Not Ashamed

Funny thing happened Sunday. I had the great privilege and joy of sharing a gospel message with my church yesterday and people responded! The surprise and joy that was on my face as hands went up was obviously noticeable because one of the members of our church had a major laugh at my expense after the service having observed my face at the time. (Hey I had told everyone to close their eyes, so why was he looking anyway…mmm?)
It was tremendous! I used a pretty unimportant text as far as the gospel goes—Not!! I used that glorious declaration of Paul’s in the letter to the Romans in verses 16 & 17 of the first chapter, which is the quintessential statement of this mighty book. Some of you may know the cataclysmic effect that this had on the pioneers of the reformation, but if not, here is the marked effect it had on Martin Luther
“At last, by the mercy of God, meditating day and night, I gave heed to the context of the words, namely, "In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." There I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith. And this is the meaning: the righteousness of God is revealed by the gospel, namely, the passive righteousness with which merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written, "He who through faith is righteous shall live." Here I felt that I was altogether born again and had entered paradise itself through open gates. There a totally other face of the entire Scripture showed itself to me. Thereupon I ran through the Scriptures from memory. I also found in other terms an analogy, as, the work of God, that is, what God does in us, the power of God, with which he makes us strong, the wisdom of God, with which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.
And I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word "righteousness of God." Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.”

Paul says that in The Gospel there is power and all I can do is affirm this truth. This great power was unveiled yesterday before my eyes as broken, lost, darkened hearts were gloriously brought into restoration, joy and new life simply because this message has in itself a miraculous affectation upon the human heart that can only be accepted as a mysterious work of God.
Let us be like this great apostle and not be ashamed of this life-transforming message!