who needs to hear this message?

I have been thinking about the question: "who needs to hear the Good News?" Everyone at all times and in all places.

Growing up I thought about sharing the Gospel with lost people. And then when you heard the Gospel and believed then you moved on to other things and focused on sharing it with other lost people. But I think I was half wrong.

While I was at C@SE (college at southeastern) I wasn't able to interact much with people who weren't believers or at least really religious. I didn't have a job outside of class and wasn't involved in a YMCA or anything like that. Most people I knew were believers and even my relationships in church were mostly believers. I had random non-believing friends and acquaintances though. My first couple year I was really sad to not be around non-believers and felt like I wasn't really doing ministry cuz I couldn't share the Gospel with anyone. But as the years continued I was learning to love God and love truth and people. I became comfortable with bringing up the truth of Scripture and the freedom it offers in many different circumstances with whoever I was with. My friends would also encourage me to remember Jesus and the Gospel. The Good News was for us, every day.

Here at Miami, it is a different gig. I know quite a few students who aren't believers and know of students in the Navs who actually live in houses with 10-15 other students who aren't Christians. It has been so encouraging to hear them share stories of how they are simply living life among the lost. It has actually been refreshing to go play Ultimate Frisbee or board games and hear cuss words from some of the students. We are building relationships! I have been able to go out to lunch with a couple of girls who aren't followers of Jesus and genuinely be interested in their lives and their passions and struggles. Some of those relationships began with games, random meetings in the dorms, and ultimate frisbee! And I am looking for ways to share comfort, identity, freedom, etc from the message of the Gospel. The Good News is for the lost people I know here. But I am also having many opportunities to encourage the believers to remember Jesus and life-giving work. The Christians I know also are desperately in need of remembering and believing truth.

Here is my point in showing the community differences between C@SE and Miami. I can be a witness, evangelist, preacher of the Good News wherever I am. At school, I was in a season of life where their weren't as many lost people where I was (and unfortunately I wasn't as intentional about finding them). Here I am around many believers and non-believers. I have the opportunity to share the Good News with those who have never heard it and those who have heard it a billion times but need to be reminded.

So....Wherever you are, whoever you are around, at whatever time...share the Good News. Seek out those who have never heard and be bold and clear in sharing Hope. Let's not be afraid. But also may we be humble to go back to the basics and remind all believers to remember Jesus Christ.

Let's go make disciples!