What Our Country and the World Really Needs
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” – John 3:14-18.
In 1874, one of the first Baptist missionaries to minister to the Plains Indians, arrived at what is now Anadarko, Oklahoma. On that day when the missionaries’ first message was preached (John 3:16 was the text.), some of those present still had human scalps hanging from their belts. Over the course of years, many of those Indians received Christ as their Savior.
Bruce Catton, a great Civil War historian and scholar, once gave a speech entitled “What 1861 Has to Say to 1961.” The point was that the problem, which was the nature of people, was the same in 1861 as it was in 1961. It is the same today. We still have crime, violence, substance abuse, wars, starvation, and on and on; which arise from the same source as in the past. Human nature has not changed. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).” Sin is not without consequence, and we continue to see the reaping of its evil harvest.
The solution is the same today as it was in 1874. The answer has been the same for almost 2000 years. The answer is Jesus! The transforming, resurrecting, earthquaking power of Jesus, is alive and well today in the hearts of all believers. The same power, that transformed mighty American Indian warriors into gentle servants of God in 1874, is still available today. We must have the same courageous boldness of those early missionaries, who risked their lives to tell the unlovable about the love of Jesus.
Have you shared Jesus with your neighbor, your friend, your relative, or with someone God brings across your path? How about your enemies, have you shared Jesus with them, have you prayed for them, cried for their salvation?
Jesus is the only hope and the only answer for the problems of this world.
(We can change our leaders and withdraw from the world scene, but the fact will still remain that we really need is Jesus. -Originally written and sent 07.31.98 – Rewritten for today.)