Unfinished: Believing is Only the Beginning
Verse
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!” (Isaiah 52:7)
Food for Thought
In the first few months after committing my life to Jesus, I was irrepressible when speaking to others about what I had discovered. I was so excited and eager to share what I had found with those who hadn’t found it. One night I was having a lengthy debate about all of this with a friend who didn’t understand why I was so worked up. As I had been, he was also one of those “what’s true for you may not be true for me” people. So I came up with this example to try to help him understand.
I said, “Imagine that tonight as you drive home, a real UFO appears in the sky ahead of you, and to your shock and dismay, it lands in the road in front of you. You stop the car, quivering in the presence of this astonishing and inexplicable sight. And then an extraterrestrial being actually comes out and walks toward your car. It communicates to you where it is from and why it has come. It tells you to communicate this same information to others and says that someday it will come back. Then it returns to its ship, lifts off, and disappears into the night sky.”
I asked my friend what he would do if that happened to him. I suggested that it would be the defining moment of his life and that he would probably spend the rest of his life telling others what he had seen and heard, whether they believed him or not. I asked him if it wouldn’t change everything. He agreed it probably would. “So,” I said to him, “now you know how I feel about Jesus Christ.”
A person who had the experience of meeting an extraterrestrial as just described would become a changed person. He could no longer wake up and brush his teeth and go to work like other people. He could no longer sit in an office or a classroom all day as if nothing had happened. It would truly change everything. It would change his understanding of reality, his fundamental worldview, and the very meaning, purpose, and mission of his life.
So if a UFO sighting would have such profound implications for someone’s life, what about the appearing in time and space, in human form, of the Creator of the universe? What if this same God-man taught amazing truths, lived a remarkable life, and actually rose from the dead? Might that not also have some implications for life as we know it?
After encountering Jesus, you can’t just go back to your old life. That is not an option. It changes everything.
Question for Reflection
Have you encountered Jesus? If so, how has it changed your life?
Prayer
Father, thank you for pursuing me, for revealing yourself to me. Help me to remember my first excitement in discovering your good news, and to share it with others in word and deed.
Unfinished: Believing is Only the Beginning. Copyright © 2013 by World Vision.