for he has performed wonders;
his right hand and holy arm
have won him victory."
Psalm 98:1
Spurgeon's thoughts: "The invitations of the gospel are invitations to happiness. In delivering God's message, we do not ask men to come to a funeral but to a wedding feast. If our errand were one of sorrow, we might not marvel if people refused to listen to us. But it is one of gladness. In fact, you might condense the gospel message into this joyful invitation: "Come and learn how to sing to the Lord a new song! Come and find peace, rest, joy, and all your souls can desire. Come and eat what is good and let your soul delight!
"When the coming of Christ to the earth was first announced, it was with the choral symphonies of holy angels. And as long as the gospel shall be preached in this world, its main message will be one of joy. The gospel is a source of joy to those who proclaim it, for to us who are less than the least of all saints is this grace given that we should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."
Candy's thoughts: What a pleasant thought to contemplate - that as faithful messengers of God we are spreading 'invitations to happiness' to the unbelieving world. I think most of us are so insecure about speaking of Christ to those who do not believe (or worse, to those who scorn or ridicule Jesus) that we lose track of the basic fact that it is GOOD NEWS we are sharing.
AMEN, AMEN and PRAISE THE LORD!!!! What a great way to remind ourselves as we may feel the weight of dread to share the good news of Jesus, when someone stands before us that we have tried to bring joy to them by the good news and they have so often rejected it, even scorned it. May we be filled with the hope each new day that this could be the day that the Father unplugs their ears and angels rejoice at a new life in Christ! Thanks Candy for your faithfulness to this blog, so inspiring to start my day. Debbi
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