The Gospel Is For

The Gospel Is For

With grace towards the memory of brother J.M. McCaleb, the legendary song-writer and missionary to Japan from 1892 to 1941 I offer the following:

Of one the Lord has made the race, through one has come the fall, where sin has gone must go His grace, the Gospel is for me. The blessed Gospel is for me, the Gospel is for me, where sin has come must come His grace, the Gospel is for me.

Yes, some in our current time have become very self-serving. That is not the purpose of this short piece. It seems rather biblical for us. Part of Paul’s legendary words in 1 Timothy 4 (among “let no man despise thy youth…” “now in the later times, some shall depart from the faith…” “Until I come devote yourself to public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching…”), are these words: “Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”

I hear Paul saying to those of us who preach and teach, “the Gospel is for you!” I hope you will always remember that the Good News you preach to others is for you too. And, because the Gospel is in your life it ought to mean Good News to everyone in your life, not just to you. Embrace the Good News in your own life so you can better share it as you preach. It’ll help keep you going on the hardest of days, and lighten your mood and your step on all the others.

The blessed Gospel is for me - and for YOU too.