Posts Tagged ‘gospel’

The Christian’s Duty

February 4th, 2010 No Comments

As Christians, it is our duty to preach the gospel everywhere we go. Our actions and behaviors, the way we speak to people and treat them, and even our thoughts are a reflection of the truth of the gospel in us. Our very lives ought to preach that gospel. Our every action and thought should be a direct reflection of the character of God.

Whether you find yourself a free will or predestination person, here is where the Bible stands on the issue on salvation:

13 For t “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him u of whom they have never heard? [3] And how are they to hear v without someone preaching?15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, w “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But x they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says,y “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So z faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

Romans 10:13-17

These verses are linked by a simple logic here:

  1. People can call on Jesus to save them only if they believe he can do so.
  2. Belief in Christ can’t exist without knowledge about him.
  3. One hears about Christ only when someone proclaims the saving message.
  4. The message about Christ will not be proclaimed unless someone is sent by God to do so.

This is why the apostle Paul was so adamant and urgent about reaching everyone with the gospel—he believed that the only way to be saved was to hear and believe the gospel.

The weight falls on the Christian here…your friends and family that you love and care for so much will only come to know God by your proclaiming the gospel to them. They need to call on Jesus, but they need that knowledge and proclamation to come from you. If there’s someone in your life that doesn’t know Jesus, then YOU are the one called to proclaim the gospel to them!

So here’s the question…

Who in your life needs to hear the gospel by the way you speak and live?

It’s YOUR duty and obligation as a Christian to love them with God’s unreal love.

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Our Call

January 8th, 2010 No Comments

Romans 1:16

16 For d I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is e the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew f first and also to g the Greek.

If the gospel is the vehicle by which God chooses to save the lost, then Christians are the “drivers” of that vehicle. We are the method, the gospel is the means.

If we fail to live out that very gospel by the way we speak, act, and live in front of the world, we have failed to live out our purpose and call. There is power in that gospel coupled with the willingness of the Christian to speak and live it out.

We can’t be ashamed of that saving grace and gospel, because if we live ashamed of that gospel, we deny the very power that works within it by the Holy Spirit.

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I don’t have words

October 9th, 2009 No Comments

“I don’t have the words when it comes to sharing the gospel. I feel like I freeze up or my tongue just crawls down my throat in a desperate attempt to shy from its responsibility to speak. I’m worried I don’t know what to say. What if I look stupid?”

I’ve had many Christians share their anxiety with me about sharing the gospel with people. It’s a daunting task, no doubt. You have to open yourself up in faith to someone who doesn’t have the same saving faith that you do. But the biggest concern I hear is, “I just don’t know what to say.”

That’s a valid concern. Many times in talking to people about Jesus I have no words to say. But somehow, in asking the Holy Spirit to give me words and give me wisdom, it just happens. Words have come to me in sharing the gospel, and it’s usually different every time. The only thing I can say that I believe the Truth of the Bible:

Romans 8:26
“Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness.”

1 Corinthians 1:27
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:9-10
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

In our finite, temporary, weak minds, we have nothing to offer when it comes to wisdom and speaking to others about the gospel. But the Spirit of God gives us strength. He uses our foolishness and our weakness for his divine purpose and good. It’s in the times of weakness and lack of speech when God’s power truly comes into play. Our weakness is replaced by His strength. Our foolishness is replaced by His wisdom. Our shame becomes God’s glory.

Nothing in us is able to accurately convey what God has done in us. That’s why God makes us able:

2 Corinthians 3:4-6
“Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be minsters of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

We are all called to share the gospel, be “ministers” of the new covenant, which is Jesus crucified and raised for our redemption and justification. To act on our calling, we, in turn, call upon God. We aren’t sufficient to save anyone, but He is. He gives us the grace to preach the gospel with effectiveness and clarity.

I’m glad I can’t do it on my own. It makes me need Jesus.

Noteworthy posts of the day:
- Perry Noble’s “How to Prepare a Message,” part four
- An older post by Matt Chandler on “Pursuit.”

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