Every accountable human being is servant of either God or Satan! You can not be a servant of both (Matthew 6:24). There is no middle ground. You are for one and against the other (Matthew 12:30).

God wants YOU to serve him. He gave his Son for you (John 3:16). Forgiveness of sins is available, if you will make him your Master and Lord, by fully obeying his will (Matthew 7:21). He has cast a VOTE for you to follow and serve him.

Satan wants YOU to serve him. He is the father of lies (John 8:44). He is crafty and deceitful (2 Corinthians 11:3), wicked (Matthew 13:19,38), an adversary who seeks to destroy (1 Peter 5:8). He has cast a VOTE for you to follow and serve him.

The ultimate decision has not been made. Your eternal destiny will be determined by your decision. YOU will cast The Deciding Vote!

Who is your Master now? Who will be your Master at the time of your death? If you were to go before God in judgment today, where would you be eternally? Heaven or hell?

From the April-May, 2004 edition of "Truth in Love," published through Steve Preston's BibleTalk list, with everybody's permission: www.topica.com

by Richard Mansel

Salvation is the most desirable thing and we are helpless to find it on our own (Romans 3:23). Isaiah 59:2-3a says, "Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood." In order to obtain this salvation we have to find our way back to God.

Romans 5:6 says, "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." In Romans 6:3-4 and Galatians 3:27, we obey his will when we are immersed into his body. Grace gives us that privilege. Ephesians 2:8-9, "for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

Joseph Thayer says that "through" refers to the "Means or Instrument by which anything is effected" and "because what is done by means of a person or thing seems to pass as it were through the same." Grace is free and undeserved, yet only through faith can we obtain this special gift.

If grace is the room we enter, faith is the hallway to its entrance. We must pass through it before God will bestow this grace on us. His gift is so special that he has no reason to give it to someone who does not believe he is the Lord (John 3:16). Because it is bestowed on us, we have no right to boast of our worthiness.

Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

"Walk" is significant in that it "denotes the state in which one is living." Paul is saying that we exist in a state of service to God. He has created a place for us to work and serve him. Our focus is no longer on us, but on him. Our purpose is to bring glory to him as we work in his vineyard.

The argument for grace or works is framed with ourselves in the spotlight. What do we have to do or not do? Instead, we should turn our eyes upward and say, "What can I do for him?" We exist in his world, we have been washed by his Son's blood, walk in his kingdom and all we can think about is "what do we have to do?"

We come humbly to him and act like a servant doing the will of his Master. He asks us to do certain things and we do them out of gratitude and purpose. These works do not save us because 2:8-9 tells us that grace does. However, these works must be fruit in a life lived for him. The absence of these works means we are no longer useful to his purposes (John 15:1-8; James 2:20-26).

We should say, "Am I still being useful to His kingdom?" The Lord knows us. He knows whether we are continuing to walk for him and does not want "anyone to perish" (2 Peter 3:9). As long as we are trying to live for him, the Lord is there beside us.

We are saved by grace but we live, serve and work for him in his kingdom, by his purposes and designs. Obedience alone does not save, for the sacrifice of Christ is primary, but its absence will condemn us. We forget this at our peril.

After retail management and teaching, Richard began preaching full time in 1995. When he was ten he would read stories he had written to his classmates at school. He writes the newsletter Culture Wars.

Max Patterson

If God became a man, we would expect supernatural doings. The great miracles of Jesus testify to this.

If God became a man, we would expect Him to manifest the love of God. Christ was completely unselfish. He cared for the sinful, brokenhearted, the contrite, the despised, the poor. His supreme act of love is what He did on the cross.

If God became a man, we would expect His personality to be true humanity. God has shown us what a true, real man should be like. He has shown us, as well as told us, what to do.

The character of Jesus is one of the greatest evidences of His deity that can be given.

