Summary: The 29-year-old fellow who laid the foundation for the King James Version of the Bible was named William Tyndale. He was a young pastor outside Bristol, England in the 1500s, and it is estimated that 70% of today’s King James Bible is his work. Tyndale understood what the Gospel was all about. One day he said “the Gospel makes a man’s heart glad, and makes him sing, dance, and leap for joy!” That’s a wonderful description of the effect of the Good News and the impact it has on our lives! But so often we think of evangelism and sharing the Good News with those around us as a burden. We forget the joy we had when we first heard the gospel of Jesus and experienced its changing power. Others need to experience that change. God chooses us to partner with him in his work, and that is a privilege and a joy! Sometimes we also think that we can’t share the Good News unless we become missionaries or go overseas. Not true! We do need missionaries to answer God’s call, of course, but we’re not all called to leave our communities. God calls us to simply be faithful where we are: with our children, our neighbors, our friends. Paul writes about the lost: “How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone proclaiming it to them?” That person, that proclaimer, is you, and it’s me!
