Ambassadors for Christ

by Rob Weingartner

When George Shultz was Secretary of State during the Reagan administration, he kept a large globe in his office. When newly appointed ambassadors had an interview with him and when ambassadors returning from their posts for their first visit with him were leaving his office, Shultz would test them. He would ask them to go over to the globe and identify their country. They would go over, spin the globe, and put their finger on the country to which they were sent.

When Shultz's old friend and former Senate majority leader Mike Mansfield was appointed ambassador to Japan, even he was put to the test. This time, however, Ambassador Mansfield spun the globe and put his hand on the United States. He said: "That's my country."

Shultz related this to Brian Lamb on C Span's "Booknotes" back in 1993. Said the Secretary: "I've told that story, subsequently, to all the ambassadors going out. 'Never forget you're over there in that country, but your country is the United States. You're there to represent us. To take care of our interests.' "

In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul affirms: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.” (2 Cor. 5:18-20). Do you think of yourself as an ambassador?

As followers of Christ, called to follow him and sent by him back into the world, we do well to remember that God has entrusted us with a message that is good news. We go not in our own authority but in Christ’s. We are sent to represent him, to take care of his interests. Wherever we live, in whatever nation or state, remember that “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:20)

A Savior whose grace we have the privilege of sharing with others.

Rob Weingartner
Executive Director