Devotional: Good News

Read Ephesians 2:4-10

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

For Reflection

When I was a kid, the concept of evangelism was a big thing. Since we were teenagers and not preachers, our job was to personally witness—but very few of us knew how to do that. The answer? Little notecards that we could tuck in our wallet, purse, or pocket. The idea behind this was that when we were presented with a possible opportunity to evangelize we didn’t have to freeze in fear. Instead, we could turn to our tiny cue card and ask the following questions: Do you have any kind of spiritual beliefs? To you, who is Jesus? Do you believe thatthere is a heaven or a hell? But the humdinger of these outreach questions was: If you died tonight, where would you go? We believed that when presented with such a profound question, surely people would want to convert to Christianity on the spot! Who wants to go to hell?

Imagine what happened the first time I asked a stranger that final hard-hitting question… She laughed in my face. In fact, I believe she called me a rude name and then laughed and walked away. How could she not respond to the truth of the gospel? I was offended and decided that she was certainly not one of God’s children.

Sadly, I was wrong. Attacking people, beating them over the head with scripture, or trying to scare them into faith is not how Jesus told us to spread his GOOD NEWS. In Mark 5, Jesus heals a demon possessed man. And after he is fully restored, the man begs Jesus to let him follow. Instead, Jesus turns to him and says: “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” (Mark 5:19) God had done a beautiful work in the life of the demon possessed man. Can you imagine how people might have responded to his story? It is one of hope and love, healing and life. We are saved by grace—and that makes a pretty compelling story.

Our friends in Liberia have a grace-based approach to evangelism. When they enter a new community, the first thing they do is identify that community's greatest need and then try to meet it. Do they need a new well? A building to worship in? Land for farming? AVDC tries to be good news wherever they go—and that kind of good news is irresistible.

For Discussion

• Have you ever had the chance to evangelize? To spread the Good News of Jesus? How did it go? What did you do? How did that person respond?

• Religion says: God will love us if we change. The Gospel says: God’s love changes us. Do you agree or disagree?