[Darris McNeely] Tone and voice, tone and voice make all the difference in communicating. On "Beyond Today," we actually have a tone and voice chart that we look to, to help us to gauge our message, how it comes across, what we want to say, the way we want to say it to all of our audience. Tone and voice is very important in our relationships, in communicating, and especially when it comes to developing a relationship with Jesus Christ, with God the Father. When you hear the voice of someone that has impacted your life for good, someone that you respect, that makes a great deal of difference in our life. We'll respond.

There's a story in the aftermath of Christ's crucifixion. The morning after His resurrection, the Gospel accounts tell us that some women came to the empty tomb to finish the preparations that they had not been able to do the day Jesus died. And when they came, they found an empty tomb. And they began to worry, and wonder, and even wept. One disciple, a woman, in this case, Mary Magdalene, from the village of Magdala, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, she'd been the first to discover the empty tomb. And she stood outside that morning crying. And she couldn't make sense of what was taking place, this empty tomb because she had watched the body be put in there more than three days earlier at that point.

The account tells us that she saw two angelic beings sitting on a bench where Christ's body had been. And they asked her, say, "Woman, why are you weeping?" And she said, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." And as soon as she said that, she sensed another presence in the space of that small tomb. And she turned, and she saw Jesus, but she didn't recognize Him. And He asked the same question to her. "Why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?"

And she said, "Well, sir, if you've carried Him away, tell me where you've laid Him and I will take Him away." And she began to cry, the tears overwhelming her. And then she recognized that it was her Savior, her Rabbi, her Master, Jesus of Nazareth. And He said, "Mary." And when He said, "Mary," in the way that He did it with a tone and the voice, she recognized the voice of her Teacher, a voice that at that moment she needed to hear.

In fact, that voice said in that way, at that moment, helped her to recognize who He was because it had been that voice, the voice of Jesus, and His teaching, and His care, compassion, and concern for the disciples, for her and her situation in her life, that had been the only voice, the only voice in her life that had ever spoke into her heart, into the depth of her being, that she listened to and wanted to respond to, a voice whose words, whose teaching brought healing, the voice of Jesus Christ. And she wanted to embrace Him. Christ said to her, "I'm ascending to My Father, and to your Father, and to My God, and your God." The account is in John 20:11 to 18. Mary went on then to be the first one to report to the other disciples about the empty tomb. She was the first one to recognize Jesus in his post-resurrection appearance at that particular time.

God's words give health, give life. "They're like rivers of living water," Jesus once said, "that come from Him." And when they wash over us, when they give us healing, and understanding, they give us a connection to the one voice, to the word, to the meaning, to life, that can make all the difference to us.

Tone and voice, it's an important matter. It was important to Mary in her relationship with Jesus. It's important to us in our relationship with God.

That's "BT Daily." Join us next time.