Preachers are sent,

• Not to preach sociology but salvation;
• Not economics but evangelism;
• Not reform but redemption;
• Not culture but conversion;
• Not progress but pardon;
• Not the new social order but the new birth;
• Not the revolution but revival;
• Not resuscitation but resurrection;
• Not a new organization but a new creation;
• Not democracy but the gospel;
• Not civilization but Christ.
• We are ambassadors, not diplomats.

I dreamt death came the other night
And heaven’s gate swung wide;
With kindly grace an angel came
To usher me inside.

Yet there to my astonishment
Stood folks I’d known on earth,
Some I had judged as quite unfit
Or of but little worth.

Indignant words rose to my lips
But never were set free;
For every face showed stunned surprise
NO ONE expected me!

Whenever I drive to the east side of Portland over the Marquam Bridge, I’m reminded of what it took for God to save us. On the upper deck of that two-decker freeway spanning the wide Willamette River, you can catch a glimpse of an exit that drops off into empty space.

When the bridge was built back in the mid-1960s, it was designed to accommodate an east-running freeway still on the drawing boards, which was to be known as the Mount Hood Freeway. But the freeway was never built. Oregon voters opted for a light rail line instead, and plans for the highway were scrapped.

Even though there is no Mount Hood Freeway, you can certainly see Mount Hood from the top deck of the Marquam Bridge. On a clear days it looms on the eastern horizon—a symmetrical, snow-capped beauty. And if you look carefully, you can see how the bridge was built to accommodate a freeway lane veering off to the southeast. It juts out just a bit from the bridge structure, then
is cut off as though sliced by a giant knife.

The “exit,” permanently blocked, now goes nowhere—except into the waters of the Willamette far below. You can see Mount Hood in all its beauty, glistening like a jewel in the distance…. But you could never, never reach the high slopes of that mighty peak via the Mount Hood Freeway, because the freeway doesn’t exist.

That’s a picture of man’s relationship with God. We might understand there is a God and even yearn to reach him across an impossible distance. We might recognize his power and glory, his majesty and goodness, and desire with all our hearts to know him and be with him. But the distance is too great. The gulf is too wide.

Only through Jesus Christ can we cross that gulf to God the Father.

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Ron Mehl, Love Found a Way (Waterbrook, 1999)