Today is a new day

Today, I decided to open up the book of Romans and start from the beginning. As I started reading the opening part of the letter, I found myself experiencing a fresh fire to the purpose that God bestowed in me. Going to college and finishing my master's degree was something that I wanted to do ever since I started my undergrad degree. Long before that I knew that God called me to some form of ministry, which come to find out in the early years was student ministry. But even before that, I made a decision to let Christ control my life, my desires, my plans and in return I would have the privilege to spend eternity with Him. While I was reading verse 5: "Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name"I started to think about the way the church views this. How I view this. I feel that many people have forgotten that in our lives, new lives in Christ, that we have been given the privilege and authority to speak the love of Christ anywhere. So why is it so hard to do this? I personally believe it's pride. We are a society that holds dear to things that mean something to us. We hate sharing, we hate opening up to others in fear that people will judge us, we hate the fact that we have to speak to other people. I kept reading on and came across verse 14: "For I have a great sense of obligation to people in our culture and to people in other cultures, to the educated and uneducated alike." Wow....coming from a man who hated Christians to a man who loves Christ now, this was his desire! His whole life's purpose, Christ's purpose for all who call him Lord, is to have a sense of obligation, desire or passion to tell others about Christ so that they can have an opportunity to believe and obey the Risen King. What if this was our attitude every morning? I am obligated because Christ has given me the power and strength (privilege) and authority to tell of His great love! IF this could be our attitude then we could easily say this: verse 16: "For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ." 

Just something to think about as we get closer to Passion Week. Will you do whatever it takes?

A