Our little granddaughter can explain Easter to you pretty simply. "Jesus got hurt real bad. Then they put Him behind the rock. But then He came out from behind the rock!"
Now, her childlike explanation probably won't make it into many theological journals. But she understands the Gospel more than many Christian adults seem to. The Gospel is what Easter's all about. And the Gospel is what this ministry - and our heart match with you - is all about.
Paul said this "Good News" is actually "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). That "power" word is "dunamis" in the Greek - the root of our word "dynamite." I've driven a lot of highways that have been blasted out of mountains. That's the kind of power dynamite has. It blows away whatever stands in its way.
That's the power of God's Gospel - God's Son, bearing our hell for our sins so we don't have to, then vanquishing death on Easter morning. That message literally blows away every obstacle in its way. No other news can rescue a human soul from the unthinkable penalty of their sin. No other news can make enemies of God into friends of God. No other news offers a Savior who loves you so much that He died for you - and who's powerful enough to walk out of His grave under His own power! Talk about good news!
Sadly, you can sometimes listen to Christian radio all day long or sit in church for weeks and never hear that News. You can go to Christian events...you can read Christian publications - and never find the Gospel. Often, the Gospel's missing and no one misses it!
Or you may hear a message that's the Gospel plus - adding to the Cross a list of rules or a cultural agenda or issues of justice and mercy. Things that are certainly important to God, but they're not the Gospel. They encumber the simple message my granddaughter was trying to articulate...that Paul defined as the Gospel: "Christ died for our sins...and on the third day rose again" (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). You can also compromise God's Message when it's the Gospel minus - discounting Jesus or editing out sin and repentance.
But the real Gospel is, for this ministry, our magnificent obsession. Without baggage. Without compromise. Without fear. If you could sit in on our prayer times, you'd hear passionate praying about people who've never heard the Gospel. If you could be a part of our planning meetings, you'd hear urgent and creative discussion about how we can get to more of those lost ones.
The precious partnership we have with you is truly a "partnership in the Gospel" - and the reason "I thank my God every time I remember you" (Philippians 1:3, 5). We're focused like a laser on getting this simple, eternity-changing Message to as many lives as we can, as quickly and effectively as we can. That means harnessing the power of the Internet, of radio, of Native Christian young people, and of preaching the Gospel "by all possible means we might save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22).
But "how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?" (Romans 10:14, 15). The sender is at the heart of God's Gospel getting to a lost world. No sender, no proclaimer. And, thank God, you are one of His senders! We go because you give. We win because you pray.
We're heading into the most intense rescue months of the year - and the most financially challenging. So your giving and your praying are decisive right now. You can be sure that any gift God prompts and enables you to give to this ministry will be lasered on the Gospel and the lost.
God has no higher priority than getting the Good News of His Son to a dying world. And nothing should matter more to those who love Him. This magnificent obsession is at the heart of our heart match with a friend like you.
The Good News launched from an empty tomb that first Easter dawn - when Jesus "came out from behind that rock." From that Resurrection morning came a life-changing invitation and then a life-defining command. "Come and see" - thank God, we have.
Then, "go and tell." We will, Jesus. We will!
So moved by His cross, so excited He's alive,
Ron Hutchcraft
