Mike Hutchinson
Retired CBF Field Personnel
I hear dead people. Puritans of the past give voices to the present. They are dead, but through their preserved diaries, poems and sermons I hear them. I will never see their faces, but I hear their thoughts, I will never shake their hands, but clearly see them, pointing me back to the straight and narrow way.
Bradstreet, Mather or Milton—I listen to their struggles to become holy temples and living sacrifices to the Word of God. Windford, Bradford or Edwards—their voices stir my faith to total faithfulness in following our Savior. Anne Hutchinson, the original American Women in Ministry founder, shows by example what Holy Scripture revealed to her.
In present stress and daily questions of staying in The Way, I hear others who have shared the same temptations, who have lived in the same godless society but who have stayed true and given voice to their victories. Their struggles, sometimes against government and sometimes against religion, were great and long-suffering. But they stood their ground for holy living and discipline to God’s way of living out a faith proclaimed verbally.
The struggles for me today can be the same. So I listen and my heart hears dead people who guide, encourage and help me find a living Christ today.
Pray...Give...Go.