Sharing The Great News
By: Kristen L. McNulty
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Last week I got my MasterCard bill in the mail. While opening the bill is not normally an event that brings a smile to my face, this month was different.
When I had originally signed up for the card, it was an ebay credit card. Meaning they gave you points to spend on ebay for every dollar you spent. It was free, so I thought there was no damage done to place my purchases on it.
But last year the ebay deal went out the window. Either ebay or the credit card company retracted the deal. To make up for it, the credit card company bumped my account up to have "premier rewards". I didn't really get what this meant until I got my January bill in the mail.
Once a year, in January, they take the sum of your total purchases on the card and give you a cash back bonus depending on what you spent.
So imagine my sweet surprise when I opened my bill only to find I owed $5.17! The coffeemaker I had thought I was buying with my Christmas gift money is suddenly free. My membership to zip.ca is completely paid for. And suddenly I have some extra cash in my bank account. All thanks to the good folks at the bank.
That really made my day. Well okay, really made my week. And since then I've been telling everyone who will listen what a great deal that card is and how awesome the benefits are, especially when January rolls around.
But at the same time a little bit of conviction rolled in. Not over getting free stuff, but about who I was sharing my news with. You see some of the same people I told about my good fortune are the same ones I hesitate to share the good news with. And that got me thinking, why is it that we'll so freely talk about some things like free money from the bank, but we'll hold back with the greatest piece of news we could ever tell someone?
Give us $100 and we'll tell the world. Give us eternal life, and suddenly we're so shy. It doesn't make much sense now does it?
Or maybe it does. Because maybe we've gotten a so used to talking about and hearing about salvation that we forget how really exciting it is. You probably know what I mean. We go to church every Sunday and we hear it. We turn on the TV and radio and we hear it. We hang out with our friends and we see it. Maybe all of this saturation has taken away the excitement.
But the truth of the matter is, salvation is so much more exciting than a free coffeemaker could ever be and it's not something that we should take lightly. Just imagine how effective we could be as witnesses if we were actually excited about the news that we're trying to share. If we truly allowed ourselves to grasp what Jesus means, then maybe we wouldn't hesitate so much to share Him with those around us.
So I have a challenge for you and it's a challenge for me too. Let's make it our mission to start to grasp the Good News and what it really means. Let's take the time to dive into the salvation story from start to finish in our Bibles. Let's make the effort to reflect on how much we really need to be saved. And let's get excited. There's a reason salvation is called the Good News. Let's learn why and then maybe we'll suddenly talk a lot more about Jesus Christ and what He brings to a life than the free membership or coffeemaker or fill in the blank. The Good News is worth getting excited about!
This devotional was aired as a part of the Making A Difference Christian Radio Show.