D.L. Moody | Jason Ministries ®

The Coloring Song, by the CCM group Petra, appeared on their 1981 album Never Say Die. It marked a turning point towards success for Petra, as all singles and albums prior had only performed less than moderately.

Part of the success of The Coloring Song is the appeal of the music. Its simple melody, coupled with the childlike explanation of the Gospel message in its lyrics, makes this song a near instant classic for all to enjoy.

The premise behind Petra’s song is not new. People have been using colors to explain the Gospel story for several decades. In fact, its origin dates back to 1866.

History credits Charles Haddon Spurgeon, pastor of the New Park Street Chapel (which later became the Metropolitan Tabernacle) in London, England, with the creation of what was then called The Wordless Book.

This “book” was simply three sheets of colored paper. The first page was black, and represented the sinful condition of mankind’s soul. The second page was red, which represented the blood of Christ. And the third page was white. White represented the purified condition of mankind’s soul, which God made available to all who would believe in the atoning sacrifice of His only begotten Son — Jesus Christ.

Almost ten years after C.H. Spurgeon introduced The Wordless Book to the world, Dwight L. Moody (American evangelist and publisher) adds another page to it. This fourth page is gold in color and represents eternal life in Heaven.

Today we no longer use The Wordless Book in this form. In fact, most Christian denominations are unfamiliar with it all together, but mention the Gospel Glove (pictured above) and you will evoke instant memories of someone’s early years in Sunday School.

So why the history lesson regarding these colorful forms of God’s Gospel message? Well, for this very simple reason. If you are going to live the life of a true worshiper, you must understand the importance of having a relationship with Christ. If you don’t have a relationship with Jesus, then you will not be able to become the true worshiper of God that you were meant to be.

If for any reason you are unsure of your relationship with God’s only begotten Son, then take the time now and contemplate the message that the following colors represent:

The soul of humanity is against God (sinful) by nature (Isaiah 53:6; Romans 3:23). This is because Adam and Eve rejected God’s purpose for mankind, back in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:1-24).

God’s only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, came to live as a human-being, and become the ultimate blood-sacrifice for us all (Hebrews 9:22, 10:9-10). Christ was able to live among sinful people without becoming sinful Himself, and thus was able to shed His perfectly sinless blood for our sake (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When people surrender their lives back to God, through a relationship with His only begotten Son, then all of their sins (wrong doings) are removed from their souls. They become as pure, perfect, and sinless as the Lord, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:2-3; 1 John 1:7).

Once we have accepted Jesus as our Lord, and embraced His message of salvation, we must act on our newly found faith by being baptized in water (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:16). This act of worship is the new believer’s first public profession of Christ’s message of hope.

For all who believe in the hope of God’s Son, they must continue to act out their faith through various acts of worship (Bible study, gathering for corporate worship, giving of resources, individual worship, prayer, praise, preaching, serving humanity, teaching, etc.), and grow into the true worshiper that they were intended to be (James 2:14-26; 2 Peter 1:5-11).

Once God has grown us into the true worshipers that He has called us to be, then our Creator will beckon us to Himself. Allowing us to live in His glorious presence for all of eternity (John 14:1-3; Revelation 14:13-15).

There you have it. The hope for mankind laid out in six easy colors. I pray you have embraced it, and are growing as a true worshiper. If you haven’t . . . I pray that God will keep “knocking” on the door of your soul until you answer His call:

“Here I am! I [Jesus Christ] stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me.” (Revelation 3:20)

Living Your True Purpose by J. Scott Harden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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Jason Ministries ®

Teaching the Church its Purpose – True Worship

Tag Archives: D.L. Moody

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