Niagara Falls Church of Christ

2011 Tennessee Ave.,  Niagara Falls, NY  14305

(716)285-6534 (716)285-6534 (for phone and fax)

James Lawrence, Herschel Walker - Elders

Eddie J. Cornelius, Minister Emeritus

Man Chooses His Master

Everyone born into this world will serve someone or something. No exceptions! Everyone will serve someone or someone in the guise of something. God offers life to those who choose to serve Him and death to those who choose to serve another. This choice is always either or, not both. Jesus expressed it this way in Matt. 6:24: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." In this context Jesus boils the issue down to one of trust. A person will place his trust in material possessions or gain or he will place his trust in God.

Satan understands this issue very well. His offer to man is, and always has been, one which leads, ostensibly, to material gain, status or both. To Adam and Eve the offer was one of status. He told them that by trusting in the "forbidden fruit" (and thereby in his word), "ye shall be as gods" (Gen. 3:5). To Jesus, Satan offered political power or status and material gain. Luke 4:5-7 says; "And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. 7 If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine."

It is the desire for these things that cause people to make bad choices. In Eph. 2:2-3  Paul explains it this way: "Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."

In John 8:34-45 Jesus accused the Jews of being children of the Devil because, He said, "the lusts of your father ye will do." The Devil makes suggestions, provides temptations, and thereby seeks to cause man to misplace his trust. He knows that when ones trust in God is destroyed, that one ultimately destroys himself. It is only through trust in God, faith, that man may realize any hope in this life. Paul explained his ability to endure hardship and persecution this way: "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: 10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;" (2 Cor. 1:9-10). If we trust God, He will deliver!