“You don’t become a missionary by crossing the sea, but by seeing the cross”.

How many conditions do you place on your calling? Are you prepared to just say ‘yes’ without exception, or are you playing God by sharing the best news people will ever hear, with just a select few?

I went to ask Jim if he had stolen, but he talked over me. I let him talk. Sometimes the best way to put people at ease is to let them talk about their favourite subject: themselves. I didn’t mind – I enjoy listening to the old-timers talk about the old days anyway.

It is natural when we are fearful, to want to rely on our inner strength to get us through. Adrenaline can be our best friend, but if it goes against our conscience, it can also be our worst enemy.

God is Holy, and therefore will not tolerate any form of unholiness. And one little lie is more than enough to make you unholy. Therefore one little lie is enough for God to pour out His wrath on you, and banish you from His presence – forever.  

You don’t need a crucified and risen Saviour, if you can achieve perfection all by yourself. Take God out of the equation, and bingo, look how much you can do! Look how good you can be! You’re not that bad after all! Look how much guilt of the past you can cancel out! 

The Christian is a strange fish indeed. As the Psalmist says, God gave Christians a law to follow, just like everyone else. But when we fail to keep it 100%, God still loves, forgives, and calls us blessed. How does that work? Aren’t statutes there to keep us in line, and punish us?

Sin is missing the mark. It is falling short of God’s perfect standard. No matter how much we try, we fall short of those standards.  In summary, we can’t love God enough, and we can’t love our neighbour enough.  

This month we celebrate the day hope finally came to this world!  The world despised God, but He sent His Son anyway.  Not because we deserved His kindness, or His gratitude. Not because we are anything special. Not because we did anything special to warrant such compassion. No, God sent His Son because of one reason: He loved us.

I would never say boo to a goose. In fact, I got out of my way not to be noticed, or stand out.But I force myself to do evangelism. I get very nervous - it doesn’t come naturally to me. But the dread of seeing people that will not inherit eternal life motivates me to do it.