A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 26 February 2015. Presented to River Street Cafe, 18 December 2015
Read
Romans 1:12-17
I
remember one July 1st in Victoria when our eldest daughter was very
little. We went to Canada Day celebrations at Fort Rodd Hill. It was fun: they
had a lot of things to do and see: We could see people in historical costumes.
There were also mascots dressed like various animals walking around: great for
kids, right?
There
was even one person who was dressed like a tree giving balloons to children and
telling them about the environment; this tree came to say ‘hi’ to us and leaned
over to offer Rebecca (who was 2 at the time) a balloon and asked her, “Do you
like trees?” To which she responded, as sweet as can be: “not trees that talk
and walk.”
Young
kids are not ashamed to speak their mind. Romans 1:16. Paul says, “I am not
ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of
everyone who believes…”
The
word gospel literally translated means ‘good news’. No one is ashamed of good
news, right? And what is this good news? This good news is that we can be saved
from eternal death and damnation.
I have
done a fair amount of disaster relief work in my time. Can you imagine if you
were the first to hear that a tornado, a hurricane, or a flood was going to hit
your community? What if you lived on an island and you heard that the hurricane
was coming and you found out there was one last ferry leaving the island so
that everyone who lived on that island, whether they owned a boat or not, could
be saved? Wouldn’t you call that good news? Wouldn’t you share that good news
of salvation with everyone so that everyone would know of the opportunity to be
saved? You wouldn’t be ashamed of the good news of that salvation.
Paul
is saying that, even now, the world is facing an eschatological hurricane but
there is no need to worry. He has good news. Even though death and destruction
are coming, we can be saved. There is even more to this good news. Paul says
that we don’t need to worry anymore. Through the power of God we can start to
experience this new life this very day! And this is good news and we should
definitely not be ashamed of this!
Now it
is our responsibility to share this good news for, indeed, the Gospel is the
power of God for all to be saved both now and forever. To this end then, I
encourage us all to seize every opportunity to share the good news of salvation
so that all of us may turn to God and be saved.
Who
have you had the opportunity to share the good news of God's salvation with
this week? How will you make sure you take advantage of opportunities to share
the Gospel from now on?
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Romans 1:16: I am
not ashamed of the Gospel! Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army, 05
July 2009. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/07/romans-116-i-am-not-ashamed-of-gospel.html
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