Articles
Excited Over Ice
Our kids have been fascinated lately by ice. When they wake up in the morning, they immediately put on their shoes, run outside and search for ice in the yard. The idea that it could be so cold outside that ice forms naturally is astonishing for three boys who have spent the majority of their lives in Florida.
It is so normal for most of you reading this article. You know every January that ice is forming outside. It is so expected that it is mundane, and sometimes even irritating. An ice-covered windshield is frustrating and an ice-covered sidewalk is dangerous. What is fascinating to some is an irritant to others. It’s funny how our experiences can create such various reactions to the same events.
This is a good reminder for us who have let the Gospel become mundane. We know the Gospel story. We have repeatedly studied the four gospels at the beginning of our New Testaments. We daily remember our Lord Jesus and His sacrifice. We weekly celebrate and remember His life, death, and resurrection through the Lord’s Supper. We sing songs about His goodness and pray our petitions to His throne of grace. We are so familiar with the story of Jesus that we sometimes absentmindedly, even flippantly, talk about our Lord. Instead of speaking of Him with passion, we treat Him with complacency.
So when it comes to telling others about Jesus, we assumed too often that others wouldn’t be interested because we’ve grown uninterested. We assume Jesus won’t make a difference to our friends and family because we forget what a difference He has made to each of us. We assume others will be bored with our worship because we are bored with our worship. Our lack of inviting others to the Gospel and to worship probably says more about our relationship with God than what theirs could be.
My challenge to you today is imagine you are hearing the Gospel for the first time. Imagine you are lost in sin without the hope of having that sin erased. Imagine you were looking for a simple version of Christianity but couldn’t find it anywhere. Imagine you were tired of cold-hearted people playing church and your friend had not told you of the loving group of which they were a part. Imagine you knew where you worshipped didn’t do things right but you didn’t yet know of anywhere that did things better. Imagine looking for the right things but not finding it because no one would share their answers with you. Imagine just wanting to find someone who could answer your Bible questions without giving you a bunch of opinions and church theology.
The truth is you don’t have to imagine. You have a friend, somewhere in your life, who is described above. God puts people in our lives who are searching so that we can provide them answers. God desires that we share our truth with them. Let’s share the excitement of the Gospel with those who are in our lives and find those who are searching and willing to follow Him.
