Share the Gospel
"No one has ever told me this before." Michelle's words pierced my heart.
I grew up in the Bible Belt, where faith stitched our lives together like a well-worn quilt. I couldn't sneeze without someone bringing up God. I thought everyone knew the gospel. I assumed they understood it.
A day came when everything changed for me - my rebellion against the mundane led to playing hooky from work and being drawn into the pages of Scripture. When my fiancee came home, I invited her to church the following weekend.
She recoiled, "You've got to be kidding me!"
I expected a polite brush-off, maybe an awkward laugh. Instead, anger flared in Michelle's eyes. She felt betrayed, as if I was abandoning her to join the team that rejected her. The conversation fizzled. Days passed. Weeks passed. Months passed. We didn't go to church. I kept reading. I kept praying.
I thought becoming a faithful churchman was out of the question for my future. I later discovered God was weaving His tapestry of hope.
Nearly a year passed when Michelle asked, "If there's a God, why is the world so bad?" The "Problem of Evil" is a conundrum philosophers wrestle with under dim lecture hall lights. I knew the textbook responses: that evil's presence doesn't unseat God's existence, and suffering doesn't diminish His goodness.
But that's not what came out. Something stirred in me. Instead of lecture notes, we turned to the Bible. As I opened my heart, words blossomed to life. We discussed Job's agony and how he lost everything and clung to faith. We marveled at Paul's suffering and how it refined him.
Then, we turned to Jesus.
We stopped talking about the Problem of Evil as we unearthed the Problem of Sin.
"The greatest tragedy goes beyond suffering to the gaping chasm of separation between us and God. Humanity, shackled in brokenness, finds itself enslaved to sin, unable to peel back the layers of its despair.
But God.
In His infinite goodness, offers a remedy."
Cold philosophy crumbles before the weight of our greatest need. Only Jesus stands as the bridge of the abyss of despair. The only one to live a sinless life bore the punishment we all deserve. Jesus stepped into our pain, bore our burdens on Calvary, and invited us to restoration through Him.
As I spoke, tears welled in my eyes. A symphony of healing notes resonated within me. Connections sparked as we read and discussed the Bible. Pieces of my heart mended themselves. Guilt evaporated, and pain morphed into hope.
I glanced at Michelle and caught her brush a tear away. She whispered, "I've never heard that before."
Her words etched themselves in my memory. As we exchanged vows, those words replayed in my mind. I heard that whisper when she finally agreed to visit my childhood church. When missionaries recounted stories of people untouched by the gospel, Michelle's voice echoed behind them.
I assumed the person I wanted to spend my life with would automatically be someone I spent eternity with. I thought she understood the gospel. She had attended church before. She had Christian friends. But she had never heard the gospel. Romans 10:14 asks, "How can they believe in Him if they have never heard?"
That moment haunted me until I let it motivate me to surrender to the ministry.
Who in your life is still waiting to hear? Who have you assumed already knows what we take for granted? Are you willing to open your mouth and speak the truth?
