060820 Steeple Article "News for All"

Yesterday Annemarie and I met with a dear Elder in our conference, Nadine Walters, who witnesses as a missionary in Mexico during the summers and does accounting and tax returns for churches and ministers the rest of the year. She told of how she has been sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ for many years.
Luke tells us in Acts 5:42 that after the day of Pentecost “Every day in the Temple and in people's homes they continued to teach and preach the Good News about Jesus the Messiah”. Nadin’s missionary friends came to one of the secluded Indian villages in Mexico years ago and won the trust of those people slowly by making a home and living as the natives. A year later they were ready to hear the gospel.
Rustico Canillo of the Philippines shared his faith with a 70-year-old Christian friend who had given up hope for recovering from kidney failure. Rustico reminded his friend that Christians can look forward to eternal life through Jesus Christ, which encouraged him to want to hear more. The idea of eternal life was recent news for him.” Hope radiated from his friend’s face and joy gleamed from his eyes as Rustico continued to share Jesus' message of life eternal from John 3:16. After all those years of knowing that person the friend said, "I have never heard such good news of eternal life." This amazed others present in the hospital since they assumed that this person was already familiar with God's promise of life eternal through Jesus Christ. Everyone felt deep compassion for this friend who had never really heard the Good News of Christ before.
Romans 10:17 says that Faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. Josefita mailed a copy of El Aposento Alto (the Spanish edition of The Upper Room) from her Argentina home to her cousin in Spain. He called her the next week to thank her for the magazine. It was through that resource that he came to know Christ. At a bookstore in Madrid he subscribed to the magazine for himself and also asked where he could obtain is own Bible. Someone there gave him information about a church in the town where he lives. The church gave him a New Testament. Josefita’s cousin took his wife and several neighbors to the church, and all have given their lives to Christ."
If we obediently pass on messages of hope and devotionals from the Upper Room, who knows what wonders God will accomplish. Maybe some of you receiving this message will come and fellowship with us during Sunday morning worship and during our other activities.
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, give us courage to readily share our faith with others. In Jesus' name we pray. Teach us to share the Good News of Christ today. Thank You for making us a community of faith united by God's love around the world. May the hearts of the readers of this article be open to your voice of love. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Ron