RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Close to 100 years ago the great American evangelist, D. L. Moody, was preaching in Lanarkshire, Scotland. A Scottish gentleman from The Brethren Church came to him and said, “I’m coming to America and I would like to visit you there.” Politely, Mr. Moody responded, “Certainly, I would love to see you there.” However, he really thought that he would never hear from the gentleman again.
After Moody returned to the United States, he received a letter from the Scot. He wrote, “I’m in New York City, and I’ll leave soon for my visit with you in Chicago.” Not long afterwards the gentleman showed up in Chicago, prepared to preach. Mr. Moody was speaking somewhere besides his own church. Therefore, out of courtesy, he allowed the gentleman to preach at his church.
When Moody came home that evening he asked his wife, “How did it go at church this evening?” His wife replied, “It was wonderful, but I don’t think you would have liked the message that was delivered.” Moody probed further, and his wife told him, “He preached that God loves sinners.” The great evangelist was taken back. “What does he mean ..” he asked. “Sinners are under the wrath of God. They’re under God’s judgment.”
Then Mrs. Moody said, “But everything that he said was from the Bible.”
The next night Mr. Moody allowed the Scottish brother to preach again, but this time Moody sat listening to him. The man began in Genesis and went through the Bible showing passage after passage that God loves sinners. It was a watershed moment in the life of D. L. Moody. Moody had known the character of God. He rightly knew that God is holy. He understood that nothing unrighteous could stand in God’s presence. But Moody had missed the heart of God.
After that encounter with the Scottish preacher, and more importantly, after he came face to face with the heart of God in the Scriptures, Mr. Moody began preaching with a new passion for souls. His eyes were opened to see the love of God for a lost world. He had the words placed in one of the buildings, “God is love.” Moody had come to know the heart of God.
I’ve discovered that many Christians today are just like Mr. Moody was prior to his eye opening experience with the Scottish brother. We often scorn those whose lives are contrary to the nature and character of God. We see people engulfed in their own sins, and we are disgusted. However, we’ve missed the heart of God. His nature is holiness. We cannot compromise on that. Holiness and sin can’t live under the same roof. However, we must also become gripped with the heart of God for a lost and dying world.
Sometimes I travel to regions of the world where the lostness of mankind is so obvious that my heart breaks. When I see multitudes dying in Sub Saharan Africa of AIDS, my heart weeps. Yes, I know that many are dying because of their own sins. The Scriptures are true, “The wages of sin is death.” But it’s also true that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.” When I see the millions blinded by Hinduism, secularism, and Islam, I weep because I know that Christ loves them and He died to forgive them.
When we behold the heart of God, we cannot help but weep for those who have never met the Saviour. It’s the heart of God that reaches out to a sinful and rebellious world. It’s the heart of God that moved Him to send the Savior. When we see His heart, we too will weep. We will reach out to those who have never known His love. We will have inscribed on our hearts those words that Mr. Moody had inscribed in one of his buildings, “God is love.”