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Mark 16:15 - Sharing Christ!

Mark 16:15; Sharing Christ!

Mark 16:15 (KJV)  Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature.  

Service to God includes personal ministry. By personal effort we 
are to co-operate with Him for the saving of the world. Christ's 
commission, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature," is spoken to every one of His followers. (Mark 16:15.) All who 
are ordained unto the life of Christ are ordained to work for the 
salvation of their fellow men. Their hearts will throb in unison with the 
heart of Christ. The same longing for souls that He has felt will be 
manifest in them. Not all can fill the same place in the work, but there 
is a place and a work for all. COL300 

Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world, telling 
everyone that he had paid the penalty for sin and that those who believe 
in him can be forgiven and live eternally with God. Christian 
disciples today in all parts of the world are preaching this gospel to 
people who haven't heard about Christ. The driving power that carries 
missionaries around the world and sets Christ's church in motion is the faith 
that comes from the resurrection. Do you ever feel as though you 
don't have the skill or determination to be a witness for Christ? You 
must personally realize that Jesus rose from the dead and lives for 
you today. As you grow in your relationship with Christ, he will 
give you both the opportunities and the inner strength to tell his 
message. [Life Application SB] 

What appears to be foolish in the eyes of society is often that 
which is most effective in the work of the kingdom.  The ignorant, the 
uneducated, the despised of the world are sometimes God's choicest servants. 
 So it was with Sophie "the scrubwoman" Lichtenfels, "whose 
sermons rose not from an exalted podium or pulpit but from callused 
hands and knees and with the rhythm of a lowly washtub and scrub 
brush."... 
Her testimony was simple.  "God called me to scrub and preach.  
I was born a preacher, but since I was poor I had to work.  My 
work is good and I can be trusted, so they want me.  But if they have 
me, they must hear me preach.  No preach, no work.  I scrub as unto 
the Lord and I preach to all in the house.  When I am out of work I 
tell my Father.  He is the best employment office.  You don't have to 
pay or wait.... 
"Sometimes we pray so foolish.  For 12 years I prayed the Lord 
make me a foreign missionary.  One day I prayed like that and my 
Father said, 'Stop Sophie.  Where were you born?'  'In Germany,' I 
replied.  'And where are you now?'  'In America.'  'Well, aren't you 
already a foreign missionary?'  Then He said to me, 'Who lives on the 
floor above you?'  'A family of Swedes.'  'And above them?'  'Some 
Swiss.'... 
"'Yes, and in back are Italians, and a block away Chinese.  You 
have never spoken to them about My Son.  Do you think I'll send you a 
thousand miles away when you've got foreigners, even heathen all around 
you?'"  [Ruth Tucker; Time with God devotional SB] 

You may ask how people wind up in hell if God is a loving God. 
People wind up in hell by trampling the love of God instead of 
treasuring it. They ignore it, spurn it, yawn over it, close their hearts 
to it, keep saying "someday, someday, someday." 
The Bible says there will be a someday. It's a day of reckoning. 
To those who have spurned His love, God will say in effect, "I 
loved you every day of your life. I loved you with a perfect love. I 
extended Myself to you. I made My wisdom available to you. I made My 
comfort and My strength and My Spirit available to you. I made My offer 
of salvation to you. But you trampled and spurned My love. You had 
it your way on earth, so now you can have it your way in 
eternity." 
Are you facing that scenario? Will you continue to trample the 
love of God ? That's the question of the ages, and it is one you 
yourself must answer. Bill Hybels [Time With God SB] 

MODERN DAY TESTIMONY

I have been ill on and off for the past 3 months with mono, 
which has had complications of strep, sinusitis, fevers, and the like. 
 It has been very painful or difficult to talk, much of the time. 
 Right after Christmas, when this started with a 5 day high 
fever, There were times I was up in the night, to write to pen pals I 
got off of the internet, hoping to either encourage someone with the 
gospel, or be able to build a relationship to witness to non-Christians. 
 I have done both. 
Yesterday I had a long drive to get to a specialist (the one who 
was finally able to diagnose what was going on).  Because it was 
going to mean 6 hours of driving, and I was not feeling well, I was 
again, determined, to do something for the kingdom of God - more 
specifically, to witness by leaving tracts behind.  I left tracts in bathrooms 
and in magazines in the hospital lobby.  I handed them out (with a 
smile) to the parking attendant, the gas station attendant, and the 
worker at the Subway.   
Galatians 4:13 has become very real to me - that Paul first 
preached to the people in Galatia because of an affliction.  Though 
afflicted in body, there are ways we can still reach people with the 
gospel.  And when given to someone with the joy of the Lord, they 
remember the witness of the face, the genuine warmth.  I had a woman at 
the Only Deals in town tell me (after I had given her a tract - 
forgetting that I had given her one of another kind, before) - "Oh yeah!  
You gave me one before, that was really neat.  I have it on my 
refrigerator door!"   
We sow the seed, and the Lord brings in the harvest.  Even with 
a non-functioning throat, warmth and tracts - Preach! hidden1 
[hidden1@bevcomm.net] 

Galatians 4:13, 14 (NIV)  As you know, it was because of an 
illness that I first preached the gospel to you.  Even though my illness 
was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. 
Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were 
Christ Jesus himself.