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Keep Saying It.
I walk Frenchie every night. About 30 minutes. Happy Bear is too small and young to go that far and that long. During our nightly jaunts around the neighborhood, I like to do something productive with my time. Usually, I listen to a sermon or some Bible teaching on a downloaded app. But last night I decided to review some of my memory cards, so, I pulled two at random from my stack:
“How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, “Your God reigns” (Isaiah 52:7)
“Thus says the Lord, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’ And I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.” (Jeremiah 6:16-17)
As I walked along the streets, refreshing my memory with those texts, the Lord stopped me – quite literally. Frenchie looked back at me, probably wondering why we stopped walking.
As we stood there, the Lord connected the dots between those two random verses. The passage in Isaiah speaks of the many pastors and evangelists and plain old ordinary Christians like you and me who share with others the good news of Christ’s substitutionary atonement for our sins. We tell them they can spend eternity with heaven and enjoy a fulfilling and purposeful life in the here and now.
Some receive that wonderful and comforting news. But most are like those in that text from Jeremiah: “We will not walk in it. We will not listen.”
Christian – Your feet might be snarly and calloused and altogether unattractive. Even the best of pedicures can’t fix them. But God – but God thinks your feet are beautiful when you announce to others the gospel message . . . even if they come back at you and say, “We will not walk that way. We will not listen.”
Don’t give up. Keep telling others what Christ means to you. We may never know this side of the grave what the Holy Spirit will do with your words. Remember this promise of God: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11)
Richard Maffeo was born into a Jewish home in the early 1950s. In 1972 he discovered Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, and he dove into his awakened faith with a passion that continues to this present day. He has written three books, writes a blog, and teaches several bible studies each week at 55+ communities. You can find his blog at www.inhimonly.blogspot.com. You can find him on Facebook by searching for his name.
Richard and his wife Nancy are married more than 50 years. They have three grown children.
