A Bad Example

GCD Weekly Newsletter - 18th April 2025

The man didn’t even stop to turn around, he just saw me and ran.

I wasn’t entirely surprised. If you saw a man washing blood red paint off of his face in a public restroom, I think you might do the same… especially if it wasn’t immediately obvious that it was paint.

Some ideas work better in our heads.

I was leading a group on the blood of Christ, and half remembered an illustration I’d once seen while I was en route. I stopped quickly to pick up some paint from a local store. The illustration went something like this, “We can’t fully imagine what it is like to be covered by the blood of Jesus, so let me show you!” The youth leader then took some acrylic paint, and ran it all across his face, his hands, before looking back at a room of shocked youths. For years, when I thought about the blood of Christ, that’s what I saw.

So, I turned up, began to teach, and to close I took out the tube of paint I’d bought, and did likewise. It hadn’t quite had the desired effect, but never mind not every illustration lands. That was, until I went to wash it off. It was only then that I realised that the tube of paint I had purchased wasn’t acrylic, but oil. After mere minutes, it had stained my skin. I came back into the room, and then the jaws began to drop. As you might imagine, none of them would ever let me forget that night.

I washed at the house, I washed at the restroom in the local train station before heading home, and I took a shower once I got there.

It still took about three days to get the last of it out.

I went to work, to a couple of gatherings, all with a distinct red tint across my hands and face.

I don’t suggest recreating this in your own Bible studies. I was young, but I probably still should have known better, however, I would encourage you to recreate the aftereffects.

That red tint led to conversation after conversation about Jesus. I couldn’t escape them! Even strangers approached me to ask what had happened. I didn’t shy away from the truth. I shared the gospel more during those three days than the previous three years combined.

Today is Good Friday. This is the day we remember the blood that was spilled, the body that was broken, through the sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

If that was written across your face for the next three days, how might that change your interactions?

Last Week at GCDiscipleship.com

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