Thursday 17th
Isaiah 52:7
NIV – ‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”’
ESV – ‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”’
‘I love to tell the story of unseen things above.’
Kate Hankey – RH 287
We all love a good story, and we probably all like to tell a good story, but the greatest story to tell or to hear is the story of Jesus and his glory, the story that offers hope and if responded to brings salvation to the lost souls of men and women. I wonder how often we have sung this hymn, maybe for us that are older we would respond countless times, but having sung the words ‘I love to tell the story’ I wonder how often we have told it? Maybe often when we have talked about it among those who are fellow believers, but how about how often have we told it to those who still need to hear it, those who are at this moment still heading to a lost eternity, without Christ and without hope.
Now I am challenging myself as well today, I too can often be guilty of knowing the story and the wonder of what it means to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord and yet not be very quick to share it. There are a few verses of Scripture in the Old Testament that record of a time when the city of Samaria had been besieged by the Syrians, and outside of the city were four lepers who made this comment. ‘Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.”’
On entering the city, they discovered that the Syrians had gone, and so they began to enjoy themselves plundering whatever they could, after a while the Scripture says that they said to each other ‘“We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king’s household.”’ (2 Kings 7)
Likewise, for us who have come to taste and to see that the Lord is good, who have come to enjoy all the blessings and the benefits of Calvary, this is the day of good news, and sadly perhaps too often we are silent, there is a world outside, neighbours, friends and family who need to hear the old, old story of Jesus and his love. May we by God’s grace and with the enabling help of the Holy Spirit look for opportunities to tell the story, look for those moments when something said or done can lead us into finding ways to tell the story of Jesus and of how that story has also changed our story. After all there were we but for the grace of God, and in the words of a song we had a couple of weeks ago, ‘I’m only a sinner saved by grace’ but as a sinner that has been saved by grace I know, and you know how wonderful the old, old story is. We will have a similar theme tomorrow.
I love to tell the story of unseen things above,
Of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love;
I love to tell the story, because I know ’tis true,
It satisfies my longings as nothing else would do.
I love to tell the story,
’Twill be my theme in glory,
To tell the old, old story
Of Jesus and His love.
I love to tell the story, more wonderful it seems
Than all the golden fancies of all our golden dreams;
I love to tell the story, it did so much for me,
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.
I love to tell the story, ’tis pleasant to repeat,
What seems each time I tell it more wonderfully sweet;
I love to tell the story, for some have never heard
The message of salvation from God’s own holy Word.
I love to tell the story, for those who know it best
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest;
And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song,
’Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.