"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that brings good news, that proclaims peace, that brings good news of good things, that proclaims salvation; that saith unto Zion, 'Thy God reigns!'" Isaiah 52:7
I dare say that we do not see evangelism as a beautiful work; a chore or a duty, perhaps, or merely work, but not beautiful. Perhaps if we grasped the nihilistic terror of modern man, grasped the horror of existence in an accident caused, empty, vacuous universe that spreads ever on and on into further nothingness, perhaps if we grasped the despair of coming from nothing and moving towards nothing, maybe then we would see why evangelism is a beautiful work. We are proclaiming good news to dying men, not boring them to tears with our own opinions. What would happen if we truly believed that we had, not a chore or a duty, but good news, and that its proclamation was a beautiful thing? We desire hearts aflame to share the gospel, and beauty inflames all souls; yet we treat the sharing of the gospel, which is a beauty, as an annoyance both to ourselves and the people we share it with. This should not be so.
Please note that by 'beautiful,' we do not mean mere sentimentality or fanciful thoughts and feelings. The beauty in evangelism is real beauty, deep and heavy beauty, that which conforms to absolute Beauty (i.e., God Himself). There is real beauty in the proclamation of peace between God and man, between the King and the rebels. Let all the lost and lonely people know that man can indeed lay down his arms and find rest in the terrible Almighty, Who has reached out to them in love and holiness.
"How beautiful is Your Presence,
How beautiful is Your Work,
How beautiful is Your Body,
Broken and spilled out..."
-Jon Vowell
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