“OUR COMFORT ZONE”
The news this week has been all about Hurricane Isabel as it closes in on North Carolina. The news is that this hurricane is capable of causing major damage and loss of life. This news brings to memory another hurricane, Mitch, that visited Honduras back in 1998, a Category 4 storm that hammered Honduras. Whole villages disappeared as dams broke and mudslides buried everything in sight. At least 10,000 people died from Mitch's assault. And then came the battle for the survivors. Food and clothing and medicine and all kinds of emergency supplies poured into Honduras. But there was a problem: most of the infrastructure of the country was destroyed. Roads were gone. Bridges were gone. So, on one side you have starving people; on the other side, there were trucks loaded with what they needed to survive. But without a bridge, how do you get them together?

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5: 19, 20: “…that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we beg you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” God says here, you are the carriers of His love and His life to the people around you.

Just for a moment draw this mental picture. There is this wide chasm. Jesus is on one side. Someone you care about – really care about - a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker - is on the other side. Now, what will it take to get the life-saving Savior and the dying person together? A bridge. The bridge is you - Christ's ambassador to your workplace, your neighborhood, your school. If the bridge is out, that person you really care about may die without the rescue that was almost in their reach ... because of the bridge.

Are the people you influence moving toward Jesus because of you, or are they as far from Him as ever? Is it possible that their bridge to Jesus has collapsed? Sometimes that happens because of busyness, Our Comfort Zone, which leads to spiritual neglect, which becomes weeks and months and years - and then an eternity. Or maybe it's fear that keeps the bridge from functioning. But shouldn't the greatest fear be not what a person you love may think of you, but that they may be lost forever?

One more mental picture, please. While there is still time, here is Jesus, standing with outstretched arms on one side of that chasm, that someone you really care about is on the other side, restless for a relationship that will fill the hole in their heart. And all they need is a bridge. And the bridge is you.

Is there a chasm that you need to bridge? It would be awful if somewhere in the corridors of eternity, someone we knew on earth were to cry out to us, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Beloved, we need to move out of “Our Comfort Zone.”