Need for the gospel

I have just returned from a lovely weekend back home in Marmora, ON, with my lovely girlfriend Angela. I could ramble on about various details of our time there together, but then that's not really any of your business (no offense). However I will share a bit of how I think, and hope, I may have changed since leaving.

First of all, my purpose in going home for the weekend was to preach at madoc Baptist Church on Sunday morning, and it was through this agency that the change came. Let it never be said that a preacher cannot learn from what he's preachingon, or that the Holy Spirit cannot convict the heart that he is using to convict others; I tell you it is not the case.
The greatest difficulty inpreaching whe you are not the regular preacher of teh church is what to preach on. As the regular preacher, you determine a book of the Bible to preach through or a topic and simply go through it week by week, which both provides you with the next weeks material as well as giving ample time to think of the next book or topic you would like to preach from. Now there are other difficulties that arise, but for me, this has alway been the biggest; what to preach on when you have only one time to preach?

So it was on this particular occasion. I had eventually settled on Micah 6:8, "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (NIV)"
Now after carefully breaking it down to examine the text carefully and look at it in a systematic way that would examine it from a biblical perspective and encourage and convict the people of God , I though I was prepared. Then just a few hours before I preached, as I thought through my sermon it hit me: "What does it all mean if we do these things in a way that does not portray Christ; His sacrifice, His condescension, His love and His Godhood. This then I hope to make the new thrust of my life. It is something that I think all believers understand and strive for, but often take, as I think I have, too passively.

No matter what we do for others, and no matter what we give to others, if we do not give them Christ we do nothing for them and we give nothing to them that is of any importance or significance.

I have thought, as have others, that it enough to live a "Christian" life and not use every opportunity to share, but to wait for those opportunities to arise. But how many chances do we have each day to share the gospel through our lives and we waste them because we do not speak our faith? Perhaps it is fear, or maybe just modern western apathy, I don't know, but I honestly believe that if more Christians actively shared their faith, as well as praying for the unsaved and revival, I believe we would see much more revival in North America and the world.