These are questions I have asked myself and oth­ers a lot lately. Why are we not excited about the Gos­pel? Have we become com­placent with our faith? Why does the amazing salvation that we are given from God no longer bring us joy?

In John 4 we are told about Jesus and his interac­tion with a Samaritan wom­an. After their conversation the woman is so excited that she leaves her water jar be­hind to go tell others about the man she just meet (vers­es 28-30). By doing this she was going to have to make another trip to the well to fill up her jar with water. She was so overjoyed that she left her life-sustaining water behind. The water was not the most important thing at this time; the gift of salvation was. Her eternity was more important than her immediate worldly need. That is exciting!

In Acts 8 we find the nar­rative about Phillip and the Ethiopi­an eunuch. The Holy Spirit tells Phillip to go down this road and Phillip is obedient. He finds this Ethiopian official reading a scroll from Isaiah. Phillip then tells this guy about Jesus starting with the passage of Isaiah that he is reading. The Ethiopi­an, after hearing this great news, wants to be baptized immediately. They find some water and take care of business, then Phillip disappears and reappears elsewhere. While that is amazing, what blows me away is that we are told that the Ethiopian just went on his way rejoicing! This guy was not even wondering where Phillip was. He was too busy rejoicing!

I feel that we forget about how awesome, amazing, scandalous, and beautiful the gift of sal­vation offered through Jesus Christ is. I want to know why we are not just overflowing with the urge to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with every­one we meet? After looking at these two stories where these people were so blown away by salvation that they left their belongings or nev­er questioned a miracle oc­curring before them, I had to ask why I am not like the lady at the well or the Ethi­opian official. The only an­swer I could find was this: I take salvation for granted. I need to remind myself dai­ly how awesome this gift is. I need to be conscientious of what was done so that I can spend eternity with God. I challenge each and every one of you to do this. If your salvation does not bring you the rejoicing that it brought the Ethiopian, ask yourself why?

We can’t save ourselves. We have to put our hope completely in Christ. This is the only way to obtain that awesome, amazing, scan­dalous, and beautiful gift. We all need this gift. When I write these articles a ma­jority are about me. I am jacked up but our awesome and holy God loves me. He loves you all too. Take joy in that! Charles Spurgeon said, “You will find all true theology summed up in these two short sentences: Salvation is all of the grace of God. Damnation is all of the will of man.” Just think about that. I know this was some heavy stuff but we need it. I hope you all enjoy your summer.