The Faith in

Black &WhiteBlack &WhiteA pictorial look at the Christian Faith

What’s Behind the Curtain?

What’s behind the Curtain?What’s behind the Curtain?• Going to a play, we know what tickets we bought?

• We can talk to other theater goers to ask them what’s behind the curtain.

• We can guess what’s there.

• We can decide that all that is there is unknowable.

• We might even decide there is nothing behind the curtain.

Imagine God as behind the curtain.

• We can talk to others about their understandings of God.

• We can guess about God. Philosophy.

• Decide God is unknowable. Agnostic.

• Conclude there is no God. Atheism.

• But Christ changed all this.

God drew back the curtain. In Jesus Christ, God revealed his nature to us

God is Christ-like. We know what Jesus was like, so we know God, too.

Let this theta represent God.

This figure represents us.

God’s response to us is always constant and loving.

Our response back is inconsistent.

This gives us a glimpse of the Kingdom of God as we see each other through God’s loving eyes.

But we have a Problem• Our problem is everyone’s. We have such

difficulty believing God loves us. We get confused and we get turned in on ourselves.

• The result is SIN.

A Different Way of looking at SIN.

Originally we sought to respond to God. But we became confused.

Sin is missing the mark. We want to aim our lives at living a life in God’s grace.

Romans 3:9-12

Anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God is sin.

We get so confused and forget that God loves us, no one tells us about this love, or we just don’t believe it. In any case all have sinned and fallen short of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. But God doesn’t leave us there.

God gets us across and we are able to respond to God.

In the CROSS we get across. Our relationship with God is restored. Our sins are forgiven.

Understanding God loves you changes everything. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have to be afraid. God loves you.

You can have a life in grace.

You can experience a little bit of Heaven here.

Good works are a response that we make to the gift of salvation. We never earn it. Going to Heaven is not a matter of earning God’s love or being good enough. Heaven here on earth and Heaven after you die are from God. Doing good things comes from God’s love over-flowing in us.

To accept the gift of God’s love, we repent. This is turning around 180 degrees & coming back to God.

Baptism is something we do to show everyone we are accepting God’s love in Christ.

We receive the Holy Spirit as we experience God’s loving presence in our lives giving us encouragement and direction.

Life from ABOVE

God supplies us with life from above

• When we pray, praise, study, or do Christian service we are staying connected to God from whom our strength comes.