Dynamite!

Tom Green writes: “In 1846 an Italian named Ascanio Sobrero combined glycerol 
with a mixture of nitric and sulphuric acid and discovered nitroglycerin. In its pure form, nitroglycerin is very shock-sensitive (i.e., physical shock can cause it to explode) and degrades over time to even more unstable forms. This makes it highly dangerous to transport or use. In its undiluted form it is one of the most powerful high explosives known to man. Initially, it was thought to be too volatile for any practical use and its inventor was ashamed to be associated with it because it caused so many fatal accidents.

“In 1864 the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel discovered that this shock sensitivity could be reduced to safe levels by mixing nitroglycerin with a certain variety of sand. This new safer explosive, called dynamite, became very successful and made Nobel a very wealthy man. The fortune he accumulated from dynamite and other related explosives is the basis of the Nobel Prizes.” *

The Apostle Paul says in Romans 1:16, "I am NOT ashamed of the gospel, because it is the POWER of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."

The Greek word for POWER (dunamis) is the source of the word DYNAMITE. And just like Alfred Nobel had to mix nitroglycerin with another substance to take full advantage of its power, the Gospel must be mixed with faith and received into another substance (“the heart”) in order to accomplish its intended work (salvation).  As the Apostle Paul stated, the Gospel is “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

The Gospel (literally “GOOD NEWS”) is that “Christ DIED for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was BURIED, and that He ROSE again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).  

Its POWER for salvation is accomplished in those who: accept the Gospel in faith, believing in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turning from sin in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confessing Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), being baptized (immersed) into 
Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38), and continuing to stand in it faithfully 
(1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

The Gospel is God’s “DYNAMITE ” to eradicate sin from our lives so that we can be saved.  

Have YOU allowed the Gospel to do its work in your heart?  Why not receive it today - through your obedient faith?

God bless you!

  David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

* Tom Green, “The Proper Mix,” in Daily Bread (12/1/05), a daily e-mail sent out by Neal Pollard, minister at the Cold Harbor Road Church Of Christ in Mechanicsville, Virginia. See www.Cold-Harbor-Road.org

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