Day 35, September 12, 2011
Today was yet another beautiful day, which truly makes me
appreciate being able to work outside at my job. I love to watch the clouds float by in the brilliant blue
sky. There is something truly
magnificent about a partly cloudy day.
I am always amazed at how our God can bring me to a place of awe day
after day at the beauty of this earth.
I personally believe that there is no other evidence necessary to prove
the existence of a wonderful and loving God than this beautiful earth we live
in.
As I completed the different tasks I had to do at work, I
took my wife’s iPod with me and listened to Christian music and a podcast from
David Platt. There is something so
uplifting about listening to music about my Savior and a sermon from someone
passionately in love with Jesus. I
love how it motivates me to live passionately in my own walk. It helps me to focus on my purpose on
this planet and to trust the Lord’s direction in all parts of my life.
This afternoon we started back our small group after a
summer break. When we stopped for
the summer, we were halfway through the book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt. Tonight my wife led the study on the
chapter called “No Plan B.” This
chapter is a truly challenging chapter about God laying all the responsibility
on us to share the gospel of Jesus with the world. Though God could use anything he wanted to bring the gospel
to the world, he chose to leave it in the hands of us, Jesus’ followers.
Sometimes it seems that Christianity is the perfect example
of the bystander effect. All of us
are sitting around not telling people about the gospel of Jesus because we
figure, that with all the other Christians in the world, someone else must be
doing it. The problem with this is
that Jesus never intended for special followers to share His gospel with the
world. He intended for all
of us to passionately share the gospel with a lost and dying world. We say we love Jesus and want to
passionately live for Him each day and yet we don’t seemed to be bothered by
the fact that 4.5 billion people on this planet are without Christ and over a
billion of those have never even had the opportunity to know Jesus or His
gospel truth.
How is it possible that these figures can be true and yet it
seems that less than 1% of all Christians are trying to do anything about
it? How can we sit in our cozy
homes, work our cozy jobs, attend our beautiful churches, and keep our lives focused
within our family and friends without being haunted by the billions of souls
going to hell. Yes, I said
it. All people who do not know
Jesus and accept Him as savior will be going to hell. There is absolutely nothing in the Bible that indicates
otherwise. Jesus himself said, “I
am the way, the truth, and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me.” There are no ifs, ands,
or buts here. There is only one
God the Father and Jesus is the only way to Him. If we believe this is true then why aren’t we trying to
share the gospel with as many people as possible? If you do not believe this is true tonight, then I challenge
you to read every word that Jesus said and ask yourself if the Son of God
offered any other way to Heaven.
I hope you will see your life and your walk in a different
light tomorrow. I hope that you
are so haunted by the idea of your family, friends, coworkers, and/or
acquaintances going to hell because they don’t know Jesus that you would be
motivated to speak to them boldly and compassionately about the gospel of
Jesus. We can’t waste time
anymore. We have to tell the world
the Gospel of Jesus, which we know to be true. It is the only way that people can ever know Jesus.
Paul says, “But how are they to call on him in whom they
have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never
heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to
preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the good news!’”
The point I believe Paul is trying to make here is that we are to be the
beautiful feet! I believe this
verse is a call to all the followers of Christ to remember who they are and
what they are living for. In
America, it is so easy to get distracted by the news, technology, materialism,
food, events, church services, charities, etc. We have to break the scales from our eyes and see the
desperate situation our world is in today. Will you become another pair of beautiful feet for Christ
today? I hope so. I look forward to joining you in
ministry and celebrating with you one day in heaven as we humbly bow at the
feet of Christ.
Blessings brothers and sisters,
Greg
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