Thursday, May 13th  = The Heartbeat Of Jesus Christ

Too often people in the world perceive Christianity as an exclusivist religion whose people are intolerant bigots but Jesus came for the whole world not for selected few. Actually, when we have the right attitude we can present a relationship with Jesus with love, graciousness and greater understanding for the concerns of most people in our society.

Jesus’ ministry centered on evangelism “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). His mission was the salvation of mankind “And she shall bring forth a Son and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). His message was one that called people to repentance and to come by faith. He taught His disciples to be evangelists, “Then He said to them, ‘Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). And He commanded us to evangelise, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20).

A lot of times we will talk about how we want friends and family of ours to come to the Lord, but we don’t really mean it. Apparently there are a lot of people among us who don’t believe in hell because if you really believed in hell and understood it the way the Bible describes it you would do a lot more to bring people to Jesus. There are a lot of lost people out there and it is our duty to reach them for Jesus. We need to stop sitting around and talking about how nice it would be for those loved ones of ours to share the same faith with us, but we need to be bold and tell people the Truth in love.

The hard work that we do is of no avail if people aren’t coming to Jesus. The church building was a waste of time if people aren’t coming to Jesus. Our study of the Word and fellowship is useless unless people are coming to Jesus. There is a world full of lost people, and they are our friends, parents, siblings, neighbours, and they are lost and we must do something about it.

Evangelism is the heartbeat of our Lord and we must begin to act on it and reproduce ourselves before we depart this world. We must be like Jesus and have passion for the lost by knowing Christ’s great love, compassion and mercy; knowing the guilt of sin and its power to ruin people and its penalty. Cultivate a love and not bitterness for the lost and study the scripture and spend time praying.