Emphasis Preaching Journal

There are two ways people think you come to God. Moses' way is by the law and even today many Christians are trying to come to God by obeying every tiny item of God's law: don't dance, don't smoke, don't drink, and so forth. But the "righteous" will live by faith.

How many Christians write books on how to bring Christ down or to go down to bring him up. The Bible bookstores are full of them and they often go into great detail. I don't have to name which denominations go in that direction. Even Lutherans have a few rules spelled out.

The message is to keep God's word near you and let it come out of your mouth when the Spirit directs you. We must remember that the word we proclaim is the word of faith so that you may believe it in your heart.

If we all have that faith in Christ, then it makes no difference whether our background is Jew, Greek, black, white, yellow, or red. We are all one in Christ. There is no difference between us. Whoever we are, if we call on the name of the Lord, we will be saved.

It asks if we believe in our heart. Sometimes it is easier to believe in our heart than with our minds. Our minds can have all kinds of questions for which there are no easy answers. It may be hard to believe in a resurrection with out minds. It makes no sense, but if we believe in our hearts that God can do all things, then we are saved.

The next step is to confess with our mouth as we do every Sunday in church. Do we confess with our mouth all week long to friends and even family that we believe? Some do but most of the time we just take it for granted! We don't want anyone thinking that we are one of those fundamentalist nuts who are always shouting about our faith and passing out leaflets in the airport! But how can non-Christians hear unless we speak to them? Are we ashamed to speak out about our faith?

We hear the pastor speak out but that is his job! He even wears a fancy collar so people expect it. We would question his faith if he didn't speak out. How do people know we are Christians unless we speak out? Even wearing a cross around our neck is a statement.

One lady wrote that she read her Bible when she was traveling. She waited for a passenger next to her to ask about it. That opened the door to giving her testimony.

There are ways that we can let others know about our faith without grabbing them by the collar and preaching to them. Not only what we wear but also the way we live speaks a message that others can read. If we believe with our heart, it will show in our lives.