THE LETTER CARRIER

Letter Carriers are still part of our society. It sometimes appears that electronic and digital communication is quickly eliminating hard-copy mail service. Still, every day a mail car drives out our road to deliver our mail to our mailbox. I enjoy going out to the mailbox to get my mail. I still like a hard-copy that I can hold in my hand. I still read the printed newspaper!

BUT THINGS ARE CHANGING RAPIDLY!  We have digital service today through the internet that is so incredible!  Today I can send a letter via email or social media, instantly. Just the other day I carried out a full textual conversation in “real time” with a Spanish speaking friend of mine from Laval. As our conversation continued, he informed me that he was actually in Mexico! Imagine that!

And if that isn’t amazing enough, that we were communicating several thousand miles apart, I was also conversing with him in his own Spanish language using internet generated translation media. This digital age has changed our way of communicating!

But it wasn’t always like this. Years ago, cross-country communication for mail was so primitive compared to communication today.

I think of the Pony Express and their famous motto, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." They were able to traverse desert land from St. Joseph, Missouri to Sacramento, California in a record time of seven days on the backs of ponies!  The risk to the Pony Express rider was unimaginable! Even the criteria for hiring these riders is interesting. They had to be under 18 years of age, skinny yet strong, fearless, willing to brave the elements as well as thieves and bandits and preferably an be an orphan! An orphan? I guess if he got killed, they didn’t need to be concerned about contacting his parents. These riders had to be willing to face outrageous difficulties along the way.

Not just weather-related obstacles either! They faced rifle fire from bandits and thieves and flying arrows from the apaches! But they were determined to get the mail to its intended destination regardless of the cost!

There is a very high cost to deliver someone else’s message!

History tells about World War I and it describes the horrible conditions when it came to two-way communication. They had telegraph and sometimes two-way radios. But at best, they were not much better than the walkie-talkies we used as kids around the house. Sometimes there was no signal at all. Many soldiers out on the front lines of war lost their lives because of poor communication.

One such story that history records was the story of Cher Ami. Major Charles White Wittlesey and his men we dug into a hole surrounded by the German army. And for some unknown reason they started receiving “friendly fire” from their home base some 25 miles away. Their home base battalion thought they were firing on the Germans but were actually firing on their own men! The lack of radio communication caused many of Wittlesey’s men to be erroneously gunned down. In desperation, Major Wittlesey took his last homing pigeon, Cher Ami (dear friend), as a last ditch effort to stop the barrage of ammunition. Yes! That’s right a “HOMING PIGEON”! They used homing pigeons as a way of sending messages back to home base from the front lines. A homing pigeon will always return to a designated place (HOME) BY INSTINCT.

“Cher Ami was a homing pigeon who had been donated by the pigeon fanciers of Britain for use by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I and had been trained by American pigeoners.”  www.wikipedia.org

The Major wrote a short message, rolled it up and stuffed it into a leather pouch attached to Cher Ami’s leg.  The message was simple! “We are along the road parallel to 276.4. Our own artillery is dropping a barrage directly on us. For heavens sake, STOP IT!”

The lives of 200 hundred men was now depending on the wings of Cher Ami. However, when the Major released the pigeon into the air, the German Army saw it and opened fire! A bullet hit the bird in it’s chest and it began to flutter to the earth. All hope of salvation of these men was lost! But all of a sudden Cher Ami spread its wings and by some miraculous gust of wind, it was lifted high into the air out of range of enemy fire. That wounded pigeon, somehow, flew 25 miles to its home base with the Major’s message.

When the pigeon arrived, Cher Ami, the little letter carrier, had suffered more than one hit. Aside from a bullet hole in its chest that was deflected by the breastbone, it also had one leg that was barely attached by a thin tendon. Plus, one of it’s eyes had been lost by enemy fire!

Cher Ami became known as the Little Pigeon that saved the lives of 200 men!

“Cher Ami became the hero of the 77th Infantry Division. Army medics worked to save her life. They were unable to save her leg, so they carved a small wooden one for her. When she recovered enough to travel, the now one-legged bird was put on a boat to the United States.”   www.wikipedia.org

I share this with you today so you will understand the gravity of the message that you and I are carrying! You and I are carrying a message that must not be stopped! Nothing becomes more important than this! Whatever the cost! Whatever the risk involved, we must get this saving Message that “JESUS SAVES!” to it’s destination!

The story of the Pony Express tells of riders that were wounded and some that even lost their lives for the cause. One rider was discovered with an arrow through his jaw!

We often hear of casualties along the way of precious men and women who gave their lives for the cause of the Gospel.

Some of you that are reading this are carrying a message that can save the lives of many, many people! Along with the Gospel message, you also have a personal testimony that others need to hear!

We cannot fail, especially NOW! Too many lives are at stake!

Like a little homing pigeon, though some of you are even wounded, we must pray for a “gust of Holy Wind” that will carry us above everything that the enemy would try to use to stop us from getting the message though!

