If The News Is Good You Share It...
shawn beaty
George Sweeting, in his book “The No-Guilt Guide for Witnessing,” tells of a man by the name of John Currier who in 1949 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison. Later he was transferred and paroled to work on a farm near Nashville, Tennessee.
In 1968, Currier’s sentence was terminated, and a letter bearing the good news was sent to him. But John never saw the letter, nor was he told anything about it. Life on that farm was hard and without promise for the future. Yet John kept doing what he was told even after the farmer for whom he worked had died.
Ten years went by. Then a state parole officer learned about Currier’s plight, found him, and told him that his sentence had been terminated. He was a free man.
Sweeting concluded that story by asking, “Would it matter to you if someone sent you an impor- tant message -- the most important in your life -- and year after year the urgent message was never delivered?” (Adapted from Our Daily Bread, November 6, 1994.)
John Currier obviously saw other people living in freedom. They were setting an example for him on how to live in freedom. But what he needed were the words which would tell him HOW he could be free, and there was only one source for that.
We who have heard the good news and experienced freedom through Christ are responsible to pro- claim it to others still enslaved by sin. Are we doing all we can to make sure that people get the message?