Weekly Devotion - OPEN UP AND TALK ABOUT GOD - June 14, 2010

From Lenae, GEMS Training Manager

OPEN UP AND TALK ABOUT GOD

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

Matthew 28:19-20

One of my favorite Christmas carols to hear and watch children sing is Go Tell It On the Mountain. Children sing with passion and are free of inhibitions. They proclaim Jesus’ birth without fear of how people will respond, without wondering if they’ll be rejected or scoffed at, and without questioning whether they’ll be able to answer theological questions about His virgin birth or prophecy fulfilled. They simply open up and sing!

When Jesus rose from the dead Mary Magdalene and the other women became the first heralds of the good news. When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene . . . She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it (Mark 16:9-11).

When Jesus told them, “Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (Matthew 28:10), the women obeyed. They went and opened up and talked about God. Some who heard doubted them (Matthew 28:17). Some who heard refused to believe (Mark 16:11). Their negative responses didn’t hinder the women from sharing the good news and planting seeds. They understood that God is the One who makes those seeds grow (1 Corinthians 3:6). The results are in His hands.

How often do you open up and talk about God to people who need to hear about Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection? Are you proclaiming it from the mountaintops with child-like passion? Are you obediently going and telling? Or are you tongue-tied, fearful, or silent?

In Greg Laurie’s book, Making God Known – How to Bring Others to Faith, he writes, “According to one poll, nine out of ten American adults cannot accurately define the meaning of the Great Commission. Seven in ten adults have no clue what ‘John 3:16’ means. But the most alarming statistic of all is that 95 percent of Christians have never led another person to Christ.”

We must quit overcomplicating things! We are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), empowered to be His disciple-makers (Matthew 28:19), and chosen to be His royal priesthood that we may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). You are needed to go and tell! The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few (Luke 10:2).

PASSION Step: Feed the fire: open up and talk about God to someone who doesn’t know Jesus.

The evangelistic harvest is always urgent. God will hold us responsible at the Judgment Seat of Christ for how well we fulfilled our responsibilities and took advantage of our opportunities.

Billy Graham