Living for the Gospel

Living out of a suitcase lately and having irregular times for meals and the normal chores going out the window, really makes me appreciate routine. But I also chose to toss out my regular timetable of work and home life for a season of Ministry. A season of reaching out to others wherever we were. This season was special.

Mainly because God turned up.

So, when sometimes the tiredness was seeping into my bones as the days progressed God was ever before me nourishing me with His Word and showing me His miraculous love and mercy in people’s lives. It was God’s presence that spurred the team on. It was not their loyalty that made them continue (even though they are loyal).  It was not that they were just doing their job and are employed to do this. No. They could have decided many times “it was too hard and tiring.” It was the Holy Spirit working visibly and invisibly in people’s lives, in our own lives, that fanned, even more, the flame burning within us.

It reminded me of Paul the apostle when he was having a discussion with some people on exercising his rights as a person who works hard, but not exercising his Authority as one who is more entitled, as one who should be served, should be supported by others….

He states:

Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

1 Corinth 9:12 NRSV

He does not want anything to get in the way that would prevent someone from believing the Gospel. He even limits his freedoms further by becoming all things to all people to win some for Christ. Paul details the different ways in which he reaches out to Jews, to those under the law, to those outside of the law and to those who are weak. In each case he chooses to enter their world for the sake of the Gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

1 Corinth 9:19-23 NRSV

Paul was not changing the truth of the Gospel but more the way he presented it to the different people. He was not becoming weak in his character but was reaching into the world of the weak and having empathy with them so as to share Jesus with them so that they would be saved.

In a very small way, our Mission Team was doing that. To those who had questions and needed discussion on certain points we engaged. To those who just needed a shoulder to cry on, we were there. To those who needed to dispel frustration and even anger at their circumstances we were a listening caring ear. To those who just needed guidance we pointed the way to Jesus.

Where in your ordinary life do you choose to enter into the world of people who don’t know Christ?  

Do you have a listening ear?

A shoulder to cry on?

A heart that just loves?

I need to answer all of these questions too because I need God in my ordinary life. I need to share the Gospel exactly where I am at in my ordinary life and not just on Mission.

That’s when I truly show how important Jesus is in my life, in my ordinary life, in my private life and not just when it is on display during “work hours.”

May these jottings from my journal inspire you to believe in and fall in love with Christ- the hope of the world, as stated in Jeremiah 17:7, ‘Blessed is the man who believes and trusts in and relies on the Lord and whose hope and confident expectation is the Lord!’

Love

Rosemary

Every week groups of ladies meet together to chat about the things I raise in my weekly blog post and to chat about life in general. We call these ‘Heart Connect’ groups.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Do you enter into other people’s worlds to share the Gospel? How could you go about doing this?

Do you show love and empathy as Christ would? If not, what is stopping you? How could you make a change?

Do you display Christ in private as well as in your public life?