Go and Tell

Will you take up the challenge?

Opinion & Critical Thought
When Commissioner Silvia Cox, World President of Women's Ministries, announced the theme for women's ministries on an international scale, I was intrigued with the phrase: “Go and Tell.” Of course, this challenge appears several times in Scripture.

In Exodus, God told Moses to go to Pharoah and tell him to let the Israelites go. When Moses made excuses about his speech-making ability, God replied: “Who made your mouth? Who gave you speech?” (see Exodus 4:11). There were no reasonable excuses for not going and telling.

Then God spoke through his prophets. Each was given an important message (some more than one message over time) for God's people. They, too, were told to go and tell. Isaiah was humbled in the presence of God and exclaimed: “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). An angel took a live coal from the altar, touched it to Isaiah's lips and said: “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:7). Isaiah was then able to say to God, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

Jesus healed a man who was demon-possessed and then said to him, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you” (Mark 5:19).

When the apostles were arrested for preaching, an angel came and released them from prison, telling them to “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people all about this new life” (Acts 5:20).

And of course, in the Gospels, after Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to a group of women who had gone to the tomb to prepare the body for burial. He entrusted to them the most important news of all time: they were to go and tell the disciples that Jesus had risen from the grave.

Today, God invites you and me to take up this same challenge: to go and tell everyone we can that Jesus is alive and wants to be their Saviour. He paid the price for their sins and ours on the cross, and because he now lives, we can know life at its best through him.

The women of our territory have taken up the challenge. We are going to go and tell the good news. How about you? Will you also go and tell of Jesus' love and grace? Easter is the perfect time to share with others the story of what he has done for you. It's the perfect time to come to God and say, “I am in need of your holiness, make me worthy to share your message.” It is the perfect time to say, “Here am I. Send me!”

Commissioner Susan McMillan is the territorial commander of the Canada and Bermuda Territory. Follow Commissioner McMillan at facebook.com/susanmcmillantc and twitter.com/salvationarmytc.

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On Monday, April 6, 2015, Ben Field said:

I can accept that Jesus Christ is my Lord, but can I tell of what Jesus did do?

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