Cooperative Redemption?

Greetings All,


Part of our covenant as a men's group is to read the same devotional every day. The one we have chosen for this past year is This Day with the Master by Dr. Dennis F. Kinlaw. It has been a wonderful read for spiritual provocation, that is it really makes you thinks at times and November 2nd was one of those times. He is a marvelous story teller and that day was the continuation of a story that had begun the day previous about Robert Morrison, a man who had been called to the mission field of China years ago but was driven out time and again. Morrison ended up translating the Bible into Chinese from a Portuguese colony called Macao where he died.
The story picked up on the 2nd with Dr. Kinlaw standing above Morrison's grave remembering a previous trip to China where the government had aloud four churches to open. In the one that he was at there was a Bible study with over 300 attendees, all of whom were benefiting from the tireless translation efforts of Mr. Morrison. These folks and thousands before had come into a relationship with Christ because they had access to the truth of the Scriptures in their own language. Kinlaw closes the story with a curious statement, "Everybody's redemption begins in somebody else."

Wow, what a statement! It really makes one think about the impact of their life and the way they are living it, well at least it made me think and that is why I am sharing it today. It is never the case that we can "save" anyone, it is by grace and grace alone that we are saved, but we can make sure we live in such a way to make it easy for others to believe in Jesus. Someone's future redemption may begin in the way in which we love them today. Someone finding hope amidst a life of sorrow and depression may be the way we bring them fleeting moments of joy through a smile, our acceptance, or the time we invest in them. Someone may be struggling to truly understand God when they can't see Him, but they do see Him in the daily interactions we have with them as we live to share His love with others.
As we begin the day, let us consider all of the people we will encounter. Any one of those people's redemption could begin with one of us! Will we make sure that we live in such a way to make that possible?

Your brother in Christ,
Faron