In 1989 a battery company launched one of history’s most successful advertising campaigns. The pink bunny playing a drum while moving unstoppably across the screen caught people’s attention as a way to promote a battery that was promising to “keep going and going and going and going…”

Christians know of a true “energizer” that actually keeps them going and going and going, for it is the power that provides real living for all people. God’s power for salvation (Romans 1:16) comes packaged in a message that tells how God had so much love for the world that He sent His Son to atone for the sins of all people. Through faith in Him there is life given that will last for eternity. The Gospel “power pack” is unique because this message is used by the Holy Spirit first to bring life to dead souls, and then through that same source of spiritual energy He sustain souls in faith until the time they are brought to everlasting life.

There is another crucial component to this “energizer.” The Gospel is meant to keep going from house to house, from community to community, and from country to country. God has a plan to use us to reach as many people as possible before night strikes on the time of grace. “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world,” writes the apostle Paul in quoting from a Psalm of David (Romans 10:18, Psalm 19:4).

When our Evangelical Lutheran Synod convenes for its 90^th annual convention next month, our attention will be focused on evangelism. We want to encourage one another to be sharing and sharing and sharing and sharing…. How will people ever know that they have a Savior from sin and that through faith in His merits alone they can be confident of heaven, if we do not tell them the good news of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:14-17)? Our theme, Declare His Praises, will remind us that each believer is a part of the universal priesthood that is intent on declaring the praises of the one who called us out of darkness into the wonderful light of knowing God’s grace (1 Peter 2:9).

The Gospel moves us to speak to others about the Savior because of God’s great love for us (2 Corinthians 5:14,15). But we are also moved to do so out of love for our fellow human beings who are headed for damnation if they leave this earth not believing in Christ’s Gospel. We help with the sharing. God alone will work the results according to His promise (Isaiah 55:11).