For All to See

By David Sargent       Tom Moore recently wrote about the life of J.C. Hall…     Born to poor parents, J.C. Hall was quickly put to work, mostly in sales, to help keep himself and his family afloat. Along with his brothers, he began selling postcards in Norfolk, Nebraska. But the postcard business wasn’t thriving there. So, with little else than a couple of shoe boxes of postcards, he moved to Missouri to start afresh. Full of innovative ideas, he moved on from postcards to greeting cards. When the store from which he operated burned down in 1915, he and his brothers invested in an engraving business and began printing their own cards.     But it wasn’t just the quality of the cards that burgeoned the business. It was Hall’s groundbreaking idea to move the cards from behind the counters, where clerks would pick an “appropriate” card for the customer, out into display cases where customers could see them, handle them, and admire them.     By the time he died in 1982, Hall had turned two shoe boxes of postcards into a multi-billion dollar company known as Hallmark.     Says the Hallmark corporate website, “J.C. Hall took greeting cards out of drawers in retail stores, and into displays that let shoppers see all their choices, dramatically changing the way cards were merchandised.”     Moore then makes this application:  God did the same thing when He sent Jesus Christ into the world. That’s when the Word of Life was moved from “behind the counters” of prophecy, “out of the drawers” of prediction, and placed in the “display case” of the first century for all the world to see, handle and admire. Today we have this wonderful display of our Lord in the New Testament. *     The Apostle John testified: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life – the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us” (1 John 1:1-2).     God “was put on display” – He became flesh and dwelt among us (incarnated) – so that: ·                   * Man might come to know God more fully (John 1:14,18), ·                   * That we may understand that God knows us all (Hebrews 4:14-16), ·                   * And so that we can be saved through Jesus (Hebrews 2:17-18).     ONLY the sinless Son of God could be the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins which condemn us.  “For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people.” – 1 Timothy 2:5-6 Jesus will save those who accept His offer on His terms by placing their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turning from sin in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confessing Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and being baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  Then, as we walk in the light of His Word, His blood continues to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1:7).     Jesus came into the World for all to see God and the know the Way to “seeing” God for eternity (John 14:6).     Won’t YOU accept His offer of salvation and eternal life by trusting and obeying Him today?

- David A. Sargent, minister for the Church of Christ at Creekwood in Mobile, Alabama, is also the editor of an electronic devotional entitled "Living Water." To learn more about this excellent resource contact David via their website: http://www.creekwoodcc.org * Tom Moore, “For All to See,” 6/27/13, www.fromthepreacherspc.org