God’s Love for Everyone, Everywhere

ES_Everywhere

The Jesus Film Project: Sharing the story of Jesus to everyone, everywhere.

They came at 4 a.m. with hatchets, dressed in black running suits and black ski masks, and they severely beat us in our beds. As I knelt next to my wife and realized that she might not make it, I searched for words to comfort her, and heard myself say, “Don’t worry honey, someday you’ll look back on this as the best day of your life.” Her first thought was, “Not any time real soon.” But then, as she reflected on the privilege of suffering for Jesus Christ in the context of taking His message of love to those who don’t know Him, she found comfort in my words. We believed it then, and we believe it still: Sharing the Good News of God’s amazing offer to bring everyone, everywhere into living, loving relationship with Himself is the most important thing to which we can devote our time, talent and treasure.

God’s Love for Everyone, Everywhere.[/tweetthis]

Everyone EverywhereThat’s why I wrote Everyone, Everywhere:  Glimpses of God’s Global Work through People Like You. Much of the book is stories of people whose lives have been transformed by becoming followers of Jesus after watching the film, JESUS. Jesus Film Project believes that everyone should have a chance to hear about God[/tweetit] in their own heart language, so they have dubbed film into more than 1,500 languages. As a result, it has been viewed over 7 billion times, and nearly 500 million people have indicated decisions to become followers of Jesus immediately after seeing the film. For the last five years, I have had the privilege of serving Jesus Film Project as its Executive Director and hearing many of the stories of people meeting Jesus through its films. These stories are simply too good to go unshared.

A film showing in Gabon. Photo courtesy Jesus Film Project
A film showing in Gabon. Photo courtesy Jesus Film Project

The JESUS film is only a small part of what God is doing to bring people everywhere into a love relationship with Himself. The historic rise of Christian movements in parts of the world previously thought of as non-Christian, the use of new technologies that make it possible to share God’s message everywhere, and the encouraging movement toward unity among Christians have all contributed to the result of over 2 billion professing followers of Jesus across the world. From twelve to 2 billion—what an amazing story! It is hard to be pessimistic about the Christian faith when we take a closer look at what is happening around the world, stories that seldom get told.

Distributing the JESUS film. Photo courtesy Jesus Film Project
Distributing the JESUS film. Photo courtesy Jesus Film Project

The JESUS film is based so closely on Luke’s gospel that virtually all Christians use it for spiritual growth and to share with others the message of Jesus’s life, teachings, death and resurrection. This gives me a unique place from which to see the breathtaking scope of what God is doing in the world to lovingly call people to Himself—through all kinds of churches, through humanitarian endeavors and through the simple acts of His followers. In fact, Jesus Film Project is part of a broad coalition of groups that have made it our goal to give everyone, everywhere the opportunity to know God personally through Jesus and to become a part of a vital group of Jesus followers.

The book Everyone, Everywhere is an invitation to YOU, whoever might be reading this article, to join with Jesus and His followers in taking the message of God’s love to every person on earth. This could be the best day of your life.

Erick’s book, ‘Everyone, Everywhere’ releases at the end of May, 2017.

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