come

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  2 Timothy 4:7

  

Our eyes are on athletes competing in the Olympics in one part of the world, and in our celebrating we have nearly forgotten that war rages in another. While communities look for answers and families grieve the loss of their high school children in Florida, whole countries continue to fight against drought, starvation and unspeakable poverty, and Billy Graham slips quietly from this world into eternity.  Perhaps more than ever before we need to remember the message he was compelled to share:  "Come to Jesus." Just this. For the weary, waiting, broken, alone, worn out and empty, "Come." 

Today, our news feed will fill with accolades about his faithful ministry.  And rightly so. In a world where the lives of religious leaders are often marked by scandal, his life remained untouched by it.  In a world where the prevailing message is ‘live for self’, he lived for others.  He gave.  He served.  He relentlessly pursued the purposes of God and proclaimed the good news of the gospel. 

He lived through a century characterized by more rapid social, technological and political change than at any other time in history, yet the message he shared was not altered by popular opinion, or changed with the times.

  

It was simply this:  You are loved - a message for every person, without exception. Sin separates us from a holy God, but there is good news.  Jesus came to show us a way back to the Father, to provide forgiveness and new life in Him.  He died so we never have to. 

Second, you just have now.  Time does run out.  None of us know how long we have to live. There is an urgency to the message of Christ.  It demands a response, and nothing less than our wholehearted surrender.

Billy Graham passed away today, and what a worship celebration he must be part of.  A dear friend of our family used to prepare us when he was living, that one day we would read about him in the obituaries.  All solemn and serious, he warned us that the newspaper column would say he had died.  Then, he would announce with all the intensity of feeling his gravelly voice could muster:  “Oh, but don’t you believe it!  I will be more alive than I have ever been!”

This is the heart of the gospel, the message of Easter.  Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good, or to make good people better.  He came to make dead people alive.  Life to the full, here and now is available to us.  Life forevermore in the presence of God is offered through Jesus.  Death does not have the last word. 

“I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.” John 5:24

“He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.” Revelation 21:4

I have an arrow necklace that reminds me about the story of God.  At times I do need reminding.  I am especially prone to be distracted by busyness.  I can also find myself thinking that my life is somehow all about me.  The arrow reminds me that God has authored an eternal love story.  It shoots straight through the pages of scripture and calls out to me to live in response to what God has done through Christ, to bring Him glory by daring to find my purpose, by finding my place, on the arrow.  It is just not more complicated than that. 

“A line stretches out as far as the mind can imagine, with no end in sight.  This is the unending story of our God, who ran after us to make us his children.  Our pixel of a life, one dot of his eternal arrow.” Jennie Allen, Restless

I wonder who will carry the message of hope through Jesus, to this next generation.  Who will look deep into the eyes of the hurting and broken, and say with the love of Christ, ‘You are loved and you are worth Jesus to God’.  It is a message the world needs more than ever.  The time certainly is short.  What we do with our one life matters and only heaven can measure the impact of one life fully surrendered to Him.  So today, the only one I am sure to have, I choose to be surrendered to the purpose of God, to speak truth, to bring hope, to come.  Just as I am.

Goliath Must Fall, Louie Giglio