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Mark 1:15 Devotional
by Bobby Bruno "The time promised by God has come at last, he announced. The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!" Mark 1:15 (NLT) I've heard the Gospel summed up this way, "Jesus lived; Jesus died; Jesus lived. You die; you live; you don't die anymore." That's the simplest I've heard it put. Sure, there's a lot more to it, but that's the Gospel in a nutshell. But, for many, that's enough. Unfortunately, the above way doesn't show the beauty and the power of the Gospel when taken as a whole. It doesn't show how you die, live, and never die again, or why you would even want to. It is important that we know the whole Gospel inside and out. If the person we are trying to convince that Jesus should be their Savior hears or sees any kind of confusion in what we say, or how we express ourselves through our body language, they may not believe us because they may think that we don't really believe it ourselves. The only way to tell the Gospel with any kind of passion or zeal is to know what we are talking about. It's the same way with the gifts that God has given us through His Spirit; God expects us to know our gifts to the fullness of the abilities that gift contains; He expects us to know these gifts in every way possible, inside and out. It's the same with the Gospel we must know it to the fullness of the abilities God has given us to proclaim it. You can't tell someone about repentance if you have never studied the subject for yourself. If you don't know the difference between repentance and testing then how can you safely and confidently tell others what each one means and how to apply them to their lives? When we get saved, God expects us at some time in our lives to know His word backwards and forwards, so that we can confidently tell others about this Jesus we love. Jesus planted the seed through His Holy Spirit at salvation. As Paul proclaimed in 2 Timothy 2:15, we must water that seed by studying the word, not only so we can be approved by God, but so by that approval we can be used to change millions of lives in the lifetime God has given us to serve the unsaved He places in front of us so we may tell them about His Son. Bobby Bruno was saved 15 years ago in a way that left him no doubt that Jesus wanted him to reach others with His great and abounding love. He started writing at the age of 12 and hasn't stopped since. He achieved Associates Degree in Biblical Studies from Ohio Christian University in early 2014. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |