Are You Contagious?

He told him, "Go back home to your own people, and

report to them how much the Lord has done for you

and how He has had mercy on you."  Mark 5:19 (HCSB)

Are you contagious?  Let me rephrase that question.  Is your faith contagious?  Are you infecting others with your faith in Jesus Christ?  If not, why not?

This year has been a very strange year for our family healthwise.  It seems that we just keep passing the same cold and flu symptoms back and forth to each other.  Though we have given our best efforts to minimize the spreading of germs and disease in our home, it still happens.  Once one person becomes sick, it's only a matter of time before the rest of us come down with it.  We've taken vitamins to ward off colds, we've sterilized our home time and time again.  I've tried various herbal remedies that are supposed to speed up recovery or prevent catching a cold altogether.  In fact, I  believe we've bought so much Clorox and Lysol that we own a small share of these companies!  Though we try not to infect each other, we still do.  I had such a virulent cold that it developed into pneumonia and bronchitis back in the fall.  So Scott quarantined me in our oldest son's room, who was away at college, in order to minimize contaminating others in the family.  In fact, at the present, we are all just getting over yet another bad cold.  We now have a NEW family motto as a result of this season of sickness - "The family that cares - shares!"

Although being a Christian is not a disease, our faith should be be highly contagious to others!  My morning devotion challenged me on this very issue.  Bottom line, has your faith in Christ spread to anyone else lately?  In other words, has anyone been saved as a result of being infected by your testimony for Jesus Christ?  You may have only planted seeds or you may have actually led someone to Christ, but the question remains the same.  Or, have you quarantined yourself, restricting contact with others on matters of faith?

Our faith is not really just 'ours.'  Our faith is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  Once we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, our faith is to spread to others like wildfire!  It is not ours to keep to ourselves.  C.S. Lewis puts it this way, "Nothing is really ours until we share."  Once we are saved, we are members of the family of God.  Our motto should then be, "The family that cares - shares!"  And this sharing shouldn't be restricted to just those in the family - we need to share our faith with believers and nonbelievers alike.  Believers can encourage one another by the sharing of their faith.  Nonbelievers can be led to the cross when we share our faith.

Our Christian faith is an active relationship with a loving and saving God.  A part of that active relationship is being so 'in love' with our Lord and Savior that we tell others.  When I first fell in love with my husband, Scott, I wanted everyone to know of this wonderful man and the love we had for each other.  So, I spread the word.  Whoever was kind enough to listen to me had to endure my profession of love for Scott.  I wanted the world to know that I had found love!  In the same way, the natural outflow of our love for Jesus Christ should be to tell others!  And in doing so, others might also experience salvation!

We are not to live our faith out conceptually, but contagiously! 

I've been challenged today, to live a contagious life for Jesus Christ!  Have you?

In His Love, Cathy