Just a quick thought here…If you’re not “sharing your faith” often, how do you know it is really yours?

Have you no concern in the slightest for the lost? I know we can tend to go to the other unhealthy extreme of allowing legalistic angst be the motive behind urges to give a tract or have a conversation with every single person around us, and that’s not what I’m trying to prompt you with; even evangelism can be an idol if we let it. But are you naturally trying in some way each day to reconcile sinners with God?

If you say you have a part in the Christian (“Christ-follower”) faith, you have been given a job to do: it is called the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18). Furthermore, take Paul’s example, and he told the Colossians “Him we preach, warning every man” (1:28). When was the last time you warned anyone with a word, a tract, a letter…something?

Posted: July 31st, 2009 under Challenge, Evangelism, Getting Started, Gospel Tracts.
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39And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
40Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
41Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.
42And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead.
43To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
- Acts 10:39-43

In verses 39-41 Peter continues his summary of the Life and ministry of Jesus.  We Christians, at least in America it seems, often overlook sharing about Jesus’ life with those who are lost, tending to focus exclusively on the Cross and His resurrection.  (See Part I for details)

Verse 42 – When we provide a whole picture of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we can then easily, logically build on to show that He has taken His rightful place as the Ultimate Judge each of us will stand before.

Verse 43 – Here too, we tend to neglect referring to the prophets’ testimony of a coming Christ (remember, most unsaved people don’t know what “Christ” means, so “de-code” it for them).  Then Peter, in a crescendo of testimony, explains how it is men can be saved by this One He has described.

It would seem, then, to apply this to our sharing the Gospel, we would do well to model Peter’s approach (which is the Bible’s approach) of, at least summarily, not neglecting to tell people the entirety of the Gospel story:

I. Jesus’ earthly good deeds, healings, grace, truth, kindness, message, etc.
II. His death on the Cross
III. His resurrection to Glory (and appearances to many)
IV. His now being seated in the place of our final Judge
V. How the prophets, and all of Scripture, center on Jesus
VI. How, then we can be saved/our right response to Who God Is, and what He has done

Even if a person does not get saved at that moment, God may be using you to clear up some misconceptions or flat-out errors they picked up sometime in the past about the Lord.  So pray the Lord waters the seed!!

Posted: January 20th, 2009 under Evangelism, Getting Started, Scripture, Witness Encounters.
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34Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:
35But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.
36The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:)
37That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;
38How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
- Acts 10:34-38 (KJV)

Only after his blanket “Kill and eat” object lesson could Peter fully grasp the open door of salvation that was swung wide open for everyone. (v34-35)

Verse 36 is the preface to Peter’s next statements, “[This is] the word which God sent…” Then he tells them.

In verse 37, Peter says Cornelius knows what has been published throughout Judea; the details of which report follow in the next verses. Obviously, all Judea has been made aware too.

In verse 38, Peter summarizes the earthly ministry of the Lord, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him”

What Peter is saying here is that people in that region knew about Jesus. They had heard of His life, His good deeds, His healings. But Peter didn’t then assume it was OK to skip over those facts of our Lord’s ministry. He (and others) continued to inform the lost about them, even if they already were familiar with the stories.

In America, by contrast, we Christians tend to neglect to include what Jesus did while He was alive on the earth when we witness. We either take it for granted in our own knowledge and/or assume that everyone else knows as well. So, like explaining a movie at the climax of the plot, we tend to evangelize from the Cross, forward. I know I have been guilty of this and I haven’t heard many evangelism programs emphasize Jesus’ life and works in their presentations either.

Next time you witness (and I’ll promise to do this too) remember to go back over what you may think the person has already heard about Jesus as you point them to the Cross. They may have gotten inaccuracies or jumbled details or other errors, so take some of the time to talk about His life on earth–Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John did.

More about verses 39-43 soon.

Posted: January 19th, 2009 under Evangelism, Getting Started, Scripture, Witness Encounters.
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I just got back from meeting up with some believers who regularly evangelize in Ybor (pronounced “ee-bor”).  Here are a couple of quick stories:

God started the night with some Scientologists on the main corner.  I asked them what happens, should they ever reach “clear” in this life, what happens when they die?  The chief problem is that they will come face to Face with a holy, sovereign, and just God to Whom they will still have to give an account.  Their conscience may be “clear” on earth, but that doesn’t justify them before the Lord.  The discussion starts.  Probably not two minutes later this dude comes up and joins the conversation and starts asking them questions.  At first I think he’s a Christian too since he actually tells me not get ahead on a point he was making.  They refuse to explain even a single tennant of the beliefs except to say a) they’re not a religion (ummm “Church” of Scientology??) and b) come to our offices around the corner and you can watch a movie to learn more.  After their shift leader comes over and refuses to answer questions, they leave.  Meanwhile I’m kinda just relegated to watching all this happen.  The dude turns to me and says, “I don’t believe what you believe at all…but ‘Praise Jesus!’ the corner’s all clear for ya” and he walks away!  Yeah, I’m still scratching my head on that one.

