Life

Driving by three wooden crosses along the highway, I pondered the picture I was viewing.  People display the cross to make a statement of religious affiliation, or to remind ourselves of a horrific sacrifice.  However, my mind went directly to what those manufactured symbols are unable to picture: Our God is life.

I first noticed that no one is hanging on those crosses, which reminds me that Christ is alive.  That as a corn of wheat dies to yield much fruit (John 12:24), so his death produced our life.  And as he has life in himself (John 5:26), so will our life be eternal because our lives are hid in Christ (John 10:28, Col 3:3).

God is the source of all life (John 1:3,4).  Nothing has life without receiving it from him, and no one keeps it without being sustained by his word (Gen 2:7, Luke 4:4, Heb 1:3).  Why should we look to dead symbols (dumb idols) to represent a living God? It cannot.

Habakuk 2:18-20) What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols? Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

God has spoken, He gives us life and teaches us His truth by the Holy Spirit (Jer 31:33, Mat 16:17, 1John 2:20,21,27).  A handmade image is not a statement of faith; our conduct is a true statement (James 2:18).  If my fiance were present, would I use a photograph to brag about her?  Is the purpose of an image to associate one with the truth of God, or to associate one with a human sect?