Jesus Makes A Difference

Is this not he that destroyed them which called on this name… But Saul increased the more in strength… proving that this is the very Christ. —Acts 9:21-22

    It has been said, “No one who ever meets Jesus remains the same.” Paul was never the same after meeting Christ on the Damascus road.  The power of the Gospel of Christ in changing lives is born out in the following testimony of two men at opposite ends of the spectrum:

    Sergeant Jacob DeShazer was a bombardier during WW2. While bombing Japan his plane was shot down. He and his crew bailed out but were captured and severely tortured by the Japanese. DeShazer had but one desire, to have revenge on his torturers.  One day a Bible was smuggled into the prison, as DeShazer read it, he trusted Christ and his life was changed. His bitterness towards the Japanese was changed to love. When the war was over DeShazer returned to Japan as a missionary. In 1959, DeShazer moved to Nagoya, the city he had bombed and established a Christian church.

     The story of his life was printed as a tract .  One day a disheartened, broken and hopeless man received one of those tracts and was converted. His name was Captain Mitsuo Fuchida.  He was the Japanese officer who lead the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941.  It was he who had spoken the words, “Tora, Tora, Tora,” to begin the attack.  After he was saved he became a preacher of the gospel and on the 25th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor he went back to Pearl Harbor with a gift for the survivors, a Bible which had been inscribed with Luke 23:43 which says “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” 

     Mitsuo Fuchida later met Jacob DeShazer and they became close friends. They even preached together in crusades in Japan.  What made the difference in these two men’s lives? Jesus! 

      It is Christ in your life that makes a difference also.