Challenge of the Day: Get back to the basics

Anytime I find myself consumed with the worries of the world i.e. finances, friends, family, status; I try to put my mind back on Kingdom business.  The bible tells us not to worry about our earthly needs because the same God who takes care of the birds and the flowers will sustain us.  It is our primary responsibility while we are here on earth to spread the Gospel or the  good news.  So what is the good news?

The Beginning:  God created earth and everything in it. Then God created man.  When He finished He looked over everything that He created and saw that it was very good.  Now man, acting of his own free will, was deceived by Satan and disobeyed God.  Satan won that battle. 

The Problem:  This disobedience brought death, sin, and evil into an otherwise perfect world.  Every man born thereafter was inherently evil and, because God is just, condemned to Hell.

The Solution/Good News:  God did not want to see the creation that He loved eternally separated from Him, so He sent His son Jesus to redeem them.  Jesus was born of a virgin, because to be created with man would make Him inherently evil.  He was tempted and tried but lived without sin.  Jealous and confused religious folk condemned Him to death and He accepted it without argument.  He was brutally murdered and buried.  Jesus went to Hell, beat Satan, and rose three days later with all power of Heaven and earth in His hands. Jesus won the war.  God accepted Jesus' death as an atoning sacrifice for all of our sins and we can now be assured of eternal victory in Jesus, our Savior. 

So this is the good news.  But now we have a new problem.  We are only sure of our salvation if we believe the good news and accept Jesus as our Savior.  Now Satan, knowing he's lost the war, wants to bring as many people down with him as possible.  He wants to confuse, discourage, and distract us from our salvation.  The sad part is, he's still winning a lot of battles.  So we have to take our positions as soldiers of Christ.  We have to spread the word that the victory has already been won we just have to stay in the fight.  And we fight by the way we live, by saying no to the devil on a daily basis, by rededicating our lives to God every morning, and by spreading the good news to the world.  These are the things we should focus on when we find ourselves being ambushed by the cares of the world.