"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith,as it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.'" - Romans 1:16-17
I heard a sermon preached on these 2 verses on Sunday, and felt intensely ashamed inside of me that on many occasions I have been found ashamed of the Gospel, either dodging questions or giving some sort of superficial answers or just not voicing out because I was afraid of how man would look and me and not how God would look at me. But in view of God's wrath that is already on the whole of humanity for turning away from God (Romans 1:18 - 3:20), I should really have some urgency not only in NOT being ashamed of the Gospel, but proclaiming it to everyone who has not heard of it.
Since last week, I've turned back to reading the Bible on my daily train rides to work instead of listening to sermons, partially because I ran out of sermons to listen to, and also partially because I felt a need to go back to reading God's Word more intensely as I felt like I was losing touch after feeling a little bit shaky of late.
By God's grace, after listening to the sermon on Sunday, He gave me a chance to respond to the challenge I received. Yesterday morning, I carried my Chinese version of the Gospel of Matthew (am trying to read it so I can share it with my folks) and my Dad actually asked me about it on the way to the MRT station! So, I got a chance to correct some of the misconceptions he had about God and share parts of the Gospel with him. Later last night, I had the opportunity to share with my sister who attended a Catholic musical on the life of the apostle Paul, and tell her a bit more about him and the Gospel. Praise God I wasn't ashamed of the Gospel during these opportunities given!
Thank God for giving me the courage to not be ashamed of His Gospel.
