The Gospel Message

       I recall one time when I had applied for work with a company, that I had to be investigated to make sure I was of sound enough reputation to be entrusted with the responsibilities that I would have if accepted.  The process took a long time and finally, I was admitted into the facility.  My new responsibility had entrusted me with a lot of different things.  We often find that our jobs will give us access to a lot of company information as well as material things.  We may even get keys to the building and the vehicles.  God has also entrusted us with something.  He has entrusted us with the Gospel message.  First Thessalonians 2:4 says, "But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts." 
      God has chosen to use men and women, boys and girls, to get the message out to those who do not know Him.  He has entrusted us with the gospel in order that our friends, our family and even people around the world might hear the gospel and be saved.  God could have done it another way.  He could have just saved all those He wanted to, if not every person on the face of the earth.  But, that was not His plan.  Instead, He chose to have the gospel message spread from one person to another.  Paul and Silas were in the city of Thessalonica and were preaching about the gospel to that city.  They spoke with the idea of not just pleasing men but pleasing God.  It was God who had trusted them with the message and so they had to please Him rather than soft coating the message to please the ears of the Thessalonians.  We have the same obligation today.  Our message is not one that will please men but it will please God if we keep to the facts of the Scripture.  There was a TV show years ago where the interviewing detective would say, "Just the facts, mam."  We need to make sure that we are giving just the facts about the Gospel message as God has given them to us.  We don't teach the message in such a way as to make the hearer feel good but rather to give them the chance to make a clear decision about the offer of salvation, by what we have said.  So, while we have a desire to be popular and well liked by all that we know, there is still the responsibility to give a clear gospel message.  Is your message clear to those around you?  Praise God today that He has given us the gospel, that Jesus died, was buried and rose again according to the Scriptures.