Blog # 53 PREACH THE GOSPEL

Blog # 53 PREACH THE GOSPEL Years ago while visiting some friends in Texas I took some time off and walked from Mount Vernon to Mount Pleasant, a distance of eighteen miles. What a different perspective you get from the one you absorb when driving along at fifty-five miles an hour! That day as I walked I thought of the words of Jesus, "Preach the Gospel". The bulk of Jesus' travels were on foot. In His day, it took a long time and great effort to go from Jerusalem to Jericho and back to Capernaum. Jesus knew the world from the perspective of a pedestrian. To cover eighteen miles on foot takes a long time, and you might meet only twenty-six people for a short "Hello!" along the way. The words of Jesus to preach the Gospel to all the world took on a new dimension that day in Texas. It was easy to realize what determination must have been His, the depth of His desire, and the seriousness of His love and His command. It seems that with so much a our disposal, such ease and speed that is ours for getting from place to place around the world we should be able to tell all people of the Father's love in a short period of time if we so desire. I think that if we really caught the meaning and value of Jesus' command to preach to the entire world we would have already been to all those places where Jesus is still unknown many times over, preaching by our word and by our lives that God is our Father, that God loves us all, and that we are brothers and sisters, called to be one Body, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Yet Christians are still a minority of the world's population and we remain divided in our interpetations of Jesus' message .