Friday, September 12, 2008

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A friend of mine was in the World Trade Center when the planes hit that awful September 11th, and tragically most of the people in his office heeded the announcement that the building was safe and they stayed where they were. My friend grabbed his briefcase and headed down those stairs and as he neared the bottom he saw some of those brave firefighters headed where he had just been. They were there to save lives, but my friend said, “I saw the same fear in their eyes that they must have seen in mine except I was going out and they were coming in.” And that’s what heroes do.

I’m Ron Hutchcraft and it’s interesting how the Bible describes our mission of telling people about Jesus in rescue terms. When Jesus said He had come to, “seek and to save what was lost,” (Luke 19:10 ) He was talking in life-saving terms. Now God gives us a straight forward command, “Snatch others from the fire and save them” (Jude 23 ). Now what’s the big reason we don’t give people what we know about Jesus? Well isn’t it fear? They might reject me, they won’t like me, they’ll ridicule me, I might mess it up? Well there’s one thing in common with all our fears—they’re all about me.

Rescue is all about them; the people who will die forever if I don’t get to them with the message their eternity depends on. Like those rescuers on that September 11th, I’ll probably always have the fear, but rescuers go in anyway because there’s something worse than what might happen to me if I go in. It’s what will happen to them if I don’t. See courage is not the absence of fear; it is the disregard of it. I will no longer let my fear decide what I do, not when there is a life at stake—and there is.

Our website is to help you be a rescuer, ALifeThatMatters.org, because God put you here to live a life that matters.

This radio program references: Luke 19:10 ; Jude 23