Archive for the ‘Bible’ Category

The first thing that Christ taught His disciples was not how to manage money or raise a Christian family, as important as those are. It was something bigger. Jesus said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). A fisher of fish takes something alive and makes it dead. A fisher of men takes something dead and makes it alive. Jesus was in essence saying, “With Me, your life can have eternal perspective. It will count for something that will last forever.” Furthermore, “I will make you” implies, “I’ll teach you everything you need to know. Just follow. I’ll do the teaching if you’ll do the learning.”

“Wait a minute,” someone might say. “I grew up in a church where evangelism was a means of determining if you were a Christian. You had to evangelize or you weren’t saved.” Another might say, “I was made to feel that I had to present the Gospel to everyone I met. One man I knew pigeonholed people and immediately confronted them with the Gospel. I just can’t do that.” Remember that we do not have to live by the impression we receive from others, especially if those impressions are unbiblical. God tells us to follow Scripture as our guide and gives us freedom to be ourselves.

A biblical perspective on evangelism will help us develop healthier attitudes toward it. We can learn to profit from the good in our past experiences (such as recognizing a person’s concern for the lost), while freeing ourselves from mistaken assumptions. Too often people bring baggage into evangelism that isn’t biblical. Seeing evangelism from a biblical perspective can really set a person free.

The answer is found in a biblically sound perspective on evangelism. A careful study of scripture reveals that our God of grace wants us to witness out of grace. He wants us to approach taking Christ to the lost with excitement and anticipation. Evangelism can become an enjoyable experience, not an endurable episode. Join the conversation this week at Evangelism.net and offer your thoughts on the importance of doing evangelism out of grace and not guilt.

God is in the business of populating heaven. If you’re interested, He will let you in on the privilege of assisting Him. The fruit of your life will last into eternity.

There’s obviously always fear in evangelism. Sometimes fear comes because we are expecting things from people. That, interestingly enough, never happen.  People seem to want to talk about spiritual things. They simply want to be approached in the right way. By that, I mean that people will be most interested in what you want to tell them when you come to people with

1. A caring spirit
2. An attitude of grace, and
3. A genuine concern.

I often tell people that it’s not that they don’t’ want to be approached. They simply want to be approached in the right way. Sometimes when people seem uninterested, it’s because they feel like it’s being “jammed down their throat”, or forced upon them. That rarely ever works. But when you come “up from underneath” them, and they sense sincerity about you, it’s amazing how open they are to talking. As you talk, it’s easy to find one way or another to talk about spiritual things, and ultimately the Gospel. In our day when people fear cancer, terrorism, and the uncertainty about the economy, they’re even more open and approachable.

I encourage each believer I meet to just begin a conversation with non-Christians with the objective of hopefully talking to them about Christ. Take it one step at a time and show your genuine concern in them. When they sense they’ve met a friend, they might be interested in talking about your Friend!

Most people don’t think they can share the gospel with someone who will actually believe it and trust Christ for their salvation.  Many have a misplaced expectation that comes from being results-oriented.  We don’t think our job is done unless someone believes.  Not so.

Here are five things we can do:

1. We can share the gospel simply and clearly with someone who knows us; it’s not hard to learn.  Go get some training on how to witness.
2. We can tell them what we believe.  What our life was like before we understood that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead.  How we learned we were forgiven, that we could have an actual relationship with God in our life right now and go to Heaven when we die.
3. We can tell how our life has been changed.  We show them the Bible verses. We can ask if they would like to trust Christ too. We can all do that.  If we let go of the responsibility for their belief.
4. We can be faithful to do what He told us to do.  We love Him.  We tell His story.  We smile at the mercy and grace He gives us every day.
5. We are an ambassador carrying the message of the King.  We deliver it.  The one who receives the message must make the decision with Him.