missions

I have spent a good amount of time talking about preaching the Gospel in social justice and apart from social justice. That, in the end, the Gospel of Christ is of the utmost importance and the betterment of the world is a secondary. That does not mean that we should not strive to better the lives of those around us, to rescue the poor and downtrodden.

Now, I think, in order to preach the Gospel at all times by proclaiming the good news of Christ, we must be fully aware of the great grace we have received. If we are to ever be able to properly tell of the faith and hope we have, then we must be fully enthralled by the greatness and glory of our great Savior. We must become enraptured in his love.

We does this by proclaiming the Gospel to each other before we ever go proclaim it to others. We must, each day and each hour, tell each other and remind ourselves of the great Gospel which we have received so that we don't forget it. So that we continue to be in love with Him. So that we abide each day in His grace.

If we do this, I agree with John Piper in his book Desiring God then we will be like the Macedonians who, although they were poor, gave with great joy out of the love that was in their hearts that the Gospel of Christ be made known to all and that those in need within the bounds of the church would be provided for.

May we, as brothers and sisters, take time to remind each other of the greatness of our Gospel, lest we forget it and not fulfill our great commission. We cannot do it without first knowing it and being fully engulfed in it. We may try and at times God may grant us the ability to succeed but it will be weak compared to what can be accomplished by the overflow of our hearts to the hopeless world.

-joe