What Are You Talking About?

Colossians 3:16

“Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

I am a history lover. I love to listen to history books. Getting to know the history of President Lincoln, Sam Bass, or Washington’s secret six spies is fascinating to me. A while back, I found myself listening to Bill O’Reilly’s book Killing Lincoln. It was great. Then I listened to a book about General Grant. Then I listened to a book about the Civil War. I concluded my crazy binge on the Civil War with a book by Brian Kilmeade about Frederick Douglass and Lincoln.

We would be sitting at the table chatting over breakfast, and I would interject, “Hey, do you guys know what Lincoln had for breakfast every morning while he was president?” I would proceed to tell everyone, like they all wanted to listen. I would do the same thing when a political topic was being discussed. “Hey, do you guys know the real story of when the South seceded from the Union?” My wife finally, after I wore everyone out, said, “Can we chat about something else that does not have to do with the Civil War?” The Civil War times were overflowing in me, and I would find points in conversation where I could interject what I had learned and share it with the group. Everyone loves learning that stuff, right?

I heard a sermon by Mike Fabarez, and the Lord reminded me what Jesus did over and over again. He would use everyday situations like getting thirsty or wanting some food and start talking about the gospel and God’s plan. Colossians 3:16 says that we should let the message of Christ dwell richly among us. This “richly dwelling” thing is quite simple to understand. If you are studying the word of God every day and praying that the Holy Spirit will write the words of God on your heart, then it should come out in everyday situations.

I was eager to bring up the new knowledge of Lincoln I had just learned about and looked for every opportunity to interject it. Do we do that with the message of the gospel? Can we say that we weave the message of Christ into everyday circumstances, or do we hide the word and what we’ve learned in a box and only take it out when we are among the followers?

This sermon I listened to challenged me to be more vocal about the message of Christ and weave it in wherever I could. It can be a “God is good” comment, or if someone asked you about the weekend, you could tell them about the sermon on Sunday. It takes practice and the Lord leading you, but this is what Jesus did all the time. If someone recorded you over the course of a month, would they have enough evidence to say that you are a Christian? You don’t have to be a preacher, just learn to interject Jesus and the Bible into everyday circumstances. We plant the seed, but God makes it grow (1 Corinthians 3:6). Be bold and don’t shy away from opportunity.

Prayer: Father, I pray that I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I pray that I am excited about it enough to look for places to interject it into everyday conversations. I pray that the word of God is on the tip of my tongue every day, waiting to come out and bless someone. I pray that we would have boldness, strength, and wisdom in working the word of the Lord into our conversations with people. In Jesus’ name, amen.