PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD

     The prophet's admonition of old was, "...Prepare to meet thy
God, O Israel" (Amos 4:12). This Old Testament exhortation involves
some issues which are basic to the New Testament and therefore
deserve serious consideration.
     The fact of an ultimate meeting with God implies man's
accountability to God. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die...."
(Ezekiel 18:20). "So then every one of us shall give account of
himself to God" (Romans 14:12). "For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done
in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or
bad" (2 Corinthians 5:10). Accountable people are responsible to
God!!!
     The gospel is the universal standard upon which men are now
accountable to God. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).
Christ said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature" (Mark 16:15). Christ further said, "He that
rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him:
the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last
day" (John 12:48). The gospel is indeed God's standard of conduct
for the lives of men.
     The gospel must be obeyed. God's Word says that the Lord Jesus
"...shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming
fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of his power" (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9). Accountable people must
hear the truth (Romans 10:17) and obey it (Romans 6:17-18).
    ---Jack Thompson, preacher for the White Park church of Christ.

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