Snail Mail Died in 1860

The Pony Express is one of those romantic pieces of Americana. I picture cowboys racing across the frontier at full speed, carrying saddlebags full of letters through deserts, mountains, and dangerous territory.

The Pony Express was created because it took so long for mail to travel across the country. A letter from New York to California could take weeks or even months to arrive. The Pony Express guaranteed delivery in just ten days. It cost $5 to send a single letter, which is more than $150 in today's money.

What surprised me is that the Pony Express only lasted 18 months. I always assumed it operated for decades! Why did it disappear so quickly? Because about a year and a half after it began, a little invention called the telegraph changed everything. For about the same price, a message could travel in minutes rather than days. The Pony Express couldn't compete.

The messengers changed, but the message kept moving.

Tomorrow we'll finish our journey through the book of Acts. Paul finally arrives in Rome, but something becomes clear almost immediately: Luke isn't writing a biography of Paul. He's telling the story of Jesus continuing to build His church. Paul would eventually die, but the gospel wouldn't. The messenger would change, but the message would keep moving.
That's how the gospel reached you.

It crossed oceans, outlasted empires, survived persecution, and passed through countless ordinary men and women who faithfully shared the good news of Jesus with the next person. The story didn't end with Paul, and it doesn't end with us.

Join us tomorrow as we discover why the final chapter of Acts is really an invitation to continue the story.