I believe Christianity can be verified through the miracles Christ performed. Would the New Testament be worth believing without miracles? Miracles authenticate the message of Christ. Jesus appeals to His miracles for His true divinity (John 10:24, 37, 38; Luke 7:20-22). These miracles were performed in the full light of history. Many were performed before the public eye. Many were performed in the company of unbelievers. There were all types of miracles. We have the abundant testimony of the cured. There is no adequate evidence contrary to miracles.

I believe Christianity can be verified through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. The resurrection is the miracle. Despite the unbeliever's attitude toward this miracle, not one through the ages has been able to explain it away. And what about the hundreds of people who saw Jesus after His resurrection, and on many different occasions (1 Corinthians 15)? The testimony is sure and our faith in Christ is certain.

Thanks to The Voice of Truth International, Vol 4, pg. 18.

by Roger E. Dickson

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he died spiritually, for his sin separated him from God (Romans 5:12). He was also separated from the tree of life, and thus, took all humanity with him. All of us now suffer the consequences of his sin in that we all must physically die (1 Corinthians 15:20-22).

In the midst of this human tragedy, however, God made a promise that a solution for sin would come (Genesis 3:15). Throughout the Old Testament there are hundreds of prophecies that foretold the coming of the Messiah who would make atonement for the sins of men. All of these prophecies were concerning Jesus, who would die on the cross in order to reconcile us to God. He also came to give us a way to conquer that which all of us fear: physical death (Hebrews 2:14).

God chose a man by the name of Abraham through whom He would bring into the world the One who would be the Savior of man-kind. God promised Abraham, "And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). From the time this promise was made around 2000 B.C., God continually reminded His people that there was a "blessing" coming who would bear the iniquities of the people (Isaiah 53). The promise was not only to the descendants of Abraham, the Jews, but to all families of the earth. It was God's promise to humanity.

The Seed!

So, who was the blessing? Peter stated, "You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, 'And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed!' To you first, God having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities" (Acts 3:25,26).

The Seed of Abraham that would bless all mankind was Jesus. Paul wrote, "Now to Abraham and His Seed were the promises made. He does not say, 'And to seeds,' as to many, but as to one, 'And to your Seed,' who is Christ" (Galatians 3:16). So the Seed was Jesus Christ. This was the Seed of woman whom God promised after Adam sinned, the One who would crush the head of Satan (Genesis 3:15).

The Blessing!

Now, what was the blessing of Abraham that would come from the Seed? The Bible answers, "And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'In you all the nations shall be blessed'" (Galatians 3:8). The Gospel in this promise has reference to good news that would be preached to all the world!

The Gospel was the good news of the Seed who would take care of our sin problem in our relationship with God. He would bring us to justification by faith (Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16). He would thus reconcile us to God by His blood (Romans 5:10,11). This is how Jesus blesses all those who believe in Him and obey the commands of the Gospel. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29).

Thanks to The Voice of Truth International, Vol 42, pgs. 38-39.

by Wayne Jackson

It is easy to be happy when all is well. It is difficult to rejoice in tragedy -- some think that it is very nearly impossible. The prophet Habakkuk suggests otherwise.

When Habakkuk had been confronted with the reality of the impending Babylonian invasion, he was sick to the bone. His body trembled and his lips quivered. Each day, with deep dread, he awaited the promised judgment upon his nation. In that time of terror no crops would be harvested; flocks and herds would vanish. What devastation there would be (Habakkuk 3:16,17).

Habakkuk could not divorce himself from his human emotions, but he determined that they would not dominate him. In the midst of his darkness he could courageously say: "... there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:18).

What a brilliant flash of faith! And what a lesson we can learn from it. Habakkuk's confident affirmation heralds this truth. Joy is an inward quality of choice. It does not depend upon external circumstances. It is grounded in a relationship with the Creator. Hard times may come, but if we know that we are with God, and that He is with us, our souls can be bathed in joy. Consider Habakkuk 3:18 carefully, and remember that joy depends upon the internal, not the external; it is intellectual, not circumstantial. This is the Christian view of life's events.

Thanks to The Voice of Truth International, Vol 4, pg. 60.