REFLECTIONS
April 22, 2007
 
 
"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me.”
Malachi 3:1
 
 
 
The Messenger
 
Scripture is so powerful. To me the story told by the Bible is clear and true, but it is not simple. It sounds simple to say that Jesus came into the world to save us from our sins, and that He died on the cross in sacrifice for us. But it is curious how the story, abbreviated without all of the Old Testament background, can be so compelling to so many. Yet people fall to their knees in acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior without all of the background it seems they would need.
While I can’t fully explain Scripture’s power, I think it has everything to do with the message, “Jesus loves you.” There is so much trouble in the world. There is pain arising from war, poverty, deranged minds, and ravaging disease. People around the world are in despair for an answer. There is craving to be forgiven, to have hope, and especially to be loved.
Scripture is a love story and that is the reason I think it has such power. When someone looks a hardened criminal in the eye and tells him that Jesus loves him and that Jesus died so he may have everlasting life, well just maybe he is hearing a message that he has been desperate to hear for a long time.
But there is something else that makes Scripture powerful. There is power in the message, but there is also power from the messenger. When drug addicts come to Victory Home defeated by a way of life, they hear the message that Jesus loves them and it is a message they have been desperate to hear. But the message is compelling because the men and women that are telling it are also living it.
When the members of local churches visit poverty-ridden countries to help meet enormous needs, they carry the Scripture with them and they share the story; but the power of the message comes from more than words. The message is compelling because of the myriads of ways that love is shared by the messenger.
“Jesus loves you,” is a powerful message. It’s the love story people are waiting to hear. But the message is more powerful when told by a messenger that also lives it. Then the story is so compelling that people fall to their knees to accept Jesus as their Savior.
And we are the messengers.
                   
“You are the light of the world.”
Richard Ì
 


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