Week 19—Friday 2 Corinthians 4:4-6
2 Corinthians 4:4-6
“JESUS HAS GOT INTO YOUR BLOOD”
We linger on the preaching which is essentially witnessing. That which is to reach the heart must come from the heart. Deep must speak to deep.
A student came to me one day in India and said, “Sir, tell me how to find God.” I took the Bible and began to go through it pointing out the passages which pointed the way to find God. In the midst of it he leaned over, closed the book in my hand, and said, “Now, sir, you tell me how you found God.” It was a real challenge, so I told him how I found God, or rather how God had found me and my response. At the close he said, “Thank you, that’s what I want.” Of course, we cannot close the Bible, for from its pages is revealed Jesus who is the Way—the Way to the Father. But unless the truth in the Bible becomes truth in the blood, it is bloodless truth, anemic and ineffective.
“Jesus has got into your blood, hasn’t he?” said a Hindu one day to me. “Yes,” I said, “and I hope he has raised my temperature.” Another Hindu said to me: “I’ve read the Acts of the Apostles, said there seems to be a strange power at work in the lives of the people there—have you got that power in your life?” That was a good question and legitimate, for he wanted to know if the word of the Acts had become flesh in me. The account says that “the high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching” (John 18:19). Note the order—disciples first and teaching second. The first inquiry is about the disciples—has the word he is teaching become flesh in them? We are the first Bibles people read. If they like the samples, they go on to the real thing. “One seeing is worth a hundred hearings,” is an Eastern proverb.
O God, you who showed yourself through your only Son in Whom the Word became flesh, will you make one of the least of your children, even me, in some real way the Word become flesh again? For having seen it, I seek it. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Hindu observation: “Christians are ordinary people making extraordinary claims.” Am I one?