Last week Martha and I were blessed to attend the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Senate and the House of Representatives. We enjoyed the atmosphere and the opportunity to fellowship with so many believers from all over the world.
Eric Metaxas gave the keynote address. He offered a compelling view of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Part of his address featured how he became a believer. He grew up in a home without the Gospel, went to Yale, and took a job. For the first time he heard the Gospel and over a period of time became a follower of Christ. He has since written two powerful biographies of followers of Christ who changed the world.
The first biography featured the life of William Wilberforce, the British citizen who championed the closing of the slave trade in England. His victory in England helped end slavery in America.
The second biography examined the life of pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer of Germany. Early on, Bonhoeffer saw Nazism’s inherent evil and spoke against it. One of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s famous quotes is that “when Jesus calls a man He bids him come and die.” The Nazis executed Bonhoeffer in 1945 shortly before the liberation of the concentration camp where he was sentenced.
When Metaxas was saved he asked this question: “Why haven’t I heard this before?”
What does this show us?
First, God still saves and people are still open to the Gospel. Metaxas was Yale educated but without peace in his heart. People still need the Gospel.
Second, God changes people’s lives. Eric Metaxas is a modern day example of how the Gospel changes us by renewing our minds and making us new creations.
Third, this reminds us of our responsibility to share the good news. Paul asked how people can hear without a preacher? How many Eric Metaxas’ are out there who need to hear?
Finally, the Gospel blesses. Salvation changes us in a myriad of ways. It always blesses.
The story of Naaman shows a similar pattern (2 Kings 5). Naaman was a most unlikely convert who gladly heard. He experienced the wonderful blessing of God.
Who around you is an Eric or a Naaman?
May we share and live our faith in a world of sadness and desperation.
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My question at salvation was,” Why am I just now understanding this?”. I grew up hearing about Christ but never saw Him for who He truly was. God opened my eyes at His perfect time.
A couple of years ago, I became friends with a great woman. She shared her story of growing up in Texas and not hearing the gospel until she was a young married lady. She was outside crying in her yard one day and a neighbor came and shared Christ and that’s the day her life changed. She is a bold witness to all she meets. She does not let a school friend of her many kids enter her house without knowing they’ve heard about Jesus before they leave. Because when she became a believer, everyone she grew up with said, “Oh, we thought you knew. Everybody knows.”
Thank you for your consistency.
O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! The city who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Luke 13: 34 Holman
God’s desire expressed through the ages has not waivered nor deminished. May our hearts not be hardened nor fickeled in the Jerusalem of our worship. Blessed is the one who misses not an opportunity to share the Good News in word and deed.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung April 9, 1945. The date is my mother’s birthday. My father had already participated in the liberation of one of several concentration camps and would head into the Austrian Alps. The first hand testimony of what he experienced/observed would indeed chill one to the bone as the stomach turned. He was stopped by a force that called his name and physically pushed him back from the Concentration Camp Gate. It was booby trapped. Such was not a single occurance in his life experience. I have been blessed to have read some of the letters my Dad sent to my mom and his mother from that period in his life. Blessed is the man who is pure in spirit. When one considers the purpose of Jefferson Parish Museum in this context it does not seem so monumental for this Difference of One who enlisted.