Bible Text: Mark 16:15 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living |

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all…” Mark 16:15

This week on the Guidelines Commentary, we are taking a look back at where we’ve come; but more exciting, we’re looking ahead to where we’re going—and most importantly, why we’re going there!

First, we are grateful—to all the stations carrying our program and to you, our listeners—for this 52nd anniversary we are celebrating this week. A listener once wrote us and said, “Your messages in a small package are dynamite,” so maybe we should celebrate with fireworks! As a young boy, I lost a lot of hearing in one of my ears when I was hit by a snowball…with a rock in it, so I appreciated the listener that wrote to say, “You are my hearing aid when I listen for that still, small voice.”

Our time-tested ministry mission is still to reach people where they are with the hope of the Gospel, using technology. In places where internet access and satellite might make radio seem obsolete, let me assure you that radio is still an integral tool in many, many parts of the world. And here at Guidelines, rather than shrink— as you might think—God is bringing opportunities to expand dramatically.

We have established what we call the Guidelines Legacy Project to establish community-centered Christian radio stations and equip partners on the ground to provide Bible-based, people-oriented programming in areas where there is no Christian voice at all. Guidelines’ first Legacy Station in Quezon, Palawan, an island in the Philippines, celebrated its first anniversary in February this year. There, in cooperation with Far East Broadcasting Company Philippines, we work with a consortium of local pastors who produce Bible-based programming for the station.

We were also able to work in the war zone of Eastern Ukraine, to help get the local Christian radio station in the city of Slavyansk, Ukraine back on air after their tower was destroyed by a missile that also took the lives of four young men. Though many Ukrainians in this area huddle in their homes, afraid to be on the streets, yet, via radio half a million people are now hearing of God who will never leave them or forsake them.

I read a copy of Andrei’s letter this morning and was encouraged even more. He said, “My house was partially destroyed. I don’t even know which side to blame. As I pick up the pieces of shrapnel in my yard, I think more and more about the meaning of life. Your station helps me get a hold of something bigger than me, something bigger than political ideas. God doesn’t speak Russian or Ukrainian, but the language of love.” Yes, God speaks the language of love and He is calling people to Himself.

And then, God has opened an incredible door of opportunity to reach another people group in a moderately Muslim nation in the Balkans. As we move forward to a partnership to get the station set up, we are ever mindful of the forces of darkness. Nevertheless, God is never caught by surprise. Isaiah 14:27 says, “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has spoken—who can change his plans? When his hand is raised, Guidelines legacy is really God’s legacy as we help to share the hope of Christ in this broken world.

Resource reading: Mark 16:14-20