I believe for the most part we would agree we are living in the last days, just before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the rapture. In these days we find the hearts of men and women are failing as they search for the answers, not only to the purpose of life, but also to their destiny. Now the greatest responsibility God has placed upon us is to reach out to these people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. To us as believers, the Lord Jesus Christ has said we "are to be the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world."
God’s word is unmistakably clear that soul winning is mandatory for the child of God. It’s not some elective ministry or an extra-curricular activity during the Christian life. The last COMMAND of our Lord, before returning to Heaven, should now be our first and greatest COMPASSION and CONCERN. Just before our Lord Jesus Christ returned to heaven, He gave to the church, corporately, and to us as believers, individually, what we have come to call the GREAT COMMISSION.
The GREAT COMMISSION is simply, "Go ye into all the World, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15. The GREAT COMMISSION speaks of you and I doing the GOING. It involves our personal attention in reaching the lost for Christ. Concerning this activity, someone said, “The vast majority of Christians have never dreamed that this is a personal, individual command to every child of God, to go into HIS OWN PERSONAL WORLD and present the Gospel to every creature in it for the purpose of winning souls to Christ.” The GREAT COMMISSION chorus could be,
Lord lay some soul upon my heart, And love that soul through me,
And may I humbly do my part to win that soul for thee.
“Several years ago, a preacher moved to a new town. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much in change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, “you better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.” Then he thought, “Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God and keep quiet.”
When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change.” With a smile, the driver replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town? I have been thinking lately about going to worship somewhere. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I’ll see you at church on Sunday.”
When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, “O’ God, I almost sold your Son, for a quarter.”
In Romans 1:16 we read, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” God wants you to go to your place of business, to your neighbors, to your families, to your communities. He has commanded all of us to have a heart and a passion for evangelism. The last COMMAND of our Lord ought to be our first COMPASSION and CONCERN: to go into the world and declare His salvation, purchased on the cross of Calvary. Remember, “Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.”
