Monday, March 29, 2021

One Solitary Life

Have you ever considered the impact that this one person made in our world?



He was born in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty when public opinion turned against him

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never traveled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born

He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself
He was only thirty three

His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth

When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of mankind's progress

All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of mankind on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life

Dr. James Allan Francis 1926

Our world is a messed up place but it would be so much worse if it wasn't for the influence of this one solitary life. Before Jesus stepped into our world the evil, barbaric condition of mankind was so much worse, we think it is bad now but injustice and hate were at much higher levels in society before Jesus than we have today.

He didn't have a blog or social media, he didn't have a talk show or become a star in Hollywood and he certainly wasn't a politician but his influence on our world is huge. Maybe you have never considered how much different the world would be without him.

It makes me wonder why we spend so much time listening to the people that have any of those things going for them. The people that read the news to us or sing songs or play games in sports or politics are nobody special.

So many of them think that they have the answers and we need to hear what they are because they are special and they are enlightened. We allow these people to elevate themselves and pretend to be relevant to the latest social issues that the media is focusing on. 

The problem with these enlightened people is they are here today and gone tomorrow and then they are replaced by a new group of enlightened people that are supposed to be more relevant than the previous ones. As Pastor Timothy Keller once said, todays wise people always think themselves to be wiser that the ones before the.

Wouldn't we be better off if we found out what this one man said and did? 

He made some outrageous claims that should not be ignored because if they are true then we will be in serious trouble. God wants us to dig into his word so we can understand who Jesus is and what he has done for those that believe.