Each one of us has a comfort zone in which we live our life.  It has to do with the kind of lifestyle that we’re comfortable living.  We’re comfortable dressing in a certain style, eating certain foods, shopping in certain stores, being in certain neighborhoods, being associated with certain kinds of people, taking part in certain kinds of activities.  Our comfort zone extends to our spiritual life, as well.  We’re comfortable in a congregation with a certain kind of makeup with a certain style of preaching and a certain emphasis on our personal responsibility as individual Christians.

   The word “gospel” means “good news.”  It is a generic word but has come to be used, almost exclusively, to refer to the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ (Rom. 1:16).  Jesus brought that message from Heaven to earth.  The message is universal in that it is meant for all mankind.  Yet it is very personal in that every human being must learn and accept it on an individual basis, one person at a time.

   How serious should I be about being a Christian and living a faithful Christian life?  Well, how serious should I be about living eternally with God and Christ in Heaven?  How serious is it to contemplate an eternity in the torments of Hell?  How serious is the sacrifice of God’s Son on the cross for the debt of my sin (Rom. 5:8)?  How serious is death, since the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23)?  How serious is it for the church to be identified as the body of Christ (Col. 1:18)?  How serious is it for me to wear Christ’s name as I call myself a “Christian” (Acts 11:26)?

   Tomorrow we celebrate Labor Day, a federal holiday set aside to honor the working people of this nation.  The first Labor Day was celebrated on Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City.  It was made a national holiday in 1894.  While the holiday was originally designed to recognize organized labor, it has become a holiday for all workers.  For many, it marks the end of summer and begins the activities of the fall season.  It is somewhat interesting that a day designated as Labor Day is celebrated with a day taken off from laboring.