Can't Help It Disease

I love talking to my Dad on the phone. We don't get to talk as much as we used to, but if everything is going as planned, we usually get to talk once a week from anywhere between 5 and 10 minutes. What I love about talking to my Dad is that no matter what question you ask or what's going on in your life the conversation is heading toward hunting and/or fishing. Its just going to happen. There's no avoiding it. So here's a typical conversation:

 "Hey Dad what are you doing?"

"Well Luke, I'm sitting here looking out the window. I've seen two huge bucks walk through since early this morning and wanted to see if I could catch another glimspe of them. I've got them on my camera though so I'll send you a picture on email. (Side note: I have never once been hunting)

"That's awesome. So what have you and mom been up to?"

"I just back from Rockcastle. I went on a two-day hunt over there."

"Ok, so what are you having for dinner?"

"Yeah, I definitely want to hunt again soon and hopefully I'll get to go back to Florida to check on some things and get to fish some while I'm down there."

The last one is exaggerated, but you get the picture. He loves the outdoors and he's got a bad case of the "can't help it" disease. He "can't help" but to talk about what he loves: fishing and/or hunting. No matter how hard you try to divert him from the topic, he keeps coming back to it multiple times. Whether you want to talk about it or not, it's happening.

In a sermon on mission from Acts, Pastor Tim Brister of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, FL mentioned that the disciples suffered from a similar ailment. It says when Peter and John were put on trial before the council their simple defense for why they were spreading the gospel with such boldness and authority was this:

"Whether is is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19-20)

Wow. Is this true of us? Have we so treasured Christ and what he has done for us in his life, death, and resurrection that every time our mouths open the gospel spews out? To be so captured by the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ that we just have to talk about the gospel with everyone we know: believers, nonbelievers, friends, neighbors, colleagues, classmates, teammates, etc. The hard truth is: we talk about what we most love and what we're most passionate about. "Out of the abundance of the heart our mouths speak" (Luke 6:45).

What are you talking about? What fills most of your conversation on a daily basis? This is what has captured your heart. This is what you most love.

May we all discover that the gospel alone has the power to save and the gospel alone is worthy of our hearts and our tongues. May the gospel so saturate our lives that we talk about it, not out of guilt or obligation, but because Jesus has done such a beautiful work in our lives, that we just can't seem to talk about anything else.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek." (Romans 1:16)