography is about contrast - it makes a statement about 'difference'. You will notice that I like to use alot of black and white photos on this blog - and that is by design.

I believe that Christians need to think in black and white terms (right vs. wrong, truth vs. error, light vs. darkness, life vs. death, etc). When we get used to thinking in black and white, then when we are confronted with the 'gray areas' of life, we are much more ready to respond confidently, without waffling, equivocating, or second guessing.

So, why the morbid picture of the tombstones? Because you and I are going to be lying under one someday. The Bible says that 'the wages of sin is death' (Romans 6:23). Because Adam, our federal head, disobeyed one command of God, humankind was plunged into a situation where death is inevitable. And so our names will someday appear on one of these stones, and we will be in either one of two places, forever and ever and ever: either enjoying eternal bliss in heaven where there is no more pain, suffering, disease, war, hunger, hatred or fear, OR we will be bearing the full force of God's wrath by spending an eternal, conscious punishment in hell, suffering and being tormented and punished where the fire is not quenched. See the contrast? This is not a gray area in God's Word.

Praise the Lord for Jesus Christ, who became our wrath-bearer. Placing our full faith and trust in Him, in complete surrender and full obedience is the clear option. Romans 6:23 does not just stop at telling us what the wages of sin is - it thankfully goes on to state that there is a 'gift' we can receive! The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. But a 'gift' must be received in order to really be a gift. People can turn away a gift. People can reject God's gift of eternal life in Christ - to their eternal damnation and suffering. What choice have you made?

Hear what Moses said to the people as he addressed them just before his death - I think the principle applies to us today in choosing Christ or rejecting Him:

"See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him" - Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Embracing the good news,
Mark

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I Believe...

1). I believe that there is one God. I believe God consists of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
2). I believe that God is holy, righteous, loving, and just.
3). I believe that mankind is separated from God by sin; that sin entered the world through Adam and death through sin.
4). I believe that, because of sin, man is condemned. Because of God’s utter hatred for sin, there is an eternal conscious punishment in hell for all those who do not come to God on His terms, dealing with their sin.
5). I believe that confessing our sins and confessing Jesus Christ as Lord is the only way to properly deal with the sin that has infected everyone. Jesus Christ paid our sin debt on the cross; reconciliation by substitution. There is nothing we can do to add to the finished work of Christ.
6). I believe in the security of the believer, that once he is truly born-again, there is nothing that would cause him to lose his salvation.
7). I believe that upon the death of a true believer in Christ, that he is ushered immediately into the presence of the Lord, where he will live in everlasting joy in Heaven, experiencing eternal fellowship with God.
8). I believe in believer’s baptism by immersion. I don’t believe baptism is necessary for salvation, but it is a beautiful outward profession of an inward possession.
9). I believe in a literal 6-day creation where God created the heavens and the earth and then rested on the seventh day.
10). I believe that the words written in the Bible are truth. I believe that the Bible is inerrant in its parts and in its whole. I believe that the 66 books that make up the canon of scripture make the Bible complete and that God inspired the words written therein. The things that were written down in the Bible are sufficient for every need we have. Not only is God’s Word sufficient, but it is far superior to any other method of handling the problems that man faces, since He has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness.