Jesus, The Center and Substance Of Our Communication

I'm sitting here in the library at Pagosa Springs, CO. with my laptop, waiting while my wife volunteers to re-stack books. As I sit here perusing my email I came upon one ad urging us Christians to be more active on the internet. The site I refer to is called Internet Evangelism Day. They've just sent me another of their monthly bulletins, this time inviting me to join a conference up in Grand Rapids, MI. the middle of October. I'm interested, but find that I'll be out of town and not available when the conference happens. Nevertheless, I do believe that we Christians are only beginning to learn how to make use of this priceless tool to reach millions around the world. 

In doing a Google search I came across an organization called World Association for Christian Communications. Here's a quote from them: 

"Information and communication are drastically changing the world. Instead of establishing solidarity, public communication tends to reinforce divisions, widening the gap between rich and poor, consolidating oppression and distorting reality in order to maintain the status quo. Yet communication remains God's great gift to humanity, without which citizens cannot be truly human, reflecting 'God's image’. Nor can they enjoy living together in groups, communities and societies steeped in different cultures and different ways of life without communication."

Information has always changed our world. As the quote says, "public communication tends to reinforce divisions." I'm not sure I know what the authors of the site mean by public communication. I assume they refer to communication available to anyone, like a newspaper or TV broadcast. So I see political parties pushing their own particular agendas as we approach yet another presidential election. This communication is not uniting our country, by any means. We are living with various tensions as we approach the problems facing us as a nation. 

And the information is usually skewed to whatever views the communicators hold. 

All this posits quite a challenge for those of us who seek to communicate the Gospel. How shall we best do this so that the Holy Spirit of God may use our words to convey the Word of God to the hearts and lives of those who happen to read, see or hear our communications? I see a variety of answers to that question popping up in the Christian community. 

I offer yet another. My answer is that we who are Christians must be absolutely certain that we understand what that Word of God is. There is vast confusion among us about that issue, especially in a day and age when the Holy Scriptures are not universally reverenced and respected in the Christian community. 

I invite you to ponder one Scripture quote from the English Standard Version: 

"The Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life" (John 5:37-40). 

You may be a pious student of the Scriptures. You may even believe them inspired word for word, in contrast to what many Christians understand these days. But if you are like the Jewish leaders and teachers of Jesus' day who rejected Him as their personal Messianic King and Savior, you really have nothing to communicate. My point remains fairly simple and to the point. Before you can call yourself a Christian communicator you must have a personal faith relationship with Jesus, God's very Word communicated to us. And how did God speak to us? In the life of Jesus, in His miracles and teachings and above all, in His sacrificial death upon the cross of Calvary and His totally surprising return from the dead. This same living Christ continues to communicate to us through the Scriptures and through the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 

Not only do the Scriptures bear witness to Jesus as the Christ, but we ourselves must ever make Him the center and substance of everything we communicate.