A media firestorm has erupted in our area over Pastor Terry Jones’ plans to burn Korans on Saturday. It is amazing how much attention this has generated. Even a friend of mine who works for a paper in South Florida covering Gator Sports here in Gainesville has been reassigned to cover the planned burning on Saturday rather than the football game!
From General Petraus to Secretary of State Clinton, from here locally to the other side of the world in Afghanistan, the world is watching and wondering what to make of this planned event. So what should our response be as followers of Jesus? Should we condemn it? Should we embrace it? Should we ignore it?
Although burning the Koran is a great offense to Muslims, it is a book that can and no doubt will be reprinted time and time again. Even though the Bible is a book containing God’s words on its pages, one could also burn it - and many have. Thankfully it can and has been reprinted time and time again. The real power of the Koran and the real power of the Bible is not in the physical presence of each contained in the form of a book, but rather in the message of each lived out among its adherents.
Before we do anything else, let us be sure that we ourselves are living expressions of the message of the book we adhere to, the Bible. Its message has the power to counter hate, murder, violence, lust, greed, shame, poverty, confusion, and all other results of sin. Its message has the power to bring peace to troubled hearts. Its message of love embodied in Jesus and expressed through us as followers of Jesus, is a message that the world is in desperate need of seeing.
Muslims and Christians will ultimately be judged by others based on how their followers live. Has the message found in the physical pages of the Bible, God’s Word, found its way onto the living pages of your life? I sincerely pray so!
Loving and Leading,
Jeff Powell
