As a Dallas resident, I have visited the Sixth Floor Museum many times. It is located where, according to the Warren Commission, Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.
Conspiracy theories continue to generate debate more than fifty years after the tragedy. Were the Soviets involved? The Mafia? The Cubans? The CIA?
Now the controversy has erupted anew with President Trump’s weekend announcement that he does not plan to block the scheduled release of thousands of documents related to the assassination. These documents include 3,000 that have never been seen by the public and more than 30,000 that have been previously released but were redacted. Barring new information, the documents will be released this Thursday.
If you could prove conclusively that someone other than Oswald killed President Kennedy, your discovery would make global headlines. But how would it change our lives today?
On a more practical level, imagine that you could develop a vaccine that would prevent every form of cancer or heart disease. You would instantly become one of the most famous and celebrated figures in history.
But every human being will eventually die of something unless Jesus returns first (Hebrews 9:27).
The most important news ever announced is a message you know well. You have heard it all your Christian life. If Jesus is your Lord, this message led you to him and to eternal life. It is so simple that a child can understand it and so powerful that it transforms every person who believes and lives by its truth.
Paul was adamant: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
Here’s the catch: to reach lost people, we must love lost people.
Over the weekend, I was reading in the Book of Acts and came to an event I’d like to explore with you this morning. Acts 19 finds Paul and his ministry team in Ephesus, where he lectured every day for two years (vv. 8–10). A riot then broke out instigated by idol-makers whose trade was threatened by his message.
The city’s chief administrator quieted the massive crowd, then chastised the Ephesians for revolting against “men who are neither sacrilegious nor blasphemers of our goddess” (v. 37). Even though their city was the center of the Diana cult and the scandalous immorality it promoted, Paul did not demean their religion. He simply spoke biblical truth and “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks” (v. 10).
Paul was more focused on winning souls than winning arguments. He knew that every person he met would spend eternity either with God in heaven or separated from him in hell. He knew that the gospel was the only message that could save their eternal souls.
And he loved the lost people of Ephesus because he loved the God who loves the world.
Are Christians in our culture more known for what we’re for or for what we’re against? Max Lucado: “Those in the circle of Christ had no doubt of his love; those in our circles should have no doubt about ours.”
Would you ask the Holy Spirit to give you God’s love for every person you encounter today?
Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons
Publication date: October 23, 2017
For more from the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture, please visit www.denisonforum.org.
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