You Are a Living Letter

My former Pastor, when he was just starting out his ministry, was preaching in a hall in the Armagh area. He and his wife were packing up the minibus after the service, when a man on a bicycle suddenly appeared. He had a wide grin on his face and proceeded to say, “Are you Mr. so and so? (He said his name) My Pastor said, “Yes, that’s me, what can I do for you?” The man, still smiling, reached into his pocket, unfolded a letter, and reached it to him. The letter was from a local hospital, which dealt with those who had mental health problems. It was a release letter stating that the gentleman was now well enough to resume life within his community. The man said, “Doesn’t this prove I am not mad? Not wishing to annoy or agitate the man, my Pastor said, “Yes, that certainly proves you are not mad.” Then, still with that big grin on his face, he folded the letter and put it back in his pocket, held out his hand to my Pastor and said, “Now sir, may I see your letter please?” 

There was a time when the Apostle Paul, wanting to revisit the Corinthian Church, which he had founded, and spent eighteen months ministering to, was asked by that same church, to produce a letter of recommendation to them first. Imagine the audacity of them! Wanting him, the founder, to get someone else to endorse him before he returned. False teachers had come in, with supposed letters of recommendation from the Church at Jerusalem. They implied Paul had no such letters. So, Paul wrote in 11Cor.3:1-3 “Do we need begin to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as some others, epistles of commendation to you or epistles of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men; clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.”

You, child of God, are a walking living letter of Christ. He has writ large upon your heart. Now, you are open and read of all men. When someone meets you, they will see a living testimony of Christ’s mercy and grace. 

“clearly you are an epistle of Christ………written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God…”

When people look at us Christians, they should see more than the envelope that holds the letter, for our hearts have been inscribed with the story of grace, by the Spirit of the Living God.   

- Pastor David Goudy