WEEK TWO | DAY FOUR | PSALM 63:3-8
Written in France in the mid-1800s, this song spread by word of mouth across Europe and North America. But it spread in a new way in 1906 when Reginald Fessenden, a former colleague of Thomas Edison, experimented one evening with a microphone and a telegraph. It was 9:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and ships at sea had been instructed to monitor the airwaves at this appointed hour. Unsure if any sound would go through, Fessenden read Luke 2, then picked up his violin and started to play “O Holy Night.”
For the first time, voices and music were heard across the Atlantic by radio waves. The dot dot dash of Morse code became a swell of music, good news for a weary and sin-stained world. Like shepherds tending their flocks on the rolling hills of Bethlehem, captains and crews tended to their ships on the rolling waves of the Atlantic. And out of thin air, the story of our Savior’s birth! A thrill of hope! And fleets of souls who felt their worth.
O HOLY NIGHT! THE STARS ARE BRIGHTLY SHINING;
IT IS THE NIGHT OF THE DEAR SAVIOR’S BIRTH.
LONG LAY THE WORLD IN SIN AND ERROR PINING,
TILL HE APPEARED AND THE SOUL FELT ITS WORTH.
A THRILL OF HOPE—THE WEARY WORLD REJOICES,
FOR YONDER BREAKS A NEW AND GLORIOUS MORN!
CHRIST IS THE LORD! O PRAISE HIS NAME FOREVER!
HIS POW’R AND GLORY EVERMORE PROCLAIM!
Radio broadcasting is a powerful tool for sharing the Good News of Jesus. It creates Gospel access for non-literate people and people in oral cultures, and can cross borders and boundaries that are otherwise closed to the Gospel. In Niger, Eglise Evangélique de la République du Niger uses radio broadcasts to tell least-reached Nigeriens—and anyone else who is able to tune in—about Christ’s love. Amira, a teenager, recently decided to follow Jesus after she heard the Gospel message on the radio. May the nations see that “Christ is the Lord” and “praise His name forever!”
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