Lucrative Charity

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. [Isaiah 58:1]


I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation. [Psalm 40:10]

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. [Romans 1:17]


Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. [Habakkuk 2:4]

I am finding it hard to walk up to people and have a conversation about Jesus. Do I just need practice, or are my inhibitions telling me something? If I am to preach in season and out of season, if I am to proclaim the gospel, how should I do it? I should not hide God's righteousness in my heart, but declare his reliability and ability to save/heal and not hide God's mercy and truth. What does that look like?
How is God's righteousness revealed? What about his salvation? His mercy? His Truth? Are these all the same things? If not, how are they different? Does it even matter?
Start with God's righteousness.
"For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith". Wherein is the righteousness revealed? Therein. Wherein is therein? Therein is "the (good news) of Christ". The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel (good news) of Christ. What is the gospel? "(The good news) is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth". The good news is that God has power to save every person that has faith in him. This salvation is more than freedom from punishment and guilt, it is freedom from sin in every way (see Matthew 1:21; 1 John 3:8; don't have time to deal specifically with that here). How can I proclaim that?
One clue is in Habakkuk 2:4 where those who live by faith are contrasted with those whose souls are lifted up within them; the proud. How is the righteousness of God revealed? When people are good out of faith in Jesus not from themselves and they make their motivation for holiness clear in their words. "I did that for you not because I am a good person but because in the Bible Jesus tells me the more I serve the greater I am." "I make these choices about what I consume because in the Bible Jesus tells me that if I abuse the life he gave me I will lose it." These responses are honest and show no sense of personal superiority, they are not the response of pride but the response of faith. If I am paid $1000 to give a beggar $1; it would be despicable for me to take credit for that. If you believe Jesus will reward you in heaven as he says he will, how is it different when you don't declare that vested interest in your charity? Don't forget that despite the Christian-apologetics propaganda; there really are a lot of atheists that do wonderful charity - sorry guys, its true - just doing charity is not enough. We need to stop taking the credit for our charities and give the credit to God.
A bit extreme? Maybe. Unusual? Definitely. Valid? Possibly. Worth further investigation? Definitely.

I suspect as I continue to work through Isaiah 58 I will get more insights on this issue.