Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the founders of Microsoft, saw an early computer in 1975 on the cover of Popular Electronics. The machine had a few switches and no display. They contacted the inventor, Henry Roberts, and offered to write software for it. Yes, it did crash at times, but soon customers were buying the machine and programming in BASIC, a new computer language.
Years later, they said, “The day our software worked was the start of a lot of great things.”
Dr. Roberts, who invented the machine, died in April 2010. He was called the “father of the personal computer,” and his machine sparked the home computer era. It certainly was a pivotal time, a significant happening.
The co-founder of “Apple,” Steve Wozniak, said that Dr. Roberts had “taken a critically important step that led to everything we have today.”
The resurrection of Jesus was an even more pivotal historical event that brought us the great things we treasure today. The angel told His disciples, “He is not here; for He is risen, as He said” (Matthew 28). These words not only sparked a revolution of hope, but Jesus Christ has changed virtually every aspect of human life. Many fail to realize that.
Historian K. Latourette put it this way: “Measured by His effect on history, the life of Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet.”
Another writer said: “Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3. Yet the influence of Christ’s 3-year ministry transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers.”
Sadly, another writer wishes “the world could have been spared the 2000-year sickness of Christendom.” Interestingly, the people living under Nazi darkness, under Stalin’s terror, under Mao’s revolution, and under the reign of the Khmer Rouge were all spared that “sickness.”
Millions died under those governments. And when I traveled through Siberia, I didn’t meet any whose families thought those days were a picnic. Many recounted “mountains of suffering” under the government that wiped out twice as many of its own citizens as the enemy did in World War II. They overwhelmingly received the Bibles we had brought and begged that their children might hear the “story of Jesus.”
What a wonderful story it is! It tells of Jesus Christ, who came from His glorious place in heaven, down to a humble little home on earth. He was here, on the same earth we know, and He spent His time in “doing good.” He healed the sick, He fed the hungry, and He lived a perfect and sinless life through all.
Thankfully, that day was more of a beginning than an end. He rose from the dead the third day after His death, never to die again. Read the story in Matthew 28. That’s the last page of the first book in the New Testament. It could be the first page of the rest of your life. It could be the pivotal point of your history. It was for me.
Don’t wait.