It comes packaged in whatever you package it with. It is delivered in the way that you deliver it. And if you do not take the time to do it justice but crudely stuff it into a brown paper bag, then you can hardly begrudge someone for mistaking it for liquor and asking you to move away from their curbside.
The Gospel is the Good News. It is the best news, in fact. But we need to make people care about it, and before they can do that they need to know what it is. The biggest problem that we have today is not people who know what the Gospel is and reject it but who think that it is something that it is not, and reject the thing that they consider it to be. They want it, they need it, but they don't know it.
There is a famine in the land, a spiritual famine, but when you hand a package to the starving you must mention that therein is bread if they are to take any interest in it. We teach by the Spirit and preach by the Spirit, and we- both parties- must receive by the Spirit. But if we do not make sure that the Spirit is there with us as we teach, then there is no presence of the Spirit for them to plug into, and they cannot have it testify to them that what they are hearing is true.
Don't just throw the Gospel at people like a hand grenade. Don't shove it into their hands and run away. Tell them why it will make them happy, and why they would want to receive the Good News into their life.
There comes a time in every conversation that the talking must end, and both parties must have a reason for continuing it. In the words of the Fed Net Announcer: "Would you like to know more?" But for your friend to answer, "Yes, I would," she actually must like to know.
Your turn: What is something that you can do to help someone in your life understand the Gospel better and receive it?
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