Dave's Diary

Prayer

Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this prayer based on Psalm 51:15

LORD, show me Your truth today. Then open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise. Amen

Reading

Mark 16:14-20

Jesus’ mission in the flesh was completed. He had done everything He needed to do in order to open the Kingdom of God to humanity. He had lived a perfectly sinless life and died a sacrificial death on the Cross, to pay the price for humanity’s sin. And now He had been raised from the dead by God the Father, and He was about to ascend to the Father’s right hand in heaven. So He gave His eleven remaining apostles a very clear commission – a clear set of “marching orders”. That commission is a command that still applies to every follower of Jesus today:

¹⁵ He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.‘

Our call is to “go” and to “preach the gospel”. Where shall we go? Into all the world To whom shall we preach? To all creation. What shall we preach? The gospel. What exactly is the gospel? It is the best news ever! It is the truth (in your own words) that:

• You were created by the perfectly loving God who longs for a relationship with you;
• All humans have chosen to reject God and are separated from Him by our self-centred sinfulness – so our lives are empty and meaningless;
• But Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and died a self-sacrificial death on the Cross;
• By doing so, He took responsibility for my sin and yours;
• So we are now free to turn away from our sins, receive Jesus as our Saviour, come home to God, be forgiven, and be restored to a right, loving relationship with God.
• This love-relationship with God leads us to an abundance of life in this world, and it lasts forever!

Telling the story of the good news of Jesus in our own words, is the responsibility of every Christian. And we are essentially called to proclaim/announce/preach this Gospel of Jesus to anyone and everyone who has either not heard it or not yet responded to it. No exceptions!

Jesus understood that this would seem like a very challenging task. Remember, He gave this command to men who had lived their whole lives in a tiny sliver of planet earth. Recognising how enormous and well nigh impossible this task would seem to them, Jesus gave them (and us) massive encouragement when He promised that he would impart to them (and us) all the power, authority and gifting we will need for the task at hand.

Jesus has promised to confirm what we say by works of great power and love in people’s lives. But remember, that’s His role. Our role is simply to open our mouths and, to the best of our ability, tell others about Jesus our Lord and all He has done for them.

Who will you tell today?

Contemplation

Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn this declaration over and over in your mind. Keep it in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.

As a disciple of Jesus Christ:

• I will tell the good news of Jesus to at least one person today.

LORD, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise. Amen.