The Incarnation

In October of 2005 I visited Brother Ben Sinclair and his dear family in Cameroon, Africa.  I went there to be a blessing, but Brother Ben and his two churches were a much greater blessing to me than I was to them.  There are about three hundred tribes in Cameroon with a fon as the chief of each tribe.  The fon has awesome powers somewhere between a king and a god.  Brother Ben took me to visit a fon but gave me strict warnings.  Never talk directly to the fon; talk to his assistant (of course the fon is listening to everything that you are telling the assistant).  Never touch the fon (no shaking hands) and never look at the fon.  You must bring a gift, but just sit it down and they will collect the gift later.  Ben told an interesting story of an African fon.  The old fon was about to die, and so he selected his favorite son to succeed him.  This son was a big man, the biggest in the entire tribe and well suited for the job.  Water is a precious commodity in Cameroon, and the tribe had a hand-dug well many meters deep.  The well only had a few centimeters of water in it, and, since they didn’t have a rope, a man had to go down with a bucket to draw the water up.  The well was a meter wide with foot-holes dug into the sides so that a man could make it up and down.  But one day, the man drawing the water was climbing up with a bucket of water and he slipped.  He fell and broke both legs.  Of course, he couldn’t climb out, and no one else was strong enough to carry him up to the surface.  Without help, he was doomed.  The men of the tribe trembled to ask the strong fon for his help, but no one dared.  When the new fon heard of the situation, he went to the well, removed his royal robes, and with just a loincloth on, climbed down into the well.  He tenderly picked up the man, put him on his shoulders, and climbed back up to the light of day.  Hey, this is a perfect picture of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God born at Christmas time.  We were hopelessly lost in our sins with no possibility to save ourselves.  If Jesus hadn’t rescued us, we would be lost.  Paul said in II Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.”  God put aside His glory, became a babe in a manger, lived a sinless life, and died a substitutionary death to rescue you and me from what we rightfully deserved.  But Jesus, the God-man, loved us and saved us and has offered us a home in heaven with Him.  Hey, why not trust Jesus as your Savior?  He loves you and did everything that He could to rescue you from a terrible eternity.  Don’t put it off.  Talk to Him right now.