If you have been wounded in ministry work…..DON’T YOU GIVE UP! YOU ARE NEEDED! CARRY THE GOSPEL!

Yes! There is a great price to be paid to be a LETTER CARRIER for the Lord! But our price is in no comparison to the price Jesus paid on the cross!

I am willing to take the risk and to pay the price…..ARE YOU?

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom MUST be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

In 1983 I was Ordained as a Minister of the Gospel. It was a most important event of my life that I still take very seriously! I shall never forget it! There was a special song that was sung. My wife and I wept before the Lord as we listened carefully to the words.

The words are;

UNFINISHED TASK 

IF I CARRY THE GOSPEL TO THE LOST NEAR AND FAR 
I WON'T STAND EMPTY HANDED AT GOD'S JUDGEMENT BAR. 
BUT I DARE NOT RELAX UNTIL I'VE DONE ALL HE ASK 
LEST I SHOULD LEAVE BEHIND AN UNFINISHED TASK. 

IF I HAVE WRONGED A BROTHER IF I HAVE WOUNDED A FRIEND 
GIVE ME STRENGTH PRECIOUS SAVIOR TO MAKE AMENDS. 
AND WHEN I COME TO CHANGE MY WORLDS AND REACH GLORY AT LAST 
THEN I WON'T LEAVE BEHIND AN UNFINISHED TASK. 

WHEN I COME TO THE CROSSING I'LL BE LEAVING BEHIND 
ALL MY EARTHLY POSSESSIONS BUT THIS I WON'T MIND. 
IT WOULD MAKE MY HEART GLAD WHEN I LEAVE ALL I'VE HAD 
IF I DON'T LEAVE BEHIND AND UNFINISHED TASK. 

OH YOU HAVE RUN THE RACE YOU HAVE KEPT THE FAITH 
THESE WORDS I LONG TO HEAR MY SAVIOR SAY. 
AND WHEN MY LIFE ON EARTH IS PAST 
THERE'S JUST ONE THING DEAR LORD I ASK 
DON'T LET ME LEAVE BEHIND AND UNFINISHED TASK.

There is a very high cost to deliver someone else’s message!

I encourage you to read Foxes Book of Martyrs. It will inspire you to be willing to “pay the price” because nothing is as valuable as saving someone else’s life!

Written by Steve Roach

AGAIN

For Peter it was an all-out commitment when Jesus said to him, “Leave your fishing nets behind and COME, FOLLOW ME!”. Never before had he met a man like Jesus. Without hesitation Peter wrapped his entire life around this Man. He said, “Wherever You lead me, I will follow!” All of Peter’s dreams, ambitions and HOPE rested in Jesus Christ! Peter witnessed the power, authority, and His miraculous ministry; blinded eyes opened, deaf ears unstopped, lame walking, and the dead being raised to life.

It was after three years of following Jesus that everything took a turn in the Garden of Gethsemane. Not a good turn. As Peter witnesses Judas coming into the garden with Roman Centurions for the betrayal, Peter responds by drawing his sword and slicing off the ear of Malchus! Peter’s abrupt response was as if he was saying, “Take your hands off my HOPE! Leave my HOPE alone! This HOPE belongs to me!” Jesus said to Peter, “We don’t do things that way! Put your sword away, Peter!” as He miraculously reattaches the Centurions ear.

Peter watches as they lead Jesus away from the garden. His HOPE is now a prisoner. Everything he had lived for during these past three years is now being destroyed! His HOPE is vanishing! His HOPE is so devastated that in his confusion he denies even knowing Jesus…..three times!

We now see Peter as he lingers in the shadows witnessing the scourging, the cruel beatings, and ultimately the crucifixion……..the TOTAL DEATH of His HOPE!

But it was just three days later that Peter’s HOPE came alive! Just as He said! The stone was rolled away, as the Rock of Ages stepped forth!

All of a sudden Peter’s joy is restored!
His fear is taken away!
He is no longer a coward!
But greater than all of this, his HOPE has come ALIVE……AGAIN!

The word “AGAIN” carries a wonderful truth that we find in the first book that Peter wrote. He said, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us “AGAIN” unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

If anyone understood the word “AGAIN”, it was Peter! He had HOPE, then his HOPE died on the Cross! But the greater truth is that his HOPE came ALIVE……”AGAIN”......through the Resurrection!

My prayer for you today is that HOPE will come alive in your heart!

God said of Jezabel, “I gave her time to REPENT but she had NO DESIRE!”

Do you have DESIRE today? That’s really all you need to experience this NEW HOPE through Jesus Christ! And especially if you feel you have lost your HOPE, I pray that you have enough DESIRE to seek for this NEW HOPE.......AGAIN! Remember, HOPE is not dead.....HE IS ALIVE!!

** Excerpt from an Easter message I originally preached in 1993 while Pastoring Back Bay, New Brunswick. SRR