JUST A SCRAP CAN CHANGE A LIFE
Back in the 1500s, people didn't have a Bible they could read. The Catholic Church controlled the translating of Scripture and only offered it in Latin. But when Martin Luther rebelled against the abuses of the Church of his day he worked hard to make a translation available in German (the language of his people).
The daughter of the printer Luther used was cleaning in her dad's shop and she picked up a piece of paper off the floor. It read, "For God so loved that He gave..." and that was all. The rest of the verse was not printed yet, but what she saw excited her. The thought that God would give her anything moved her.
Her mother noticed a change in her and asked her why she seemed so happy. The girl pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and showed it to her mother. The mother read it and asked, "What did He give?"
The girl said, "I don't know but if God loved us enough to give us anything we should not be afraid of Him."
What she read on that scrap of paper changed how she looked at God.
And what people read in our lives can change how others look at our God as well.
One man has wisely said: "We may be the only Bible anyone ever reads."
But that will be true ONLY if we learn to imitate the God we say we love.
(From a sermon by Jeff Strite, B Imitators, 11/1/2009)