HIGH DEFINITION LIVING
When you watch TV these days — especially when you watch a game — you see more and more commercials for High Definition TV. I saw one last night several times that included a simulated picture showing how clear, how crisp, how amazing is this new technology by using people to represent the individual color pixels that are vividly displayed. The problem is that the simulated picture is still being broadcast through my old 36 inch TV in my bedroom. There's no way I'll ever have a clear idea of what HDTV is if my only point of reference is this old box. But if I go into my living room where my 35 inch HDTV sits I see how real and vivid the picture is, why you can see the skin pores on the athlete’s face.
The same can be said for salvation. Those who have never experienced a personal relationship with Christ have a hard time understanding us sometimes. We talk of experiencing God's peace, having assurance of his love, feeling his presence, knowing his will — this is new technology to many outside the faith.
For believers, our challenge is to model the High Definition lifestyle of a personal relationship with Christ so that others can see beyond what they think religion is — so they see past what looks like mere rules and regulations and rituals to discover what is, in reality, the source of life.
An example of this can be found in Acts 16. You remember the story. Paul and Silas were in prison, in shackles, singing hymns late into the night. An earthquake came along, shaking the foundations of the prison, opening the prison doors and breaking everyone's chains. The distraught jailer, thinking he'd lost his prisoners and would face certain punishment, decided to end his own life. Before he could, Paul — free of chains yet remaining behind — said, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here."
The jailer was so impressed he could only say, "What must I do to be saved?" That night he and his family were baptized into the faith.
This is high definition living. Non-believers will never understand the Christian life if all they have to go on is what they read in the news or what they see fictionalized on network TV. They need to see it modeled before their eyes. They need to see the spiritual pores of us living a life of High Definition Christianity.
The same can be said for salvation. Those who have never experienced a personal relationship with Christ have a hard time understanding us sometimes. We talk of experiencing God's peace, having assurance of his love, feeling his presence, knowing his will — this is new technology to many outside the faith.
For believers, our challenge is to model the High Definition lifestyle of a personal relationship with Christ so that others can see beyond what they think religion is — so they see past what looks like mere rules and regulations and rituals to discover what is, in reality, the source of life.
An example of this can be found in Acts 16. You remember the story. Paul and Silas were in prison, in shackles, singing hymns late into the night. An earthquake came along, shaking the foundations of the prison, opening the prison doors and breaking everyone's chains. The distraught jailer, thinking he'd lost his prisoners and would face certain punishment, decided to end his own life. Before he could, Paul — free of chains yet remaining behind — said, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here."
The jailer was so impressed he could only say, "What must I do to be saved?" That night he and his family were baptized into the faith.
This is high definition living. Non-believers will never understand the Christian life if all they have to go on is what they read in the news or what they see fictionalized on network TV. They need to see it modeled before their eyes. They need to see the spiritual pores of us living a life of High Definition Christianity.
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