For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Even when the Cross is preached with power it does not mean everyone will believe. People still divide over this message. It is possible, thank God, to be saved through it; but it is also possible to ‘perish’ if we reject it.

Towards the end of last week I spent two very happy days in Wigan, along with my sisters. We spent many of our formative years in the Wigan area, and  had long-planned this trip down ‘memory lane.’  For me, it was where I became a Christian as a child, and where I felt the call to Christian ministry as a teenager. It was where my experience of church came richly alive in my teen years. I recognised during these two days how much Wigan is ‘in’ me. I realise I owe a debt of gratitude to many people who lived and worked and worshipped there – not least my lovely parents.

However, on the train journeys, I heard and saw things around me that reminded me how much  the gospel is needed in our godless society. How far, it seems, people are drifting from the shores of Christianity. Some appear so far out to sea that we might wonder how they could ever be reached. As I thought about this I realised two clear things:

  1. God can do anything. He can reach anyone He chooses. If He could apprehend a Saul of Tarsus He can arrest anyone in their tracks. But also:
  2. If these various groups of people had a Christian friend among them: someone they liked ( even loved) and respected, who was prepared to live and speak the gospel – then who knows what God might not do through that person?

You, and I, might be that person in some lost individual’s world.

Prayer: Lord, here I am wholly available