THE ESSENCE OF THE MESSAGE

When I think of the essence of [the Christian witness], I always think of the blind man that Jesus healed by covering his eyes with mud and telling him to go wash in the pool of Siloam (John 9:1-34). When the religious leaders got wind of it, they started to question the man extensively -- wanting to know who healed him, how it happened, where the man who healed him was now, and even asking his parents to verify whether their son was in fact born blind. When they came back to the man and pressed him with questions a second time, accusing Jesus of being a sinner for doing work on the Sabbath, the man replied, “I don't know whether He is a sinner… But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!” (John 9:25 NLT)

That's the essence of the message: “I was blind, and now I can see; I was lost and now I am found; I was guilty and now I'm forgiven; I was alone and now I have a friend.” It doesn't take a perfect life to spread that message -- just someone who has had an eye-opening encounter with the living Christ. Regardless of intellect, position, status or wealth, the message for everyone will come down to this: “I was blind, and now I can see.”

-- John Fischer in The Purpose Driven Life Daily Devotionals, 6/21/05


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GETTING CAUGHT

Soren Kierkegaard said that most of us read the Bible the way a mouse tries to remove the cheese from the trap without getting caught.  Some of us have mastered that.  We read the story as though it were about someone else a long time ago; that way we don't get caught.  But if we see the Bible as the story of the triumph of God's grace, the story of God searching for us, then look out.  The story will come alive.  God will find us and we will know that we are found.

-- Maxie Dunnam in Living the Psalms

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