Story 2 – “Bob” is in his early 20’s and dressed in a suit.  He has to be; his job is to get attractive women into the club he works for.  He comes to tell me I’m doing a “good thing” and that, after tonight, he’s quitting the job to be closer to God. ”Seriously?” I ask.  Yup.  I spent the next 20+ minutes trying to get him to walk off the job but he wouldn’t do it.  He was going to get paid $300 at the end of the night.  After about 20+ minutes of telling him that he is serving two masters (well, actually, only one tonight), God has plenty of money to honor his quitting immediately, Jesus commands us to do it, etc. etc. He won’t do it.  In the end, I tell him I would pray that since he doesn’t have the strength to walk away from this God-dishonoring job I would pray that the Lord does it Himself and has him get fired.  Not sure if that was biblical, but God deserves to be obeyed. Period.

Story 3 – I hand a gospel tract to a guy walking by and ask my usual, “Did you get one of these?”  He takes it, looks at (an illustrastion of a bloodied figure, head bowed, on a cross with the words “He Did This For You” on the front); looks me dead in the eye and starts going off about “you people pushing your religion”.  I calmly let him talk a bit and then ask him, “Do you have any spiritual beliefs?”  By now I can tell he’s seething.  He crumples the tract up and puts it in my hand and again talks about “pushing” beliefs.  I say nothing. As he walks away I call out (hoping to get him to come back) “But Sir, you talked more than me!”

I post these things because once you get out and start sharing your faith you will encounter everything.  People believe wholeheartedly in some strange things (by any circumstances); or they’ve been burned by religion/unbiblical Christianity and are still smarting from it; or whatever.  But Jesus is right there and He will give the Holy Spirit to help you.

I like to keep posts to about 200 words, this time I went way over.  Hopefully you found it helpful though.  Thanks for sticking with it.  Go share your faith!

Posted: September 21st, 2008 under Challenge, Evangelism, Getting Started, Gospel Tracts, Testimony, Witness Encounters.
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A man who was a tremendous blessing to my wife and me, Shawn H, has some terrific photos and blog posts about R&W. Link to them here. His wife Lisa is also pretty amazing too! We were blessed to have met them and hope to all meet up again in Florida next year.

Posted: August 19th, 2008 under Encouragement, Evangelism, Getting Started, Gospel Tracts, Open Air Preaching.
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Basically the trip went like this: We arrived on Thursday, August 7th. Our home away from home was a former hospital turned Christian missions dormitory in Queens, NY. There are about 30 of us from all over the country and one from Canada. Day One was arrivals, introductions, and orientation.

Day Two: Our first full day. Up early, separate mens’ and ladies’ group devotions, together for group worship and a stirring message from Pastor John C.from Minnesota, which led to time in prayer and repentance. Afterwards we broke into our respective teams and preached the gospel on the subways and Madison Square Garden/Penn Station. We ate dinner in Times Square but then continued the outreach there in Times Square with more open-air and tracts. After a 16-hour first day of sites, sounds, smells, tears, bonding, preaching, walking and witnessing, the teams again headed into the subway for more train preaching as we returned to our dorm to pass out.

Day Three (Saturday): Up early and together again for group worship, prayer, and the inspiring testimony of Shawn H of Luke 10:2 Ministry and this time a trip first to Battery Park, where folks take the ferries to Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty, later to Union Square Park, and later still to Times Square and then another trip of subway preaching back to the dorm.

Day Four (Sunday): We got to catch up on some sleep and then met for Sunday worship, with CCN Overseer, Pastor Sean LaCon preaching and later praying over those who felt the Lord had called them to specifically be evangelists. After service we enjoyed a graduation ceremony with certificates and exhortations not to let our evangelistic zeal remain in NYC, but to take it wherever the Lord has us. Lastly, we concluded the afternoon/evening with about six hours of open-air preaching, tracts, one-on-one encounters again in Union Square Park.

I’ll leave you with this awesome story: As we were waiting for our last subway ride back to the dorms, there was a guitarist/singer performing down on the other subway platform, separate from ours by several sets of tracks. He was singing, “Stand By Me” and we all joined along in the chorus to cheer him on. This led to Pastor John to springboard into a gospel presentation to the people waiting for trains that Jesus will stand by you more than anyone else ever could. But the great thing (besides the gospel presentation, of course) was that the guitarist called out when John was done and said he had a song for us. Next thing we knew, he was strumming and singing “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord. Open the eyes of my heart, I want to see you. I want to see you….” It was surreal! We were praising the Lord with this subway musician on the last night of our Repent & Witness Evangelism Camp. What a beautiful way to wrap it up! We praised God in awe of His million little kindnesses to us! The next day those who were not staying in NYC for a few extra days of site-seeing made their way homeward, with new friends, new hearts for the lost, and a deeper love of the gospel.

Posted: August 19th, 2008 under Encouragement, Evangelism, Getting Started, Gospel Tracts, Open Air Preaching.
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