THE BIG PICTURE!

‘Bury your head in the sand’ by Sander van der Wel is licensed under
CC BY-SA 2.0.

My grandboys showed me a small puddle in a dried creek bed.  There were several fish in it barely alive in the stagnant water.  Had they known, seen ‘the big picture’, they could have escaped their fate by swimming down the creek to the lake below before the creek dried up! 

It reminded me of the millions? of people who can’t see the ‘BIG PICTURE’ of life itself!

So many ask, “What is life all about anyway?”  Then they go about their lives in the same puddle when the lake is just a few feet away.  I chose to include the photo of the man with his head in the sand rather than a photo of nearly dead fish to spare you the yuck.  The metaphor is the same.  They have their head buried in the sand and don’t realize they are in a life or death position, remaining content in the puddle they live in frought with death!  If they could only see the ‘big picture’, they would see that there is ‘salvation’ from their predicament, life available through Jesus Christ who came so that they ‘may have life and have it to the full!’  John 10:10.                                                                                             

They would see that life is all about the opportunity to choose to live or die.  God said it clearly in our owner’s manual, the Bible: ‘This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you, life and death, blessings and curses.  
NOW CHOOSE LIFE, so that you and your children may live.’  Deuteronomy 30:19.

You have one lifetime to ‘choose life’.  Why do we have to choose life?  Because we were all born separated from God and ‘dead in our trespasses and sins.’  Just like the fish we are in a puddle fraught with death, and we will die (a ‘second death’) if we are not delivered from its boundaries.  

BUT, thank God that He provided a way out of the puddle!  A way to ‘choose life’.  That life is in His Son, Jesus Christ who said, ‘I am the way, the truth and THE LIFE.’  To choose Him is to choose life.

‘But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions (stuck in the puddle)—it is by grace you have been saved.’  Ephesians 2:4-5.  It is He who will reach down with His net of love and kindness and lift you out of that stagnant water!

‘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.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already (will remain in the puddle) because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.’  
John 3:16-18.

So why do they bury their head in the sand or stay in that yucky puddle?

Because ‘the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’  1 Corinthians 1:18.

And because they have an enemy who wants them to stay in the puddle and die or keep their head buried in the sand.  The devil, ‘The god of this age blinds the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.’ 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Thank God that he gives us an abundance of ways to see the ‘big picture’ and find our way out of the puddle.  He gave us the bible where He said it clearly, ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’  Jeremiah 29:13.

He said ‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.’  Revelations 3:20.

God is not hiding He is everywhere around you.  Romans 1:20, ‘For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, (The Book of Nature) so that people are without excuse.’  Romans 1:20.

The Spirit of God is here in this world right now!  He has come to help you.  ‘To convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.’  John 16:8. NKJV.  Jesus Himself said, ‘And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’  John 12:32.

And He uses people to preach and teach His word.  Hopefully someone will read my blog and come to Christ or one of my readers will use ideas from it to reach others.  As the scripture says in Romans 10:14, ‘How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?’  Romans 10:14.

‘Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’
Ephesians 5:14.