Every football fan knows one thing about Croatia - the national football team have the most amazing shirt design - a red and white chessboard!
As I work through this year's World Cup nations alphabetically I choose instead to reflect on Croatia being the first country I've come to which is directly mentioned in the Bible. (By directly I don't mean by name but by the province it was at the time of the New Testament letters). Here it is, in Romans chapter 15, verse 19 . . .
17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done – 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.
Illyricum, which today's coastal Croatia then was, had an early opportunity to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How did that happen?
It happened because it was Paul's ambition (20) to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known. The good news of Jesus did not spread around the world by default or by means of a virus. The change that Jesus brings is enough to drive people to the places and to the people that would otherwise be left to live and die in lives that flourish only in the manner of most nations' transient World Cup dreams.
17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done – 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way round to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.
Illyricum, which today's coastal Croatia then was, had an early opportunity to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How did that happen?
It happened because it was Paul's ambition (20) to preach the Gospel where Christ was not known. The good news of Jesus did not spread around the world by default or by means of a virus. The change that Jesus brings is enough to drive people to the places and to the people that would otherwise be left to live and die in lives that flourish only in the manner of most nations' transient World Cup dreams.
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