The words of Peter spoken from Solomon's Portico.
"What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all things about which God spoke by mouth of his prophets long ago. Moses said, The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people."
Acts 3:18-23
So what must we do to be saved? REPENT and BELIEVE on JESUS CHRIST.
How many people who hear that even knows what repent means? How many even know what sin is?
I am sure there are a lot in the church who don't know the meaning of those words much less those outside on the streets.
How can something be good news to someone when they don't realize they need it?
That is where the Holy Spirit comes in. It is he who brings us to realize our need for change.
We must be proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. As we do, it is the soveriegn move of God who opens peoples hearts to realize "yes I do need a savior", because the Holy Spirit brings conviction upon the hearts of those who "hear" the word.
That is something the Lord does as HE wills. He will call those who are His and they will want to change as they believe.
We as believers have one charge! Go out and proclaim the goodnews to the sick, broken hearted and downtrodden. We do the proclaiming for the Lord and He does the saving.
I praise God for "giving" us an opportunity to go out and work for Him.
It is He who is control. He doesn't need our permission, nor does He even need to use us, but He "chooses" to use us. Mere lowly servants.
So go out and proclaim the good news. If you are a believer then you have the GOOD NEWS living inside of you. For you too once was a wretch in need of a Saviour.
Remember that as you go.
2 comments:
"nor does He even need to use us, but He "chooses" to use us."
I really like how you pointed that out, seems like that fact gets forgotten all too easily....
We also are being convicted that we need to make an effort to stay focused on those who are truly the downcast, the lowly, the sick... It's crazy how easy it is to get caught up trying to share the Truth with people who in the end are simply not interested, (ironically enough, we seem to find most of them in churches...), because they do not perceive themselves as having any dire need... It's easy to find oneself in the place of offering pearls to pigs, I know that sounds harsh, but it makes so much sense, after all, pigs don't appreciate the value of a pearl, they'll eat anything that's thrown in front of them....
Awesome post. - Daniel
Daniel, it is a great thing that God is control and still allows us to join in on the fun.
I love the pearls and the swine scripture, because it so true that we end up wasting our time on things or people God doesn't want us to worry about.
Steven
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