There are plenty of fanatics. Ever watched people at a football game, faces painted in their team’s colours, wearing jerseys to match their team’s strip? Jumping up and down like kangaroos when a goal or touchdown is scored. It’s the same at pop concerts.
People get excited, they are consumed with the moment—and it runs into the aftermath too. When I was a child in England some men wouldn’t eat their dinner if their soccer team lost in the afternoon! They wouldn’t talk to their wives either.
We need fanatics for Jesus. Not fanatical in the sense of those who become suicide bombers, but people who are led by God’s spirit and passionate about Jesus’ cause.
Salvation is something to get excited about. Think of what we have. Fear of death to a true believer is gone. Death should mean nothing except a passing phase from earthly life to eternal life.
As for the present, our sins are forgiven—the past thrown into God’s Dead Sea called Forget. Our bodies dwell in a new temple designed and decorated by God. Our old life has been cast away like a used cigarette butt.
Those without Jesus struggle to cope with life. They are buffeted this way and that like a crippled ship in the middle of the Atlantic. They have no rudder, no unseen helper, no invisible assets.
The here and now, this temporary life, is everything to people without Christ. Yet when their bank balance shows red, life to them is worthless because a life without dollars means nothing. They will again jump off skyscrapers as they did in the 1929 stock market crash. Yet God wants to rescue them from such a fate.
Christians have something to get excited about. It ought to show on our faces, be seen in our actions. Can we ever be afraid of men when God is backing us? We should be able to stand before a firing squad and smile.
Let’s get fanatical and get out there with the gospel; fools for Jesus. Better to be called a Bible basher than a seat warmer. Forget the scoffing, derision and laughter and think about the results. Noah did! He copped plenty but he had the last laugh.
As the instruments of God we have a capacity to change this world for the better. The prostitute who reads your tract in July can be a Sunday School teacher in December. The alcoholic on Skid Row listening to your testimony can soon become an evangelist when he is set free of bondage. That’s the power of the gospel, but it’s no use preaching it to the converted.
We have to get off the self-seeking and self-serving treadmill of non-biblical picnics, barbeques, socials, seminars, conferences and get fanatical about being part of God’s plan for saving humanity. The millions not in church every Sunday morning need to receive the message—and we are the ones appointed to deliver it.
[I'm not in "Private Messenger" so can't reply to your emails sent there. I live outside the US. You can reach me at saul2_au at yahoo dot com
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Excellent article! You nailed it. It's funny that those sports fanatics are the very ones who think we're fanatics! Salvation is much more worthy to be excited about than a gooooooooaaaaalllll! Good job!
