Our theme for the month of December is: OUR GIFT TO GOD’S WORLD. CHRIST IS GOD’S GIFT TO US, AND WE ARE GOD’S GIFT TO THE WORLD. Have you ever thought of yourself as a gift to those around you? It is thoughts like this that can change the trajectory of a person’s life.
I was sitting in a major airport one day and overheard a younger man and an older man talking quantum physics. It turned out that they were on a trip together. The younger man was asking questions that he felt only the older man could help him understand. The older gentleman was his professor and a scholar of the highest order. I did not understand anything they were talking about, but the younger man was intense as he asked one question right after another. The older man did not disappoint. It was the disciple and the master in an airport terminal, and it was as good a place as any to learn. The younger man was making the most of his every moment, and the old professor was happy to oblige his curiosity.
I learned a wonderful lesson that day in an hour or so before we boarded the plane to distant destinations and destinies. The young student’s ravenous hunger for knowledge could only be satisfied by the one on one he had with his teacher, and for him, it was prime time. What he was learning that day in regard to quantum physics could have been answered for future generations. He could have become an answer to issues of his day that could only be answered by someone who had paid a dear price to ask the right questions. That being the case, he could have become a gift to his generation.
With this in mind, I am not at all hesitant to suggest that God’s gift to the world was His only begotten son. For God so loved the world He gave his one and only son, who paid the price required to give us eternal life. It did not stop there, for His life was the Light of men. This being the case then it is our privilege to become Christ’s gift to others just as He was the Father’s gift to the confused and fallen world around us.
I had a friend who took this commission seriously. One day we were our evangelizing and speaking to everyone we came in contact with about Christ. He asked the manager of a gasoline station if he was a Christian. The man looked at him with a none of your business sober stare and said, “Yes, I am.” My friend waded right on into his stare and said, “ Well, if you are a Christian, then why don’t you pray for me?” It stopped the man in his tracks and put him on the spot. At that point my friend grabbed his hand and prayed for him right on the spot. It is friends like this that made me realize that we are, as I have said, “CHRIST’S GIFT TO GOD’S WORLD.”
When we came here, there was a family that lived in a high rise in downtown Cincinnati. The hus-band would get up in the morning, and his mission was to pass out Gospel tracks all over downtown, at bus stops, cafe’s, and public restrooms. People would take them and read them.
He was a tall man with white hair. He wore a suit every day and was very dignified in his style and manner. Only God can count how many seeds he planted and how many people came to Christ as a result of reading those well-placed tracks.
A young man in Chicago told of a man who spoke to him about his soul while riding on the “L”. He went home and told his mother about it, she told him, “I hope you told him it was none of his business.” The boy replied, “ Mom, if you could have seen the look in his eyes, you would have known it was his business.” The determination of Christ to fulfill His mission should be rivaled by our passion to know Him and to make Him known. We should be like the young quantum physics student whose curiosity could only be satisfied by his teacher. It is our calling to be able to give an answer to every man for the hope we have within us. Our hope is not only in this world. It is a transcendent hope that is motivated by the promise of eternal life. You are a gift to our lives and the people around you. It is because of your love for God that we are able to keep on keeping on.
We depend on your prayers for the staff of the Church and the Academy. We are thankful for your continued and unequaled faith in us as a team. Our desire is to be a gift to you as we work together to redeem the time in the hour in which we live. As a result of not being able to see all of you, as we each have to deal with Covid-19, we want you to know that you are in our prayers, and we are with you in spirit. Please do not hesitate to call and let us know if you have any needs that we can help you with.
I believe in you,
PASTOR CLEDDIE KEITH