GOSPEL: Freedom Awards!

"Just as it is written, 'HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!'"

Romans 10:15b

The news report read: “The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) presented its 1999 International Press Freedom Awards last night to four journalists — from Columbia, Kosovo and Pakistan — at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.”

The report told of the heroic exploits of four journalists who kept on reporting the news in spite of beatings, imprisonments, and death threats. A fifth reporter would have been recognized expect he’s in a Cuban jail for proclaiming the truth.

Founded in 1981, CPJ focuses attention on free press abuses all over the world. The awards are to honor newsmen and women who’ve put themselves in harm’s way to deliver the news and to preserve freedom of the press worldwide.

[“CPJ Holds Its Ninth Annual Awards in NYC,” by Tracey Middlekauff; November 24, 1999; © 1999, News America Digital Publishing, Inc., d/b/a Fox News Online.]

Two thousand years ago, and again and again since, men and women have put themselves on the line to bring the Good News of a great joy to mankind. They too have been beaten, imprisoned, and threatened; in fact for many it has cost them their lives.

I think of Paul in his report to the Corinthians [2 Corinthians 6:4-5]. I recall the accounts preserved for believers in the “Hall of Faith” [Hebrews 11:32-38]. My mind reflects on the lives of the Apostles; men who where reportedly skinned alive, torn asunder, crucified upside down, and decapitated … all after torture and great hardship. Fox’s Book of Martyrs annoys my mind for those who’ve served and suffered and been slain.

But most of all I think on the Son of God who, for the love of God, came bearing Good News … only to be trodden upon, beaten, and crucified for telling the truth: All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God [Romans 3:23]; you must be born again [John 3:3]; and no one comes to the Father but through Me [John 14:6b]. It is a gift of God [Ephesians 2:8].

Christianity, Gospel,
Illustrations, Religion

EVIDENCE - The testimony of our eyes!

NOT WHAT HE SEEMS TO BE! [Matthew 16:15; other topics - Deity, Identity]

I have a unsaved friend, a really good guy, who drives a white pick-up, with a utility conversion instead of a bed … it has several key-entry bins on each side-bank and an overhead rack with ladders and electrical conduit secured to it. Strewn about the open area between the bins are buckets of electrical boxes, used conduit connectors, electrical tools and reels of various gauge non-insulated and insulated wire, both stranded and solid core.

He tries to convince me he’s an electrician, but I’m not fooled … he has to be either a teacher at a local junior college or a chiropractor. He can’t really be a successful contractor … after all, I know his family, I went to high school with him, and I even dated his sister. No way he’s an electrician … no way!

Now you know I’m nuts, right? Why would I do this in the face of all the evidence which says he is what he says he is? Because that’s what my friend does with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

In spite of all the evidence confirming Jesus did the things the Bible claims He did, in spite of the testimony of eye witnesses, in spite of the testimony of millions that He is the Son of God, in spite of the archealogical and historical evidence, in spite of the lives He's changed, my friend still says Jesus was just a religious teacher or a mystic healer. He even insults my Sovereign King by saying, “Regardless of what he was, he certainly was a good man.”

My friend doesn’t understand this makes Jesus, the church fathers, and all God’s witnesses liars and charlatans. So I tell him he’s no electrical contractor, regardless of what he carries in his truck. Nope, he’s no electrician … can’t be!

Adapted from a message by R.G. Lee