ST. LOUIS — “Everyone with whom we come in contact — if they’re still breathing — maybe God is keeping them alive so that we can share the Gospel with them,” said Dr. Thomas Zehnder in his Bible study today (July 14) at the 62nd Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
A retired pastor, missionary and district president who lives in Williamsburg, Va., Zehnder focused his Bible study on “Ablaze in One Mission by Sharing the Hope of Christ.”
He traced the story of salvation back to Adam and Eve and brought it into eternity. “Sin and death could have been the end of man,” Zehnder said, “but God gave them the promise of a Redeemer. … Even our running first parents ran with a sense of hope.
“For us today,” Zehnder said, “it starts with the critical event — one Christian sharing their hope in Christ with someone else — and it comes to glorious fruition in the halls of heaven,” he said.
He said God uses the witness of imperfect people to witness to the hope in salvation in Christ — “even cantankerous Lutherans like you and me.”
“We are called to share the Gospel with all people,” he said, “and that includes people of your own congregation. … We just never know who needs to hear the hope of the Gospel, even the ones we might think least need to hear it.”
Posted July 14, 2004
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