Unscarify Evangelism

Evangelism Defined (by me):

Evangelism is what a Christian is supposed to do in order to help non-Christians become Christians. Further defined, it is a lifestyle lived on purpose for the extreme purpose of not only telling people the story of Jesus and explaining the salvation message, but also to demonstrate what a Christian is supposed to be. But defining evangelism is not my goal today. Rather, it is to provide anyone reading this with the encouragement to step out and evangelize … without TOO MUCH fear.

Let me give you some freedom right up front. You are not required to walk up to people cold-turkey and say, “Can I tell you about Jesus?” Don’t get me wrong, if you can do that, and you do do that, continue pushing forward. We would probably discover that you have the gift of evangelism. However, for the most of us that aren’t gifted in evangelism, we need to discover how we can evangelize any way because we want to be obedient to Matthew 28:19 – 20.

Here are a few steps you can take right now to start evangelizing:

1 – Make some non-Christian friends. By this, I mean do more than talk to them. Invite a non-Christian family into your home for the express purpose of getting to know them better. Go out to eat with a non-Christian friend. Join a work softball team (even one of those teams where the actually drink beer after the game). Find ways that you can be around non-Christians without compromising your relationship with Christ. That should be easy enough for most of us.

2 – Ask questions. Further, ask questions without trying to correct the answers once they are given. Also, don’t start debating with them when they say something you believe to be wrong. Just let it be wrong. Here are some sample questions you can ask in normal conversation when you get to where you feel you can and it would be appropriate.

Do you go to church any where?
Do you have any spiritual beliefs?
Do you believe in God?
To you, who is Jesus?
What do you think a Christian is?

Some of these questions come from Bill Fay’s Share Jesus Without Fear, but the questions are open-ended. The important thing is to let them tell you what they think. People like to talk to you about themselves. This will let you see where they stand spiritually, and it will show them that you are a little different than there other friends.

3 – Know your Bible. This is the part that is hard for most of us, but this is the easiest part to fix. Read your Bible. You are a Christian … right? Then, read God’s Word!!! Here are a few scriptures you can get started knowing better:

Romans 3:23; Romans 5:8; Romans 6:23: Romans 3:10; Romans 10:9-10; John 3:16; John 3:3; John 14:6; 1 John 1:9; 1 Peter 3:15; 2 Corinthians 5:17

These aren’t all about salvation, but they are good verses to know. Pick up a tract and see what verses they use and how they use them.

Know what you believe!

That’s enough steps for now. If we will start with these, we might actually start winning the spiritual battle in America.

Go with God,
Donald B

RESPONDING to God’s Guidance in Our Lives

Does God speak to you?  Have you ever felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to do something?  How did you respond?

For some, I am sure the answer is that you obeyed whole-heartedly!  And that is great!  But for most, I am guessing the answer is you are now feeling guilty because you are having to think about the failure again.  This I understand … and this is why I write today.

Yes, I know what it means to fail to obey God.  I know what it is to ignore the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  However, I also know how it feels to succeed in obeying God.  I understand the joy and satisfaction that comes from positively responding to the Holy Spirit.

I have recently been reminded of how important it is to obey the Spirit’s guidance.  I want to share with you a couple of thoughts from a book that I am reading.  The book is The Life You’ve Always Wanted, by John Ortberg.  In chapter 9 – entitled The Guided Life - Ortberg is describing to the reader how we can live out our daily life and function on the spiritual level.  He states:

This gentle receptiveness, this ordering our minds on more than one level at once, is a skill that can be learned.  For instance, if we have a significant decision to make tomorrow, we can stop and ask for wisdom.  If we have some discretionary time unexpectedly open up, we can pause and ask God, “Do you have anything for me to do?”  Then we can “listen” for a moment, and if no prompting comes, we simply do what seems wisest.  Each time we greet someone tomorrow, we can inwardly ask the Spirit, “How can I respond to this person?  Do you want to speak or work through me?”

Have you ever asked God a question like that?  If so, what happened next?  Did you receive guidance as to what you should do?  If so, did you obey it?  It is this next statement from Ortberg’s book that I find striking:

Guidance only makes sense for people who are resolved to respond.

“Resolved to respond.”  That’s what I am looking for.  I am looking to be the type of person who is RESOLVED to RESPOND to God’s leading.  What that says to me is that no matter what … no matter how stupid I will look, no matter what ridicule may come, no matter what my friends think, no matter how scared I am … I will respond.  Being resolved to respond means that I plan now for how I will respond when God calls.  It means that I will decide now to recklessly say YES to God’s leading.  Are you taking the time to actively prepare your mind to whole-heartedly follow the Spirit’s leading.

Let me finish with this quote from the devotional My Utmost For His Highest – July 9th.

We say, “Oh, if only I really could believe!”  The question is, “Will I believe?”  No wonder Jesus Christ placed such emphasis on the sin of unbelief.  “He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).  If we really believed that God meant what He said, just imagine what we would be like!  Do I really dare to let God be to me all that He says He will be?

Resolve today that you will respond to the Spirit’s guidance completely and whole-heartedly.  Demonstrate that you do indeed believe … don’t just say you believe.

James 1:22 – 25 (NIV)
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

Go with God,
Donald B

Reaching others for Christ

1 Corinthians 9:19 – 23 (NIV)
Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.  To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

How do you attract the non-believing individual to yourself for the purpose of sharing Christ with them???

This is the question I want to answer today.  This is the question we should all be asking ourselves on a daily basis in order to ensure we are properly reflecting the light of Christ!

Paul sums up what he is trying to say by stating “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”  What does it mean to be “all thing to all men”?

I believe what Paul is trying to help us understand is that we need to find common ground with our non-believing friends and co-workers.  Sometimes … we may even need to CREATE that common ground.

