This is the sign to you (1)
-by Patrick Burwell of OnlyJesusSaves.com
I pass a lot of signs.
For a week, recently, I had passed a road sign that made me chuckle each time I came to it. The sign was placed there to warn drivers of a pattern change in the road ahead. But there isn't enough room for all the words to be spelled out completely so it reads, "Pat Hamb TPKE Closed". Now, I realize, being the humble sort of fellow that I am, that this sign wasn't really a personal message to let me know the road I might want isn't available - but hey - it made me laugh. And each time I saw the sign it also made me think about my reaction.
The pleasant way these articles come to fruition is that they nearly always begin small. I will spot something or hear something that makes me think, like a "sign" that gets my attention, and then I can tell what's coming, that I will soon have something new to write about. And when this itch happens again, I file it away, pondering the "stringer" thoughts I get about the subject. It's fun, but sometimes I get so excited I can't sleep until I get it down clearly.
This time it was 3 am when I started...
So why is it that we expect God should just give use a big, blinking, 20 foot sign, in the middle of the road if he wants us to know something important? Is it because He's God? Is it because we know He can make His message clear if He wants to? I've actually had people say to me, "If God wants me He knows where to find me! He doesn't need YOU to tell me!"
Ah. There it is. We think we can't be bothered.
But Jesus says that only a fool requires a sign (2) from God. "It is a wicked and perverse generation that seeks a sign"(4):
But that personal "sign" is exactly what God gave all of us.
Not only did God give us a clear sign but the Creator of the “ALL” that is delivered the sign personally (3) just to be sure we got the message.
So that last road sign really got me thinking.
And, as I kept thinking about it, I watched the Jimmy Neutron Christmas episode with my younger son Ryan (a dad has to do these things you know). While I watched I noted this Christmas show never even mentioned the name of Jesus once! I hadn't actually expected otherwise, this is the world after all, but the producers had completely missed the sign of the birth of Jesus. Jesus was given by God for mankind's salvation; a “big blinking 20-foot road sign” of His Will for us; for all to see! But the makers of this children's cartoon couldn't even mention Jesus in this episode dedicated to Christmas time?
Now, I realize we're all pretty dense at times. I have learned that as I speak to people I have to "swing to the spiritual" deliberately in order to get to God's Message with them. Did you get that? In the most free country in the entire WORLD, the United States of America, a country that is free because it is founded on Christian standards, nearly everyone I speak to is so ashamed of Jesus they will not approach just spiritual matters in a conversation, unless it's to talk about the occult or something evil someone else has done. And what makes it even worse is that the professing Christians often whisper and furtively look around when I mention Jesus. I actually have had children say to me that it is against the law to speak of Jesus on school grounds!!! WHAT??? How FAR we have fallen as a nation!
True, there isn't one guy on this earth who doesn't need his wife to tell him where his keys are. And sometimes I do see my own wife start to reach for the softball bat when she mentions the trash needs to be taken out. But taking the very name of Jesus out of His own birthday is just beyond dense, and I know dense!
God's road sign was clearly placed right in the middle of the road. And just to be sure the real hard heads don't miss it, He even sends people like me right into your path to personally tell you about the Good Will He has for you.
God cannot get any clearer and still be considered fair to everyone else.
So, you, Christian, you think God doesn't need you? Think again! You might just be that special personal messenger someone will hear; that “sign in the road” with their name on it, to explain God's Salvation, for someone to be rescued from Yahweh's anger over their sin.
Just be sure you do it right! Don't soft-pedal the truth. Use the Law to explain sin, and the need for forgiveness to every hard heart, and then, and only then, declare God's love if they have humbled themselves. You'll know who the humble are as they don't try to justify their sin to you.
I had that opportunity to personalize the Gospel for
Caesar and
Ed the Bus driver. I used the Law, the Ten Commandments, to explain what their sin is, how they have angered God, and what their just reward is. And then, when I saw they stopped trying to justify themselves, I explained just how gracious God truly is. Caesar understood it, surprised at how simple the message was, and Ed the bus driver was actually stunned to silence by God's love; a love he said he acknowledged he just didn't deserve, seeing himself in the mirror of the Law.
Jesus is one sign no one can afford to miss so proclaim His message boldly, if you are His. But if Jesus does not know you then READ the sign carefully; being sure you consider the cost of ignoring the warning signs any further.
Patrick Burwell
OnlyJesusSaves.com
Footnotes:
(1) Luke 2:12 This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a feeding trough.
(2) Matthew 16:1 And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.
(3) John 1:3 "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made."
(4) Matthew 16:4 "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign"
.If you do not desire to deliver the lost from Hell, then whose are you?.
.For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.
To learn how to share your faith biblically, simply and effectively begin
here.
All WayoftheMaster.com and Livingwaters.com materials and media are under copyright protection.
Email this blog
