…but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God. 1 Thessalonians 2:4
Paul is sharing with the Thessalonians the calling God has placed on his heart and life. I get that. I know that Paul, Timothy, James and John, etc., were entrusted with the Gospel in a different way than we are…or were they?
If we have been born-again, regenerated, redeemed – there is a way we, too, have been entrusted with the Gospel. For whatever reason, God chose us to be His own to implant His truth in our hearts. How is it we allow fear to thwart the going out of the Gospel? Probably because we speak to please man rather than God. I venture to guess the number one reason (if not the only reason) we do not speak forth truth, share the life-changing, soul-saving, eternity-impacting Gospel, is because of fear – fear of man (the Bible calls it).
Guilty as charged.
If I was living life to please God rather than self, the Gospel entrusted to me would pour forth from my lips in my family, with my neighbors, with friends that are lost and hell-bound apart from Christ.
I am more concerned with my temporal comfort than their eternal destination. Can you identify with that? What are we doing with the Gospel entrusted to us? Are we keeping it to ourselves or sharing it with others that it may yield a great harvest?
Blessings,
Diane
Diane Hunt is part of the Development and Addiction Recovery teams at America’s Keswick. In addition to being a Biblical Counselor, she is a Women’s speaker for retreats, conferences and events. She is a regular writer for Victory Call and one of the authors of Crossing the Jordan Bible Study. She has been married to her husband John over 28 years. She has 2 adult children and 3 grandchildren and 3 adult step-children with 7 grandchildren making 10 in all. She delights reading and teaching, but mostly laughing at the funny things her grandchildren say and do.
Victory Call 
Dear Diane!
Thank you for an incredibly meaningful and challenging message!
We have a word in Yiddish – it is “chutzpah”…it means “having boldness”, and I pray frequently for the L-rd to bestow more of it within me when it comes to evangelizing salvation to others, particularly to my non-believing Jewish family and friends.
You are “right on” when you say that intimidation reflects our being more concerned with being rejected by man
than in disappointing/disobeying G-d Almighty. Paul was willing to be in chains to share Truth; we seem to be
unwilling to forego popularity, that job position, acceptance by the neighbors, etc. – so we remain too quiet when
it comes to shouting “Jesus Christ is THE answer to everything in life!!!!” Hmmmmmm……and we continue to also
remain, collectively, too quiet while watching our Christian country fall and fail all around us.
I sometimes can’t help but reflect on “it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle”…..and wonder
if passing on an opportunity to share Messiah with an individual grieves and offends the Holy Spirit Who lives in us.
Too scary of a thought to behold. We MUST be bold in sharing Christ in our words, actions, and lives.