THE REAL MESSAGE

The national news this past week carried a story about a Bible that saved an Ohio man's life. Rickey Waggoner, an RTA bus driver, was fixing a mechanical problem outside his bus when three assailants approached and tried to kill him. It was likely a gang initiation.

Waggoner was shot twice in the chest at close range, but a contemporary version of the Bible he was carrying, The Message, absorbed the bullets that otherwise should have killed him. Upon hearing of this story in the Dayton Daily News, Eugene Peterson, age 81 and editor of The Message said, "That's wonderful. I've heard stories about something like that happening during the Second World War. I'm glad to be in the club."

"There was obviously some kind of intervention involved in this incident because Waggoner should probably not be alive," a Dayton Police Sergeant told a reporter at the scene. Waggoner told police that one of the assailants told another to kill him, "if you want to be all the way in the club."

Waggoner was shot once in the leg and twice in the chest, bullets which were stopped by his Bible. He was also stabbed, but was able to grab both the gun and knife as the teenage suspects fled. Waggoner then called police from inside his bus.

While this kind of protection by a Bible is quite unusual, protection by God's Word is not. God's Word always protects those who read and value it. Actually, it gives people real life. The Bible's words are timeless and real, because Jesus Himself is the Word of God in human form. He died to give salvation to all, even those who wanted to kill Him or His people.

We give thanks to God that Waggoner was saved by The Message, but we especially give thanks that Jesus Christ, the heart of The Message, has saved the millions of people all over the world by giving them faith through the Holy Spirit.

The Apostle John once wrote, "The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish." (John 1:14, The Message)

We pray those two young man will one day trust the real Message, Jesus.