The Greek word for gospel is euagelion. It is a compound word which can be broken down into two parts, eu meaning good and aggelion meaning message or news. The word gospel means good news. The English word evangelist comes from this word, the one who preaches the good news. I’m sure this is not new news to you, you’ve heard it before. Yet, why is it still presented, even by Christians, as bad news? I mean by that, why do we keep preaching to people about their sins and not about Jesus?
Jesus died for every sin we have ever committed and judged them all, except one. The one sin He did not die for on the cross was rejection of Himself. He left that one for us to judge. If He would have died for that particular sin, we would have no choice about getting saved, we would all automatically have eternal life. To make it a choice, Jesus had to leave that one sin for us to judge.
The issue in witnessing is not the multitude of sins Jesus died for; it is the issue of the one He did not judge. He died for the sins we could not handle and left us with the one we could by a single decision. So many Christians tell the world to first get rid of their sins and then come to Jesus. They cannot do this. If they could get rid of their own sins, Jesus would not have had to come and die on the cross. The message needs to be come to Jesus and He will give you the power to get rid of sins.
When presented with the question of salvation, Paul told the Philippian jailer to believe on the Lord Jesus and he would be saved. When presenting salvation to the world today, the issue has not changed. We need to tell them to believe on the Lord Jesus and they too will be saved. Once a person believes, they have judged the one sin remaining and now possess eternal life. Heaven and hell are the result of only one decision, accepting or rejecting Jesus. It is not the amount of sin a person has committed or how good a life they have led. Eternal life is not a result of good or bad works. It is simply a matter of accepting Jesus.
Just think of what praise can do. It is able to do the impossible because it unleashes the power of God against spiritual and natural obstacles around us. Spiritual problems are often compared to natural problems. Spiritual obstacles are called mountains, valleys, walls or seas, which separate us from the answer we seek. Praise can rid us of all of them. By shouting and praising God, the walls fell which surrounded Jericho. The enemy scorned and ridiculed Israel as they marched around the walls, but the walls came down at the shout of praise and faith from the lips of the people of God. The shout of faith from Moses, "Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord" caused the Red Sea to part and deliverance came for two million Jews. Jesus promised a cry of faith would cause a mountain to move and be cast into the sea. Isaiah promises us at the presence of the Lord, every mountain would be brought low and every valley exalted. What is your problem today? Why not send the band of praisers out in front of whatever plans you have made? Let God arise and your enemies be scattered!
First Thessalonians 4:16 tells us Jesus will come for the Church with the voice of the archangel. If you have ever studied angels, you will usually find a listing of the types of angels found in heaven and on earth. Of course, the highest ranking angels in heaven are cherubim and seraphim. Both of these are Hebrew words and end in im which is plural. There are probably hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these categories of angels. Yet, the scholars usually indicate the next highest ranks of angels are archangels. Yet, this verse and another tell us there is only one archangel.
The archangel is Michael, a warrior angel who heads up the armies of angels sent from God to deliver men and women on earth. His main job is fighting Satan himself and combating demons. He is a companion of another angel from heaven, Gabriel. Gabriel is a messenger angel who has been dispatched from God to bring life changing, and even history changing, messages to those on earth who were seeking God’s direction. One of those was Daniel. He prayed for direction for Israel and God dispatched a message to him immediately from heaven in the hand of Gabriel. Gabriel ran into problems in the atmosphere of the earth. Satan and demons tried to stop the answer from coming to Daniel and Michael was dispatched to withstand Satan and open a hole in the ranks of demons so Gabriel could come through. Daniel was informed by Gabriel that he had been dispatched the moment Daniel prayed, but he had been held up in the heavens over Israel for three weeks (Daniel 10).
The only recorded words of Michael are found in Jude 9. Michael fought with Satan over the body of Moses at his death and told him, “The Lord rebuke you.” Apparently, this released Moses’ body and God buried him. Jude refers to Michael as the archangel, again informing us there is only one.
Just as Michael has held back the forces of Satan in history and will do it again at the rapture of the church, he is still assisting believers today through their prayers. When you pray, angels go into action and battle to protect you and bring you divine answers. Angels respond to the voice of God’s Word as we speak verses in our prayers. Why not make this a day to put angels into action and believe that even Michael may be involved in your deliverance?
Genesis 1:11:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. (KJV)
I have noticed a difference in two kinds of people. I am sure you have too. I am not talking about male and female, black and white, or educated and uneducated. Being a pastor and working with church staffs, I have noticed the difference between the organized, business type of person and the creative person. I need both.
The business person is needed to keep the books, balance the budget, and post figures in the daily ledger. They usually arrive a few minutes early and have no problem working into lunch or after work to get the figures to balance. They love their work and take pride in doing a good job.
On the other hand, there are the creative types. They head up the worship and music and work in the art department, laying out magazines and brochures needed for the church. They usually have to be prodded to come in on time and seem to live by a different set of rules. They usually “come alive” about 11:00 at night and go to bed sometime in the early hours of the morning. Their desire is to get up at the “crack of noon.”
To the practical, business person, there is no need for the creative type. It also is true the other way around. The creative type has no room in their life for the business type. They think they are too boring.
What does this have to do with our opening verse about grass, herbs and trees? God has made creation to be so diverse. Much of nature feeds us while also amazing us. Some trees are for producing fruit and others are primarily for beauty in the earth. God is not only practical; He is also creative! Many flowers give us medicines while others are for us to enjoy looking at. I know we need the air, the atmosphere so we can breathe, but why did God make it blue? God not only wanted the sky to be practical, He wanted it to be beautiful at the same time. Grass is necessary to feed animals and slow the flow of water, but it is also a beautiful green color. What a magnificent God we serve!
So, make this a day to not only look at the practical parts of nature, make it a day to enjoy the beauty of a creative God. Enjoy your day.
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