1st Century iPod

Recently, I bought my wife an iPod Shuffle--you know, the miniature version of Apple’s mp3 player that’s about half the size of a stick of gum?

Now I have to confess that although I truly intended this be a gift for Sharon, I’ve been getting quite a bit of use out of it. I can’t even begin to tell you how handy this little thing comes in when washing the car or mowing the lawn or drowning out the sound of crying 3-month old twins.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve really enjoyed using it while jogging. The nicest feature about the Shuffle is that it’ll clip right onto your clothes, so your hands are completely free to do whatever they please while running—you can wave at a neighbor, wipe sweat from your brow, or, if you’re like me, clutch your chest as you experience the early stages of cardiac arrest. It’s very liberating!

But, admittedly, the iPod shuffle has very little functionality. It’ll play music, it’ll shuffle your playlist, but that’s about it. No frills. No bells and whistles. I have another version of the iPod that can do much more than this little postage stamp of an mp3 player could ever hope to do.

But here’s the thing: the iPod shuffle’s appeal isn’t its endless functions or limitless features. Its popularity is in its portability. The fact that you can take it virtually anywhere and use it while doing virtually anything is what makes the iPod shuffle so great.

And I think there’s a lot to be said about the virtues of portability. Just ask the Apostle Paul. He’d tell you that the Church wouldn’t have survived without it.

You see, when Paul was appointed to be the apostle to the Gentiles, he found out very quickly that among the many tasks that were listed on his job description, traveling and preaching were at the top.

And if you travel a lot, you know how important portability is when it comes to your luggage. There’s nothing worse than having to haul a massive suitcase or bag that’s too big, too heavy, or doesn’t have wheels.

So imagine Paul’s dilemma when he’s charged with the responsibility of transporting the immeasurable freight of the Gospel--the burden of carrying on his shoulders the immense message of the love of God in Jesus Christ.

A message so huge that he said to the church in Ephesus, “I pray that you may have the power, together with the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

It was a lot to carry. But you know what? He did it. He actually did it. And this is how: by making the Gospel portable.

Now, when I say that he made the Gospel portable, I don’t mean that Paul went around handing out pocket-size versions of the Bible or that he went from town to town passing out tracts.

What I mean is that Paul took the immensity of the Gospel message and distilled it. He boiled it down to its very essence and then framed it in a way that made it easy to carry with him.

Take Romans 10:8-10 for instance:

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe with your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified,
And it’s with the mouth that you confess and are saved.

Now at first glance, it may seem like a lot to remember. But notice what he did. He created a little 4-line poem, a quatrain. The more technical term is kiasmus.

And what makes it easy to remember is the shape of the poem. It’s got an A-B-B-A form to it. It’s Mouth-Heart-Heart-Mouth.

“If you confess with your mouth…believe with your heart…it’s with the heart you believe…with the mouth you confess.” Pretty easy to remember it that way, isn’t it?

2 Corinthians 8:9 is another example:

"For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich."

Did you catch the pattern? Rich-Poor-Poor-Rich.

The great thing about Paul’s method is you don’t need to write it down or spend hours trying to memorize it. He makes it simple. It’s the kind of thing you can slip into the back pocket of your mind and pull it out whenever you need it.

And for Paul that was important. Because whether you’re in prison (which he was a lot) or on a mission trip or just sitting with a friend at the local coffee shop, you had with you the Word of faith. Right there at your disposal, you had the heart of the Gospel.

In a lot of ways, Paul’s Gospel message is a lot like an iPod Shuffle: it’s compact, simple to use, and easy to take with you.

In fact, the only difference between the two that I can see is that one is best used with earphones…the other is best used with a megaphone.