Cure for Death

Psalm 40:9-10

⁹ I have proclaimed glad tidings of righteousness in the great congregation;
Behold, I will not restrain my lips,
O Lord, You know.
¹⁰ I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart;
I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation;
I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation.

Can you read those words out loud and be proclaiming the truth?

That's a tough one.  Myself included.

I did study this passage extensively, as I do with each passage I write about.  But it isn't any of the commentaries or even the original Hebrew that taught me much this time around.  This time, it was the gut feeling that I needed to learn what the passage was telling me.  Plain and simple.  There is no reading between the lines here.  There is not a Hebrew translation that makes it different, even in a small way.  This passage has much to teach as it appears in modern day English, without needing someone to explain it.


I think we cannot miss the importance of these words as applied to our own lives.  We cannot and should not contain or hide any of what God is or what He has done for us.  It is too big of a story, too much of a headline, too life-changing to not share!  

I have been selling It Works! products for a few months now.  In our training they are constantly reminding us that we have a product that changes lives! It usually goes something like this: From weight loss, to health issues, to getting out of debt - It Works! changes lives every day in SO many big ways!  That simple fact alone, the fact that these products change lives, is what should make me face my fears and tell everyone I know or meet about these products. My life is SO much better off because of these products, don't I want the rest of the world to know that too?  Don't let your fear get in the way of changing someone else's life for the better.

I listen to these thoughts and I instantly start thinking of Christ and my salvation.  That is THE biggest life-change there is.  I was lost, now I am found!  I was dead, now I am alive!  Why do I not tell every single person I see about this amazing truth??  Why am I afraid of what people will think?  Is my reputation worth more than their eternal salvation?  Absolutely not!  

I once read a quote from the British criminal Charlie Peace, when speaking with a chaplain I believe, that has really stuck with me: "Sir, I do not share your faith.  But if I did - if I believe what you really say you believed - then even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to cost, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees, and think the pain worthwhile, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!"

If you had the cure for cancer would you share it?  Would you talk about it constantly and tell everyone you know?  

Or would you hide it?  

That's a no-brainer right?  Our God, our salvation, is SO much more than a cure for cancer!  He loves us SO much, He has given us a cure for death (in a manner of speaking...)!!

I should be pulling strangers off the street to tell them about this amazing God and everything He has done for us.  But the hard truth is that I don't even talk to the people I work with about it or even some of my close friends and family.  Why?  Because I'm too afraid of what they might think, too afraid of how they might respond....

Today I am making a vow to be more open about the life-changing news that I have to share.  I'm probably not going to go evangelize on the streets, but I'm going to take baby steps and reach out to those that are hurting, to those that are lost.  I have something that can change all of that, something that can change the world!

Why, then, do I keep it so quiet???