Saved By The Blood
Dear Champions,
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.
Earnest Gordon was a prisoner of war in Thailand in a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp. He wrote a book titled, Through the Valley of the Kiwi. One day the POWs were out working, and at the end of the day a guard shouted that a shovel was missing. He insisted that someone had stolen it. Striding up and down before the men the guard ranted and raved while screaming in broken English that the guilty one needed to step forward to take his punishment. No one moved. The guard's rage reached new heights of violence. "Then all die," he shrieked. To show that he meant what he said he cocked his rifle, put it on his shoulder, and he aimed at the first man in the rank prepared to shoot and work his way down the line. At that moment a soldier from the Argyle regiment stepped forward and said calmly, "I did it."
The guard unleashed all his whipped up hate. He kicked the helpless prisoner and beat him with his fist. Still the Argyle stood rigidly to attention though blood was streaming all down his face. His calm silence seemed to goad the guard into greater rage. He seized his raffle by the barrow and brought it down onto the skull of the prisoner who sank limply to the ground and never moved again. Though it was perfectly clear he was dead the guard continued to beat him and stopped only when he was exhausted. The men on the work detail picked up their comrades body and marched back to camp. When the tools were counted again at the guardhouse, it turned out that no shovel was missing.
The soldier was innocent. He knew that if he didn't step forward all of these other people would have died, so he saved them by his blood.
The meaning of history is that we have a God who offers His own blood to save us! Jesus died on the cross for our sins!
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
Posts
