For thought and meditation

[rl69]

And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"

—Romans 10:14–15

From the original Greek, we could translate the final question in Romans 10:14 as, “How shall they hear without one preaching?” The Phillips translation puts it this way, “How can they hear unless someone proclaims Him?” Therefore, we see the emphasis is not on a preacher, but on preaching.

We may think the work of evangelism is only for those who are called to be evangelists. Granted, there are people in the church whom God has raised up to be evangelists, and certainly, evangelism is not limited to those who preach to hundreds or thousands at a time. I have seen many individual believers who obviously have this gift.

While it is true that some are called to be evangelists, it is also true that every Christian is called to evangelize. Many times, however, we avoid sharing our faith, deciding instead to just live it out, be a good witness, and leave the preaching to others.

Yet in 1 Corinthians 1:21, it says, “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

This does not mean that we need to scream, yell, and wave a Bible to get the point across. What it does mean is that we are to recognize the primary way God has chosen to reach the lost is through the proclamation of the gospel–by people. God has chosen the agency of His proclaimed Word to bring people to salvation

[Blackwater]

"We may think the work of evangelism is only for those who are called to be evangelists. Granted, there are people in the church whom God has raised up to be evangelists, and certainly, evangelism is not limited to those who preach to hundreds or thousands at a time."

Amen! Does anyone ever ask themselves, just what it takes to get someone to a revival or church service? Usually, it takes a LOT to uproot someone from their normal routines, and get them to come to a church to be "preached at!" But it's what we HAVE to do. And the best way to do that is to cajole them into it, and make it hard for them to refuse. How do we do that? Depends on who you're talking to. Christ never said it'd be EASY to get folks to church or revival. All he said is that if we'll try, He'll show us the way if we're simply faithful. And good-humored. A nice, friendly folk at church also helps get them back again.

I grew up in "country churches" where sometimes, all we had to offer many folks was just a good, friendly and jolly group of people who went there. Some of the preachers we had weren't exactly stellar performers, and yet, even so, we gained converts! There's a lesson in that, I think. We often don't need to be the best and brightest, just persistent and jovial. The "soft approach" often will get them there, and it's amazing how many deniers have been secretly thinking about their disbelief, and wishing they did and COULD believe. And then, one day, you ask them to go to church with you, and BOOM! Suddenly, their eyes are opened, their ears can hear, and ... they become a believer! And all it takes is confident persistence with a good nature. The rest is just letting God prepare them for the message He'll send to them.

We like to assume we know all that we need to know about folks from what they've SAID, both currently and in the past. But we DON'T!!! There's always a lot going on underneath that exterior folks wear! And we can NEVER know what's working within them. But we CAN be persistent, and good natured, and non-nagging. Keep it low key and we don't run many off. And every one we can get to church is one more CHANCE to get yet one more convert. And our ranks grow one soul at a time!

If we did what Christ said we should do, we'd be a MIGHTY ARMY! But if we let ourselves languish and find and accept excuse after excuse for our lack of following Christ's advice ..... well, He never made any secret of where that eventually leads, did He? It's all there. All we need is to USE it!

[Boaz]

Good verse !