(Jesus said) "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Matthew 28:19

For a good many years, Joseph Brucato has had a job. That job was to deliver mail. It was a job Brucato did with gusto ... most of the time.

I say, most of the time because Joseph Brucato was busted when his boss noticed some undelivered mail in Brucato's personal truck. Police were called and it was discovered Brucato had more than 40,000 pieces of undelivered mail in his apartment, car and office locker. Indeed, it took postal agents more than five hours to confiscate more than 2,500 pounds of mail, which had been secreted in Brucato's apartment.

When questioned by authorities, Brucato admitted that since 2005 he had, for various "personal reasons," declined to deliver everybody's mail.

Thinking upon those mountains of letters, I tried to imagine the important messages Brucato never conveyed ... the expressions of love which someone needed ... the comforting words of sympathy for which a hurting heart longed ... the powerful words of encouragement which might have made a great difference in an individual's life.

Yes, the post office is going to deliver those tardy letters now, but that may not help the folks whose moment of need has long since come and gone. For these people, the undelivered message is a tragedy.

Of course, that is true for undelivered spiritual messages too.

The Lord Jesus, who gave Himself to win forgiveness and salvation for this sinful world, asked us to deliver that message to those who are lost. The Lord, who would have all people be saved by the truth of the risen Redeemer, has confidence that those of us who have been rescued from the fires of hell will do everything we can to help others be brought to faith in the Savior.

It is a message that needs to be delivered to every soul.

Sadly, and for personal reasons many Christians, like Joseph Brucato, keep God's salvation story to themselves and decline to deliver it. I'm sure they must never stop to think of what will happen when souls die without having heard Jesus has carried their sins and conquered death and grave.

They must not think about such things because, if they did, they wouldn't be able to rest until every ear has heard and every heart has been touched by the Holy Spirit's call to faith.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, right before Jesus ascended into heaven He gave His people a job to do: share the story of salvation with all the world. Forgive us when we have failed to tell others, and send Your Holy Spirit to remove our personal reasons for keeping the Gospel to ourselves. Grant us grace to bring Christ to the nations -- and to our neighbors as well. In Jesus' Name I ask it. Amen.

Check out Lutheran Hour Ministries' video sermon series, "Footsteps of Paul." Click here!

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: Hosea 1-4    Romans 14

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