James W. Moore tells this story:
Years ago a military airplane crashed at Sonderstrom Air Force Base in Greenland. Twenty-two people were killed. The runway and the nearby fields were strewn with bodies. It was a tragic and horrible moment. There was only one chaplain on the base at the time. And the entire burden was laid on him to bring comfort and the Word of Christ to a shocked community staggered by the horrendous accident. But there was little time to mourn that day. The grisly task of gathering up and identifying the bodies needed to be done.
And so, the chaplain, along with a young lieutenant who had been assigned the duties of a mortuary officer and a group of volunteers went about the awful business of picking up the mutilated bodies and trying to identify the dead so that their families and loved ones back home could be notified. It was a heartbreaking and exhausting task, but it had to be done. When every last remnant of death had been picked up, they each went silently to their individual rooms.
That night, after midnight, there was a knock on the chaplain’s door. Outside stood the young lieutenant, the Mortuary Officer. He said nothing. He just stood there and wept. After some moments, the young lieutenant spoke through his tears and he said to the chaplain, “As we were picking up the bodies today, I realized something. I realized that the only other people out there with us were the people who go to church here. I have always been an unbeliever, and I used to ridicule these same people who were out there with us. Yet they are the only persons who would, or perhaps could, do what we had to do today. It must have been their Christian spirit that could help them see beyond the horror to the hope.”
That tragic day turned around the life of that young lieutenant. From that time on he was a new man. Christ was born in his heart. From that time forward, he took an active part in the Christian ministry of that base. Then he did an unheard thing – he extended his tour of duty in Greenland for an extra year. He was the first person in the history of that base to do that. He did it because he wanted to be able to tell others the story of how the power of the Christian Hope had changed his life.
Who has given hope to the Hurricane Helene victims? The government? Islam? The Satanic Temple? Celebrities! No! It has been The Christian Church! Who has given hope to the inner cities of America? The Christian Church! Who has given hope for the homeless and hungry in America? The Christian Church! Who has given hope to the unborn? The Christian Church!
Why are so many of America’s hospitals, nursing homes and orphanages named after churches? Because the hope of the whole world is Jesus Christ who is working and touching lives through His church!
If you want to give your loved ones a great Christmas present this year, give them the gift of Christian Hope found in Jesus Christ and His soon return for His Church!
Once each year, Christmas comes along to renew our hope and to remind us that the darkness of this world cannot overcome the hope we have in the light of the world. Titus 2:13: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Listen to Pastor Jack’s sermons on the way to church every Sunday at 10:30 Am on 98.9 WSIP FM. To read more of Pastor Jack Ward’s articles and hear his sermons at Tomahawk Missionary Baptist Church go to tomahawkmbc.com. Watch his sermons on his Facebook page. Find him on Rumble, Bitchute and Brighteon video platforms.