The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher

In a few days, households by the thousands in certain Atlanta areas (including Fayette) will receive The Jesus Video in the mail. The video was first known as The Jesus Film, produced several years ago by Campus Crusade for Christ. It reenacts the life of Jesus Christ according to Luke's Gospel.

I want to encourage everyone who receives it to redeem your VCR and watch it. I first saw the Jesus Film in Uganda, realizing I did not know Luke's account as good as I thought. The video will teach you stuff about Jesus. You will think it's not in the Bible; you will run and seek to find it in Luke; lo and behold, it's there.

After watching the video as a Christian, invite friends and family members over; order some pizza and watch it together. It certainly is better than The Three Amigos. It's all about one sure, fireproof amigo who will never, ever ride out of town on you. When you watch the life of Jesus Christ with your friends, spiritual electricity is in the air.

Taking it a little more down the road, pray for your neighbors as they receive the video. Pray that they will pop it in their VCR and watch it.

As you take your video out of your mailbox, look around at your immediate neighbors. Stop, look, and pray. See Dick and Jane and how they need a Savior. Let the star of the video begin to tug at your heart.

What I am trying to say is this: make the most out of that one video. It's a treasure. It can connect anyone to God through Jesus. It can turn a family from crashing into the world's wall of self-destruction. It can get your entire family into church. It can make sure your entire family can get into heaven.

Remember the first time I saw it was in Uganda. There Life Ministries, under the leadership of Peter Asiimwe, equips lay ministers to take the film into the bush where there are no television and no Internet. With a gas generator delivering the electricity, The Jesus Film is the biggest and hottest show in the bush. Hundreds of people come out of nowhere to watch. As they change reels, the lay followers of Christ step up to give their testimony. As the film comes to a close, someone gives an invitation to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Hundreds and even thousands have come to follow Christ through this film. Praise God!

So, they keep on keeping on. One thing limits the evangelistic teams: lack of transportation. If I were a multimillionaire, I would send the money to buy seven 15 passenger vans for Life Ministries. It would be one of the best investments anyone could make.

Since the film has been so effective in other countries, a few bright and blessed people got the idea that maybe it could be used to reach America—an increasingly pagan country.

Let me encourage you to make the most of the video. Please do not let Jesus return and find the video gathering dust. Lend it out. Show it in your home. Invite the teens over and show it. All the time praying that God will use the technology of the 20th Century to change people for eternity.

The Rev. Dr. John Hatcher is pastor of River's Edge Community Church in Fayetteville.

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