”The Lord will record, when He registers the peoples:  This one was born there.”  Psa. 87:6
Notice, please, that despite the fact that in the eyes of God “the nations are…counted as the small dust on the scales”  (Isa. 40:15), He is, above all, the God of “this one”.  Especially when it comes to  that new birth the Lord talked about to that one man, Nicodemus: “You must be born again!”  (John 3:7).

I once visited “The People´s Church” in Toronto, that marvelous church to which Oswald J. Smith´s name was connected. I was there as an anonymous visitor together with a friend from Norway.  Before we left the church one of its members asked my friend, “Are you a Christian?”  That he affirmed. 
Then came the next question:  “Excuse me, Sir, are you a born again Christian?”  He never forgot that.  He was so pleased with the sincerity and zeal of that Canadian brother.  We were just two visitors in a big crowd.  But that brother was interested in “this one” person.  So very much like the heart of the Lord.

That solemn tone went home to a German lady, Frau Lex, who told me:  “When I heard that message by Billy Graham in Dortmund, “a still small voice” seemed to say to me:  “You´ve got to have that too!”  Gone was now her home-made religion, for that night she became a “new creature in Christ”, and the fellowship with her I remember as very wonderful.  She was, by the way, also the owner of the hotel where I stayed for one night.

Who are the born again people?  The Psa. 87 (from which I´ve quoted the Bible verse above) suggests one good answer:  “Singers and dancers alike say:  “All my springs are in You!” (v.7).  They joyfully witness of  Christ as being their only “spring”, i.e. their only spiritual source of life.  These are not “mass-produced”, but re-born as “this one and that one” (v.5), as individuals with “a new song” (Psa. 40:3), the happy, happy song of redemption.  Does that echo in your heart, too?

-jn-

Oct. 18, 2009