What Paul does not directly state … but it is implied … is that becoming all things to all men takes effort on our part.  Paul “became” things in order to reach the non-believers.

So … answering the question above with 2 answers …

1 – Let my hobbies, interests, and other outside the office stuff be known somehow; through conversation, memorabilia displayed at your desk or on your vehicle, t-shirts and such.  This will give your non-believing acquaintances conversation openers into your life.

2 – Watch and listen to the non-believers Christ has placed you around.  What are they interested in?  What is it that gets them excited?  Do they like NASCAR?  Maybe you should start watching some races and learn NASCAR.  Are they in a bowling league?  Maybe you could join the league as well.

What I have found to NOT be very effective are things like Christian t-shirts and such.  Those things are good about hooking me up with other believers, but not at attracting the non-believer.  If I wear them occasionally, it does allow the non-believer to know that I believe something like that … but I avoid wearing them all the time.  How about a t-shirt with a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. #8 on it?  Just made a NASCAR connection …

Go with God,
Donald B

Becoming a Christian …

Today, I blog on the most basic … yet most important … aspect of Christianity.  How does a person get “saved”?  This is where it all begins.  This is what it is all about.  In order to be a Christian, we have to have some knowledge of what that is all about.  So … here is my input on this all important subject.

If you have ever seen Campus Crusade for Christ’s tract call The Four Spiritual Laws this will look very familiar to you.

First, it is important to understand that God loves you.  No matter who you are, what you have done, or where you have been … God loves you.  Read the following verses:

John 3:16 (NLT)
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

Answer this question after every verse you read –> “What is this saying to me?”

John 10:10 (NLT)
The thief’s [satan] purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My [Jesus] purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Romans 5:8 (NLT)
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

My take: God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to live as a human – perfect … without sin – and to die on a cross as a permanent sacrifice for us.  Jesus’ purpose for coming was to save us from the effects of sin and to give meaning to our lives.  And He did all of this without requiring us to become good or get better or fix the bad things in our lives.  He did this for us BECAUSE we are sinners and have bad things in our lives.

Second, we have to understand WHY we needed Jesus to do this for us.  The quick and easy answer is because we are all sinners.  We have done bad things.  Check out these verses.

Romans 3:23 (NLT)
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

Romans 6:23a (NLT)
For the wages of sin is death…

My take: If you think you haven’t sinned … you are lying to yourself.  Ever told a lie or disobeyed your parents?  We all have.  We are all sinners.  And because of this sin, we have to pay the “wage”.  And the “wage” for our sin is death.  Death – as in Romans 6:23a – is referring to spiritual death.  While it is true that physical death is the result of sin (Adam & Eve’s original sin) … our sin results in our spiritual death.  Spiritual death is better stated as an eternal separation from God.  After we experiencing physical death, we will either be with God in Heaven forever … or we will not (better known as spending forever in Hell).

Third, we have to ask “So, what can we do about this?  It seems that we are condemned already?  How can we avoid this spiritual death?”  In order to answer this, we have to look at what Jesus had to say … and then, we’ll look at some more verses in Romans.

John 14:6 (NLT)
Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

Romans 6:23b (NLT)
but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 10:9 – 10 (NLT)
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

My take: Jesus is the only answer to our sin problem.  Any thing else that any one offers you is false hope … a lie.  Jesus is the only way to an eternal life with God (in Heaven) rather than without God (in Hell).  While the wages of our sin is death, the alternative is eternal life through Jesus Christ.  And Romans 6:23 tells us that this is a FREE GIFT!!  This is important.  Understanding Romans 5:8 and Romans 6:23 together, we see that we DO NOT DO anything to receive this gift.  We simply just receive it.  Romans 10:9 – 10 tells us HOW to receive it.  Believe and Confess!  Believe it in your heart and say it with your mouth (to God).

To help understand the free gift part a little better … check out these verses:

Ephesians 2:8 – 9 (NLT)
God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

It is an absolutely FREE GIFT.  It’s called grace.  Someone gave us this acrostic for GRACE.  God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.  While simple … it’s true.  We get God and all that He has to offer simply by saying YES to His FREE GIFT!

Now … it’s up to you.  What will you choose?  No one can force you.  You have to choose.

The prayer offered below means nothing if you don’t believe it.  It is also not a magical incantation for how to be saved.  My prayer of salvation was “God … I’m afraid of Hell.  Save me.”  But I believed God was who He claimed to be.  And I confessed I needed Him to save me.  Here’s the prayer (a little more eloquent than the one I prayed).

Prayer
Jesus Christ … I believe You are God and that You became human and that You died on the cross to pay for my sins.  I thank You for Your sacrifice.  I am a sinner.  Forgive my sins.  Save me from myself.  Save me from Hell.  Come into my life and be my Savior.  I willingly accept your FREE GIFT!  Thank You for saving me.  Teach me how to be a Christian and how to let you be LORD of my life.  Amen!

If you prayed this … and you believed it … then, you have received God’s FREE GIFT!  There is nothing you can do to ever lose this gift.  You will still sin.  You will still have bad things happen to you.  But you are still (and will forever be) a child of God.  1 John 5:13 (NLT) says “I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.”  In the first four chapters, John told us what a Christian should look like.  But then he tells us that we can KNOW that we have eternal life.

So … no matter how bad things become … always hold on to this moment and remember that you ARE a child of God – and forever will be one.

Now, it is important for you to learn what it means to be a Christian.  It is very important for you to find a local church where you can learn about the Bible and grow in your faith by hearing and serving.

If you have questions, I will GLADLY answer them.  I will always be available to any one who desires to grow in their relationship with God.

donald@lifecc.us

Go with God,
Donald B