“Jesus called out to them, ‘Come, follow Me, and I will show you how to fish for people!’” (Matthew 4:19 NLT)
Multiplication has always been the heartbeat of the Church. If you ask why so many people are being tortured and murdered for their faith in our world today, it’s because the Lord is using them to draw millions of people to His eternal Kingdom.
In relative terms, there’s very little persecution of Christians in America because there are very few individual believers doing anything to challenge the kingdom of darkness. We’re satisfied with being nice people, saying and doing nice things that rarely, if ever, cause anyone to get upset with us.
Jesus’ boldness cost Him His life and how He trained His disciples got them killed as well. Why do we think we should get to skate into heaven on our good intentions? If we’re not regularly witnessing to the power of God to change lives through a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, why aren’t we? We’re not saved to become museum exhibits; we’re saved to reproduce the life Jesus gave us by His Holy Spirit living in us.
The Spirit of God indwells us, not simply to make us holy, but to make us useful in Christ’s eternal Kingdom. The Lord speaks, not that we can become a reservoir of all the good things we read in the Bible, hear in a message, or read in a book, but to be a channel through whom the Spirit can flow. We honor the Lord as we share with those in our spheres of influence what the Lord is sharing with us.
However, a word of caution! Shoving a verse of Scripture down someone’s throat doesn’t constitute effective sharing. Sometimes it’s much more effective to “LIVE” the Scripture than to quote it “AT” someone. Life is contextual, which means we take what the Lord gives us and allow Him to shape it into something meaningful we can share with someone who needs encouragement.
Rather than quoting John 3:16, perhaps a more effective approach would be to put His love into shoe leather and go see someone in the hospital or who is recovering at home and needs someone to bring them a few meals. Perhaps a single mom could use someone to watch her child(ren) so she could go out for a relaxing meal with a gift card we have given her.
Presenting the Gospel doesn’t always have to look like the proverbial “Roman Road,” quoting Scripture that leads to a profession of faith in Christ. The most effective evangelism is built on friendship. Make friends with lost people who, yes, of course, need Jesus, but they may first need to see Jesus through you or me. Kindness, thoughtfulness, generosity, and love are very effective evangelistic “tools” when we allow the Holy Spirit to use us in kind and loving ways.
Yes, of course, we expect that there will come a point when explaining the Gospel is the most logical thing to do, but most people today want to “see” the Gospel before they want someone to explain it. People are much more open to hearing the good news of Christ’s love from someone they know and trust than from a stranger.
The Lord puts people in our spheres of influence for a reason. How many of them will be in heaven because of us – because of me and you?
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 