And Speaking For The Defense..........

Last November my husband and I attended the National Conference on Christian Apologetics in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were priviledged to hear some of the foremost defenders of the faith......Josh and Sean McDowell, John Ankerberg, Norman Geisler, Chuck Colson. However, it was the speaker my husband heard on the journey home that made the greatest impact.

We had stopped for a visit at my son's home in South Carolina. It was there on a Sunday morning that my husband, ever inquisitive, decided to attend the nearby community church. The story he told upon his return stirred me from within.

He said it was a humble church. It wasn't an architectural achievement like the building we had just visited in Charlotte. Many of the congregation would not have been welcomed in some churches. They appeared to be the outcasts of religious society. Before beginning his message, the pastor asked if anyone had a special song they wanted to sing. A young lady stood up. Her physical appearance was that of someone familiar with street life. With head downcast and looking no one in the face, she stepped from the pew and walked to the front of the church. She carried with her a grocery bag filled with what seemed to be her belongings. When she reached the front, she sat the sack down and opened a hymnal. She began to read these words:

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

With her head still bowed, she concluded by saying "I thank Jesus that He saved me".


God spoke to my husband's spirit and told him that this was the message people needed to hear. God said of all that we had heard this weekend, this Truth was the greatest.

Now, I am not a theologian. I can't debate the existence of God. I can, however, identify with the beggar in John chapter 9 who had been blind from birth. The disciples questioned Jesus as to the reason for this man's blindness. They wanted to know who had sinned....he or his parents. Jesus replied that sin was not the reason. His blindness was so the the works of God could be displayed. Jesus then spit on the ground, made some clay, applied it to the beggar's blinded eyes, and commanded that he go wash in the pool at Saloam. When the beggar returned, his eyesight had been restored. The religious society became upset. They questioned who this man was that performed this sign. If Jesus had been of God, surely He would not have performed this work on the Sabbath. But if a sinner, how could He have power to do this? They asked the man who had been given back his sight and he replied, "Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that whereas I was blind, now I see".

He wasn't a theologian either. He couldn't argue who Jesus was. All he could testify about is what happened when he felt the touch of Jesus.

I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind but now I see.

And this is the greatest Truth that any of us will ever know.

Amen.