Does your life preach the good news?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
(Romans 10:15 (NIV))

Do you read this and think to yourself that you are thankful you aren’t called to preach? Are you silently thankful that you have trouble stringing words together in a way that will make people understand? Have you bought in to the false assumption that preachers minister and church members receive? Is this in line with the words that Jesus left us with?

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
(Mark 16:15 (NIV))

When we think of preaching, we have a tendency to think of someone who stands in front of a congregation on Sunday morning. I honestly don’t think that this is what Jesus meant. I have read this passage in context many times, and nowhere do I see anything that indicates that Jesus was only speaking to those who were eloquent of speech. There are many ways to “preach,” or to share the Gospel of Jesus. Standing in front of a crowd and proclaiming the Gospel is only one way. Whether you believe that these words were spoken by St. Francis of Asisi, they hold much truth and wisdom.

“Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”
(St. Francis of Asisi)

We are not all gifted in the same ways, but as members of the Body of Christ, we are all called to the same task.

Let me ask a simple question for your consideration. How many remember having to write papers when you were in school? I remember all too well having to do this, yet, every time that a class was given an assignment, no two people did it exactly the same way. We readily accept this fact that we are all different in our lives, yet we feel that we have to follow a pattern to share Jesus. To be completely honest with you, if any of us had to convince someone else to follow Jesus based on our strengths, I seriously doubt that anyone would ever follow Jesus. It is when we allow Jesus to work through us and when we show what Jesus has done in our lives that people take notice. They will not pay any attention to our words or our strengths, but they will take notice of how Jesus turned our weaknesses into something wonderful. They will begin to see that Jesus can take their weaknesses and do the very same thing.

Take a serious look at your life. Do people see Jesus in you?

Does your life preach the good news?

Copyright 1998 – 2018 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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How do you see the things of God?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years,
(Genesis 1:14 (NIV))

Did you watch the solar eclipse? Are you glad that it is over? If you are like the majority of people in the United States, you have seen enough information about the solar eclipse to where you could probably write your own research paper solely from memory. To be honest with you, it was an amazing event to see.

I find it interesting that humanity is so obsessed with these types of events, yet they fail to recognize that these types of events are clearly defined and foretold in the Bible. Society tries to explain them based on scientific reasoning. Please don’t misunderstand me and try to draw any false implications. There is nothing wrong with science. Science allows us to explore and try to understand creation. It allows us to form a hypothesis about a particular subject and then test that hypothesis to see if it is accurate. Over the course of human history, scientific conclusions have often changed when addressing the same subject. In essence, a hypothesis is only an assumption that someone makes for the sake of argument. They then have to defend that assumption. What I find so perplexing, based on this definition, is that when someone comes to a different assumption and tries to have a civil argument over the different assumption, someone is always labeled as ignorant and uneducated. Based on historical record and the very definition of hypothesis, science is man’s attempt to correctly explain what we see when how we interpret what we see is influenced by our less than perfect ability to perceive the truth.

The solar eclipse was a fantastic example of humanity trying to explain what we see when what we see is so far beyond our comprehension. If Jesus delays His return, humanity might get better at explaining things. However, we will never understand creation the way that the Creator does. If God said that something is to serve as signs, then we should take that at face value. I, like may people, are intrigued by the “how” with respect to what God does, but it will never be more important than the “why.”

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:9 (NIV))

How do you see the things of God?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Visit us on facebook