Sermon Central
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Volcanic Rock And Coal
Contributed by Owen Bourgaize on Feb 3, 2009 (message contributor)
VOLCANIC ROCK AND COAL
When I went to Italy on holiday, one of the tours was to visit Mount Vesuvius. I climbed to the summit, and there was a huge crater with smoke coming out of it because, although the volcano is dormant just now, deep down in the earth there's molten rock. When the pressure increases, the volcano erupts and spews out molten rock in an amazing fiery spectacle, and it pours down the mountainside in great streams destroying everything in its path. Very quickly, the molten rock cools into a solid substance called lava, like this (show). But the life has gone out of it--it's dead! But contrast the coal! (show). It may look dead but it’s got life within--it's capable of giving off heat and power.
This contrast between volcanic rock and living coal reminded me of some verses in the Bible found in the Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2. The apostle Paul was contrasting the life of people who hadn't come into a relationship with God in Jesus, as the Saviour of the world. He said that before they trusted in Jesus: "You were dead in your trespasses and sins" (1). Then something wonderful happened: "But … God … made us alive with Christ" (4,5).
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