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I had the distinct privilege of praying with one of our boys this past week to receive Christ. His hunger to know the Lord has been so encouraging. As I reflect back on the time it was really such a simple process of telling him of his need for Christ that I have to wonder if sometimes I wasn’t previously overthinking my presentation of the gospel. I’m not saying we can’t be creative as we pray on how to share Christ with friends, family members, and coworkers, but sometimes we just have to speak! Give people the opportunity to say, “Yes I receive Him.”
Mark 1:15 records Jesus saying, “The time has come…The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” He then tells Simon and Andrew, “Come, follow me…and I will make you fishers of men.” If your like me, “repent and believe the good news!” conjures up visions of fire and brimstone preachers intimidating people into a conversion experience that leaves them more scared and nervous than it does rejoicing as the man healed of his leprosy did. And maybe your reaction to that is like mine, running as far as I can in the other direction for fear of offending my friends and family. How much more offensive it will be, though, if when I get to heaven and am sharing stories with the saints I tell them I was afraid of offending my friends and family with the gospel. Maybe we just need to let people know, repent and believe the good news. It’s not uncomfortable, it’s the greatest news the world has heard.
Later in Mark, Jesus says, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Thanks be to God that I am a sinner, called by God to be an overcomer through the death and resurrection of Jesus. The kingdom is growing, so let’s let fellow sinners know the good news of God’s grace and mercy.
Be praying for our ministry that we would continue to see young men and women come to know our Savior and that those who come to know Him would be “bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that [they] may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified [them] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.”
