Good News
This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent (2 Kings 7:9).
Tuesday 08 May 1945 was the day the Allied Forces accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany’s armed forces. The day is now celebrated as Victory in Europe Day and popularly known as VE Day in the UK. To gain that victory, just under a year before on 06 June 1944, the Allied Forces landed on the Normandy beaches in France. Those forces included soldiers from all over the world, many fighting for their occupied countries. Amongst them were Polish soldiers, whose country was the first to be invaded. In preparation for D-Day, as 6th June 1944 became known, some of those Polish soldiers were in barracks in Scotland. A young Christian felt exercised to share the gospel with these young men, many of whom would sacrifice their lives in the coming conflict. He managed to get hold of some gospel tracts in Polish and permission to distribute them to the soldiers. He could not speak Polish, and many soldiers had little knowledge of English, but they appreciated his visit and took the tracts. They never saw each other again.
Many years later, in the emerging freedoms which led up to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, a brother from Scotland visited Christians in Poland. They took him to hear a Polish evangelist whose ministry had led a vast number of people to Christ. During the meeting the evangelist told the story of his conversion. He was one of the young Polish soldiers in the barracks in Scotland all those years before. He recalled a young man spending time with him and giving him a small tract in his language. He explained how that meeting and that tract led him to trust in the Lord Jesus on the eve of D-Day.
Today we will remember the horrors of war and the day when peace came at such an enormous cost. People will think about the sacrifice of loved ones to end that dreadful conflict. And we will be thankful for the freedoms we now enjoy. We do this while experiencing another crisis which is so costly.
Each Lord’s Day, we remember the day when the Lord Jesus died. As the Good Shepherd, He stood “between us and foe, and willingly died in our stead.” We remember His victory cry, “It is finished” and rejoice in the triumph of His resurrection – “He is risen!” By faith in the Lord Jesus, we have peace with God and know the Prince of peace and the God of peace. We experience God’s love, walk by faith and have a glorious hope in Christ.
In 2 Kings chapter 7 God miraculously scattered the Syrian armies besieging Samaria. Four lepers were the first to discover this and enjoyed the spoils of war. But then they stopped and said to each other, “This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent” (verse 9). Immediately they began to spread the good news. One young man led another young man to Christ. That witness led to a great number of people in another country trusting in Christ. It is the goodness of God and the majesty of His grace that challenges us to share the Gospel, no matter how falteringly, and to trust God to do the miraculous.
