Day 1945 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Mark 16:15 NIV

We just talked about how it's so easy to assume the worst in people. It's like that's become our world's new normal. We just assume that everyone is out to get us, hurt us, or make us look bad. So we're always walking around on the offensive looking to fight and argue with anyone and everyone. Now as I said yesterday, that whole mindset will only make our true duty in these lives nearly impossible to do.

In this verse, Christ is calling His followers to spread throughout the world and share the message of the Gospel. He needs us to carry the message of His love and salvation to everyone that we possibly can. But if we're always looking to fight with someone, then telling them how much they're loved probably won't get brought up in those conversations very often. We just need to calm down a lot and remember that there's something a little more important than our pride at stake here.

He wants us to help Him win souls, not arguments. Now I read an NIV Bible. Have an ESV too. Tried the King James, but that one's a little tougher to read for me. So I definitely haven't read all of the different translations. But I'm going out on a limb here and assuming that they all have this same message. Now some random version of the Bible might make it seem like He's asking us to spread out and beat people into submission, but I doubt it. There could be some translation out there that says, "Go and fight with everyone until they agree with you." But that would be a pretty loose translation to say the least!

My point is something I mentioned yesterday. We're here to be good to people and help win them over to the God who loves them more than they think possible. We're here to help shine His light into a rapidly darkening world. It just seems kind of weird to tell someone how much they're loved by Christ when you do it while yelling with a angry look on your face. Kind of jumbles up the message. So we need to put down our rocks, lay down our weapons, chill out, and get back to the crucial task at hand.

I reckon we just have to sit down and ask ourselves what's most important to us? Is it feeding our ego and building up our pride? Is it getting involved in the latest, greatest fight that the world's focused on? Is it always worrying about proving that we're right, or better, or stronger, or whatever else the case may be? Or is it telling others about Jesus? I can't and won't speak for anyone else, just not my place. But I'd say there's a very clear winner.

When all is said and done, this earth and everything in it will pass away. It will be gone, over, finished. Since that's the case, it just seems to make sense to spend more of our time focused on helping others find Jesus and get ready for the next stop than arguing over mostly foolish and silly things. I doubt that God will ask us how many fights and arguments we've won during our time here. But He just might be interested in how many people we tried to help Him reach. Don't get distracted, our job is far too important!