Thoughts for another day

March 8, 2013.

Today's verse: 1 Thess. 1:5a. For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; (KJV)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

The Gospel of God isn’t weak as some may consider it, but it’s packaged by the power of God…yes, the power that’s capable of destroying mountains and rending huge clouds pregnant with water to deliver an abundance of rain.  When we learn the Gospel, first as kids and then as grown-ups, we’re somehow led to believe it’s weak and very boring.  Sometimes it happens because we associate the Spirit of the Gospel with the person who preaches it, who at times may appear to be docile and weak.  Be that as it may, no one should ever think that God’s Gospel is weak for His Word contains his abundant power.

We’re not to forget that when we’re weak, then God is strong.  It’s an eternal truth enshrined in His Holy Word; and it always works, for at the command of the person preaching the Gospel, the dead rise, the lame are healed, the prisoners are set free and even the blind see.   Such is the power of the Gospel that the devil scampers away at the mere mention of the Word. 

In our Scripture today, Paul asserts that the Gospel, preached by them wasn’t in nature, weak, but filled with power and with much assurance or conviction.  It came with conviction from them for they had seen the effects of the Gospel, how it was powerful, being able to convert souls and change the leanings of a man from things evil, to things of God.  Both physically as well as spiritually, the Gospel can do much to a man for it has the power to launch an attack against satan which cannot be quelled by him.  It is only the Gospel of Jesus Christ that can convert a human being from being a chaser of things of the world to be a chaser of God’s things and mind you when I say this, I know the utter difficulties of leading a life chasing things of God: it can be so frustrating that at times one wants to give up because it is so strenuous.  Yet, God’s Gospel isn’t so weak that it can leave a man who listens to it, chooses to live and preach it, high and dry and desperate.  Rather, being filled with promise, God’s Gospel inflames the human heart with hope and the promise of new life.