As a Christian for 19 plus years I’ve heard a lot of remarks when the discussion of Jesus Christ comes up. Some of them I probably made myself before receiving salvation. One common one is “Don’t start preaching to me!” When I think back to my own pre salvation I remember hearing people talk of God and generally it was in reference to attending church and paying tithes. I can honestly say I can’t remember anyone telling me I needed to be saved, At least not until I was 51 years old.
The Bible was a complicated book of rules in my eyes, with a few nice stories like Noah’s Ark, Jesus birth in a stable, and something about a young boy slaying a giant with a sling shot. Christmas was about Santa Claus and gifts, Easter was about egg hunts and lots of candy and thanksgiving was about a family get together for a turkey and all the trimmings.
I never did have a rebellious spirit for hearing about Jesus; I just didn’t even know why he went to the cross and what that accomplished. I guess I wasn’t around the people that had been misled in their own Biblical experience and who boldly spread a harmful gospel of half-truths and man-made traditions that make God’s Word of non-affect.
Once I was invited to a Bible teaching church with saved souls attending and declaring their joy of salvation I realized there was something to this book the Bible and God gave me a hunger and thirst to know what God wanted me to know. As my journey with the Lord began I was a bit ignorant, gullible and easily misled. But like I said God had given me a hunger and thirst to know Him and the truth. As I continued to learn the Word of God and He gave me more and more understanding I realized I was expected to share this great joy I was experiencing. And I became strongly aware of the consequences for those who did not know Him and did not know the need for salvation.
Matthew 28:18-20 tells us Christians what is expected of us and comes from Jesus himself because of his love for people, because he wants no one to perish. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” And while this is so endearing to a saved soul it is not the only reason. You see once you’ve been saved you have the spirit of Christ inside you and you have a love for others you never had before and the thought of any of them perishing in the pits of hell is pure agony.
That’s what propels us to reach out, to speak out and to share the joy of the salvation we have received. To have your own personal relationship with your creator is like nothing else on this earth and there are no words to completely tell how it embodies you and gives you so much joy, love, peace and rest.
Billy Graham once said … There are two things we can never outrun – the love of God and the reality of our sin. Our sin keeps us separated from the Lord because we are only natural persons before the salvation experience. 1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. This is why so many look at this relationship as though we Christians are a bit crazy. WE are foolish to a non-Christian. Since I was there myself I know that this is truth. I once was this natural person without His spirit.
Understanding comes with the hearing of the Word, with study of the Word, with seeking the truth of the Word. The Word is Jesus Christ and his selfless sacrifice on that cross and as I live and breathe I know I would have known the truth long before I was 51 had someone told me I needed to come to Christ. John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through me”
You see It needs to be spoken out for all to hear so that none should perish but all should come to salvation. That’s why Christians speak it out!
