Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Heralds

Herald (n.): a) an official crier or messenger; b) one that precedes or foreshadows

"And for this purpose I was appointed a herald..."
- Paul (the first letter to Timothy, chapter 2, verse 7)

It's funny how one little word can pry open doors in your mind that once had blocked beautiful ways of being. Given the new responsibilities and challenges of our house church plant, I found myself turning to the book of 1 Timothy for some wisdom. There I ran across a word I had been recently exposed to in my reading of Beeson Divinity School brochures: herald. It's not that I had never heard of the word, but I had never seen it used in quite the same way. Timothy George, dean of Beeson, says that, as preachers of the gospel, we are heralds of another world. We bear the message of the gospel and of the age to come.

I can't quite explain it, but something about this wording is very meaningful to me. I've understood that we are stewards of the Good News for some time, but this is something a bit more. A person with the knowledge that they are supposed to share the gospel is one thing; a herald, however, cannot help proclaiming this news any more than the angels who sang of Christ's birth. This is what I want to be.

I am a preacher of the gospel. I am a herald of another world.

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