Rescue the Drowning

This past Wednesday I attended an excellent forum at Summit Church called Send RDU. It centered around the Church's role in spreading the Gospel to the world. JD Greear led the discussion and covered many topics including discerning God's will, vocational ministry and the lost state of the world. Also, he cast his vision for Summit church and said the church plans to plant 1,000 churches within forty years. Praise God! Overall, I found his insights helpful and I felt God used my time at the forum to bring my heart to closer to living out the Great Commission.

God continually burdens my heart for lost people. As I study Scripture more and more, I realize the world is literally drowning in sin apart from Christ. For instance, Romans 14:23 says "everything that does not come from faith is sin." This verse really opened my eyes to the notion of sin. Honestly, I never considered humanitarian efforts in Sudan or government sponsored relief work in New Orleans as sin until I understood this verse. I can see from a human perspective how its hard to acknowledge such 'good' moral acts as sinful. But I think Scripture provides insight into God's perspective because it plainly says everything apart from faith is sin. With this definition of sin, I think the sinfulness of the world becomes obvious. Just think about all of the good moral actions people commit each day apart from faith. According to Romans, these actions are sin! Now add all the other 'bad' sins we easily recognize as Christians such as jealousy, murder, lust, rape, greed, idolatry, pride and theft. Taking all this into account, the world's total depravity becomes clearer.

Therefore, I find it completely necessary to share the good news because Romans 6:23 says "the wages of sin is death," in other words, hell. Hell is a reality and lost people are heading straight for it. Yet, the second part of that same verse says, "but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." What glorious news! Why wouldn't we share the gift of Jesus Christ with everyone and anyone? Penn Jillette, the famous magician and self-proclaimed atheist, asked this question on a YouTube video to all Christians: If you really believe non-Christians are going to hell for eternity, how much do you have to hate them not to at least share with them about Jesus Christ? I found this question very convicting.

We've got to step up as the body of Christ and start living missionally. We need to make sharing the Gospel our top priority. In Christ name, I pray for God to give us the grace and ability to share the good news through the power of the Holy Spirit!

May the wooden planks of the cross rescue the drowning and may they come to know the precious name of Jesus!



In Him,

Mark