MUG SHOT

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Two disturbing images must have caught your eye in recent weeks: 

• A young Hollywood heartthrob's mug shot after his arrest for drunk driving and a host of other charges.
• Someone's black and blue and unrecognizable face - that of a popular local entertainer - mugged by crazed individuals supposedly avenging the "rape" of their lady friend.

Being popular, they certainly hogged airtime, not only on television news and tabloid programs, but more predominantly on social media. 

They're tsismis time fodder, making many working people's forays to the office pantry more animated. Tayo pa,  obsessed with celebrity and gossip. Quite entertaining, you see.

"Unlucky for them since they're always under the glare of klieg lights and hounded by the paparazzi," one might say. "Being high-profile people, they should have been more careful, choosing their friends, the things they do, and the places they go to, so they don't get embroiled in controversies."

I wonder if heaven has a gallery of our mug shots. Heaven sees what the paparazzi and those nosy TV reporters miss. Our photos may not have been splattered all over mass media and Facebook; but that doesn't mean we've been declared scot-free or holier-than-them. 

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," Romans 3:23.

I used to think myself "good".  But come to think of it, how could I be good if pride, murder, lust, anger, envy, cheating and a lot of other imponderables percolate in my mind constantly - like hot tsokonut titillating my carnal-bound mind?  

Jesus (Matthew 5:28) says, "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Meeting her for the first time, Jesus told the Samaritan woman (John 4:18), "... you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband." 

But Jesus did not accuse her; offered her living water instead (v.13-14):  "... but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst... a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

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Jesus is not accusing us either. Not yet -- while we're still here and have a chance to repent and acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Savior before we cross over the great divide. We need not be declared guilty, with Jesus as our advocate. And the time to accept this offer of acquittal is now.

He came to save the lost. You and I are lost apart from Jesus. Romans 10:4 - Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes. 

"Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame," Romans 10:11  . The law accuses but Christ saves - our mug shot forever shredded from our heavenly dossier, and our folder stamped with, "Not guilty!" by the blood of the Lamb. 

"As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us,"  Psalm 103:12. Start with acknowledging Him as your Savior and Lord.

Originally published at:   
http://cbnasia.org/home/2014/02/mug-shot/