I is for Inspirational

        When we say that the Good News is inspirational we mean that the message motivates us to become all that we are in Christ. It addresses us in whatever mood we may be and encourages us on our path toward Christ-likeness. To be inspired by scripture is to experience the work of the Spirit as he brightens our day with his presence and power. A good secular book can inspire if its message leads to a better understanding and personal appreciation of its basic point. The Good News is engaged in the same process but now it is the Holy Spirit who does the inspiring, who brings it all to life. One has to do with the human spirit, created in the image of God, and the other with the Holy Spirit, the very presence of God. One is natural, the other supernatural.
         Having said that, one might ask what are the inspirational highlights of the gospel story? Each person will have been personally moved by various truths but they will all gather around one essential theme – God’s matchless love displayed in the gift of his Son. How has God inspired you today? I can only speak for myself but I’m sure your experience over the years as well would include what impresses me at the moment. First and foremost, that God really does exist and that his promise of eternal fellowship is true. From both logic and personal acquaintance I can assert that God is. And this God who is has promised that we will share the incomparable delight of being together forever – that means it will never stop, never! If that prospect is true, and it is, does anything else matter?
         The Good News also inspires me in that it helps me understand that throughout the past 95 years God has been directing me through a myriad of experiences, some joyful others difficult, to become who I am in Him. As a wise parent, he has blessed me with the joys of life as well as those difficulties that help me grow spiritually. I didn’t deserve the loving companionship of a devoted wife or the difficulties connected with a career that led from junior professor to president of a university. But he has been right here by my side, encouraging me to enjoy all the wonderfully good things of life and learn from every mistake I’ve made.
         So I thank him for the inspiration of who he is and for how he has stayed by my side. Beyond that, he inspires me right now to live in such a way that through me others might be inspired in their growth into Christian maturity. He “hears my heartbeat” and responds; there is no greater source of inspiration