The New Testament of The Bible is filled with spectacular things, it is not as boring as some might think it to be. It it filled with miracles and wisdom that you can not feel anywhere else. The Bible is truly a living book, when you read the words you feel energized and motivated. While the New Testament contains 27 books I would like to take the time to speak The Gospel of Matthew.
This composition of Matthew takes place between 40-60 A.D. (After Death) and is noted as the first book in The New Testament. This book contains 28 chapters which mostly deal with the life of Jesus; it is a great transition from The Old Testament to The New Testament. This Book, in summary, speaks about the life of Jesus Christ. The beginning deals with the birth and becoming of Jesus, the middle deals with the ministry and teachings of Jesus, while the end deals with the death and resurrection of Jesus.
I know many people do not believe The Bible, but why not? Is it because the healings of the blind, sick, and crippled are impossible or the fact that someone coming back from the dead has never been done. Yet could it be that you feel unworthy of God’s presence, like you feel undeserving of His love. It is because of Jesus that we can experience God’s love for us for it is by grace we have been saved. He created us in his image to be unique and prosper in His name. But if you do not knock then how can he open the door for you, if you do not seek then how can you find, if you do not ask then you will never receive. He made a purpose for all of us, please do not let His destiny for you pass by.
Furthermore in chapter 5 of Matthew verses 10-15 (Matthew 5:10-12) Jesus speaks to his crowd and shares his teachings:
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
The difficulty in life I struggle with is attempting to speak about The Word with family, friends, and strangers. Bringing up religion in a conversation is difficult, the topic may be awkward or provoking. I always think to myself “I need to know scripture to preach the word” which discouraged me a lot from speaking it to people. But the vast majority of humans want to know about your experience with Christ, like how has Jesus transformed YOUR life.
When you preach and speak the word of Christ, especially on a college campus, a lot of people will turn the other way. I think sometimes when I speak about God to other people they just think “He’s just another weird Jesus freak.” That is when I turn back to the verse of Matthew because even back in the day when Jesus was alive a lot of people hated him. People would throw stones, food, spit, even kill people who followed the ways of Christ. Their way of life is no different than ours today when it comes to religion. If the disciples and prophets suffered through hardship then why can’t I? They were scorned, hated, judged for it. So do not be discouraged, for you are trying your best to reach out with The Word of God and that’s all that He wants. Perhaps that person you spoke to never heard The Word of God and that was the first seed you planted into his soul. Maybe he might actually start to think about it and years down the road he might change. Just be patient and show love, we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works in which God prepared in advance for us to do.
