There's More!

The Strait of Gibraltar is the strait that separates the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea .  The strait has a very strategic location.  Ships that travel 
from  the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and vice versa, pass through this strait.

Prominent mountains (promontories) flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar
from the East.  These boundaries to the strait were known to antiquity as the 
Pillars of Hercules .  They are the Rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Musa, a mountain in Morocco . *  The Spanish drew the Pillars on their fifteenth century coat of arms.  
They also placed scrolls across the Pillars containing three Latin words: 

” Ne Plus Ultra” – ” No More Beyond.”  

These words were a warning to sailors not to enter the Atlantic Ocean , for it was believed that there was nothing beyond those Pillars. . . . 

Christopher Columbus destroyed that common belief by sailing far out into the Atlantic Ocean – beyond the Pillars of Hercules -- and discovering the ” New World .”

In Valladolid , Spain , where Christopher Columbus died in 1506, stands a monument commemorating the great discoverer. An interesting feature of the memorial is a statue of a lion eating one of the Latin words that had been part of Spain’s motto for centuries.  The word being torn away by the lion is the Latin word” Ne” (meaning 
” No”), make it read ” Plus Ultra” which means ” More Beyond.”  Columbus had proven that there was indeed “more beyond”  the Pillars of Hercules .

” Ne Plus Ultra.”  That was the SAME motto that the Sadducees espoused: there is NO MORE BEYOND, i.e., there is NO LIFE AFTER physical death.  But Jesus Christ, the “Lion of Judah,” through His life, death, and resurrection, has torn that word, ” Ne,”  from the phrase, giving us the reality of ” More Beyond.”

” It is appointed for men to DIE ONCE, but AFTER this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).  After the judgment, there are TWO destinies: the righteous into ETERNAL LIFE and the wicked into EVERLASTING PUNISHMENT (Matthew 25:46).  Because there is 
” More Beyond.,”  Jesus pleaded: "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to DESTRUCTION, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to LIFE, and there are FEW who find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

The Way to everlasting life is through Jesus - (John 14:6), believing in Him 
(Acts 16:31), repenting of sin to follow Him (Acts 17:30-31), confessing Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), being baptized (immersed) in His name for the forgiveness 
of sins (Acts 2:38), and faithfully following Him along the way (1 John 1:7).

Because of Jesus, there is MORE BEYOND!  He offers ETERNAL LIFE with Him.  

Will YOU accept His Offer through your faith and obedience?

God bless you!

-- Sid Dye / David A. Sargent, Minister

Church of Christ at Creekwood 
1901 Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama  36695

(Sid Dye is the minister of the Southern Hills church in Salem , IN , and the husband of David’s cousin, Kathy.)

* The title of “Pillars of Hercules” is also claimed by Monte Hacho in the Spanish territory of Ceuta.

To Subscribe to "Living Water" send a blank e-mail to:

                      HTML version:  subscribe-livingwater@lyris.dundee.net
                   TEXT version:  subscribe-livingwater-text@lyris.dundee.net

Follow this link to locate the church of Christ nearest you: www.churchzip.com

Archived issues of "Living Water" can be accessed from our website at: www.creekwoodcc.org