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| Our devotional text comes from the Gospel of John 3:16-24 and I want us to ponder the question, “Is there any other way to inherit eternal life?”. Our devotional text says, 16. "For 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. 17. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." 22. After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were constantly coming to be baptized. 24. (This was before John was put in prison.) Franklin Graham made the news recently when he spoke out critically of Islam as a religion. He’s not the only one lately to criticize or verbally attack the faith of the followers of Mohammed. Nor will he be the last to attack the ideals and religious philosophies of other cultures. It’s very easy for us to think of ourselves as the “ones who are right” when it comes to this issue of salvation and eternal life. The collection of documents that we call our “Holy Scriptures” do make some explicit declarations concerning God’s plan for redeeming mankind through the offering of his Son. The Old Testament is full of prophecies foretelling the Christ event. The New Testament is the fulfillment of those foretelling prophecies and we do anticipate the consummation that is yet to bring to a close what we know as the “Church Age”. As Christians, we are justified in believing what we believe concerning God’s plan of salvation and our biblical mandate to evangelize the lost. But how do we go about the declaration of this message in our modern “Post-Christian” world? How do we co-exist with ideals, political agendas, and opinions of religion that we are not in agreement with without alienating ourselves and demonizing those whom we feel called to witness to? These are difficult questions to answer made more difficult by the terrible fact that the entity designed by God to represent him is so badly fractured and divided into a myriad of denominations and lesser organizational structures. The Church is no longer seen by the world as a singular whole with a unified voice and all our religious wrangling over denominational differences serves only to accentuate and complicate our disunity. Our great problem is not our message. Our great problem lies with us, the representatives who speak the message. There is no need in wielding tempered metal swords (as in the Crusades) in our efforts to herald the good news. Nor is it necessary to brandish pointed religious rhetoric against the religions of the world that fail to meet our own biblical criteria. It will ever be easier to lash out than it is to love and it is to this end that we have been called as the servants of Jesus Christ. Our credibility is not seen by the world in our theology, towering steeple’s, embossed and garnished stages and altars, or the like. Jesus said that we would be known as his disciples by the love that we have for one another. We do, without a doubt, have a tremendous task before us in this age. Christ’s words will never lose their authority. Nor will they weaken in their ability to enact change in the lives of people. This is the truth of the whole of Scripture. God’s word is living and active. God’s word does judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. God’s word does strip us bare before the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. We do have to find a way to live in the world without allowing it to become our god or to allow the people of the world to manipulate their gods upon us. There is an apparent necessity to thoughtfully and willfully withdraw from the schemes and plans of the worldly system. In so doing, we set ourselves apart (sanctify ourselves) for the service of God. This, Christ’s example and that of his disciples, was one that brought generous responses of both acceptance and rejection from the worldly. When we model Christ before the world, we will be inquired of by those who are searching for spiritual meaning in their own lives and we will be rejected by those who are intent upon maintaining their own positions of sinfulness. May our lives become so separated and lived, as was theirs and the examples of the great crowd of saints who have gone before us, that we shine as obvious and recognizable lights in a world filled with spiritual darkness. Amen. |
| ©David Kralik Ministries, Inc. 2003 Email: matthewfivesix@hotmail.com |
| "Is There Any Other Way?" John 3:16-24 |
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| Silver Bar courtesy of R & C Gif Manor |
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