Walking With Jesus

What’s the First Step?

“What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever. What sorrow for those who are heroes at drinking wine and boast about all the alcohol they can hold.” (Isaiah 5:20-22 NLT)

If only we were as good, smart, capable, attractive, spiritual, wise, and had it together as much as we thought we were and did. Being a Pastor was a privilege I never took lightly, but it was also a role that enabled me to keep who I was in clear focus.

There are basically two categories of people in any given church: those who are lost and those who are saved. But you also have those who are saved and fear they’re lost, and those who are quite confident they’re saved, but don’t have a clue as to what that means.

If we’re ever going to be effective in our walk with Jesus, the first step is to recognize who we are. We’re either going to see clearly that we’re a sinner who needs salvation, or a sinner who believes they’re okay the way they are. The first category has hope. The second category has no hope unless and until they see themselves for who they really are.

Derek Rishmawy said: “’Repent’ is how Jesus says ‘welcome’ to sinners in the Gospel.” Our best and only first step if we desire to have any kind of meaningful relationship with Jesus is to humbly bow at the Savior’s feet, recognize we’re a sinner in need of a Savior, then, by God’s grace and in His strength, determine to repent – turn from our sin and begin the lifelong journey of following the Lord Jesus.

God’s will for us is to be Christ’s disciple. What does that mean? It means basically two things. First, a disciple is a Jesus follower whose primary goal is to learn to be like Jesus. We can never accomplish that if we’re bent on doing our own thing. If we ever begin to believe we’ve got this discipleship thing mastered, that should be our first clue to rewind and start over.

The second part of being a disciple is teaching others what we’ve been taught. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 2:2: “You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.” A disciple learns in order to teach others. But a critical piece of this process is, a disciple never stops learning.

You don’t have to be a college graduate to teach a first grader, you only need to be a second grader. As Jesus followers we pour into others what we’re learning. Have you learned to make reading the Bible and prayer a priority? Great! Teach someone else who’s just starting their walk with the Lord. Are you struggling? Does a Pug have a soft belly?

Of course, you’re struggling! We all struggle. Struggle is part of the DNA of being a believer. When you stop struggling, you’ll be in heaven. Thabiti Anyabwile wrote: “Sometimes we have to have more hope for people’s change than they have for themselves.” Another critical part of the Christian Faith is being in community.

There’s no such thing as a “lone ranger” believer. That’s why the Lord established His Church. If Satan can keep you alone it really doesn’t matter what you know, how smart you are, or how close you are to Jesus. If you’re not allowing others to speak into your life and you’re not speaking into someone else’s walk you’re right where Satan wants you. On some levels we never leave our “first step” of repentance. We continually seek to correct our course and stay close to Jesus while He’s ever so patiently instructing us in how to become more like Him – together!

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

A Slow Fade

“I am warning you ahead of time, dear friends. Be on guard so that you will not be carried away by the errors of these wicked people and lose your secure footing.” (2 Peter 3:17 NLT)

Losing our footing spiritually is much like losing our footing while walking or hiking. It’s not deliberate and often happens unexpectedly. As a rule, we don’t get out of bed one day and say or think: “Today I’m going to lose my spiritual footing and slide away from the Lord.”

Like so many other things, we have good intentions and a strong desire to keep going, but we miss a day, then two, then before long we can’t remember the last time we did them. It’s like that with spiritual disciplines like church attendance, serving, reading the Bible, praying, fasting, and witnessing. It’s not like we deliberately leave them, it just happens by default.

Casting Crowns sings a song called “It’s a Slow Fade,” the last verse of which says: “The journey from your mind to your hands Is shorter than you’re thinking Be careful if you think you stand You just might be sinking.” Then the chorus says: “It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away It’s a slow fade when black and white are turned to gray And thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid When you give yourself away People never crumble in a day It’s a slow fade, it’s a slow fade.”

My mom was an alcoholic when I was a child, but she didn’t become one overnight. It began with a single drink. It’s the same for those addicted to drugs, sex, pornography, or anything else, but the irony is, that’s not how you get free of those addictions. You’ve got to decide to be done with them, then get the help you need to stop.

We don’t, with rare exception, have the wherewithal to stop our addictions. We need help, often from professionals trained to deal with our specific issues, but always with someone who loves and will walk with us through the terrors of withdrawal.

Lisa Lakey, a writer with Family Life, wrote: “Even simple conversation took a hit. Days would go by without meaningful talks between the two of us. We were slowly drifting away from each other. The worst part? We didn’t even notice. It’s a slow fade from connect to disconnect in marriage. It takes effort for couples to stay connected emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Disconnecting is easy—it sneaks up on you while you’re busy doing life.”

We cannot, we must not allow our love for Jesus to go into default mode. He will never walk away from us, but we can, inadvertently, sometimes without conscious thought, drift away from Him. That’s why it’s so critical to have brothers (if you’re a man) or sisters (if you’re a woman) to hold us accountable. We need people in our lives to ask us the hard questions. Questions like: “How are things with your spouse?” “How are your spiritual disciplines going?” “What’s going on, I haven’t seen you in group lately?” “Have you been drinking/gambling/watching porn/etc.”

Far too often, while we may not desire it to happen, we lose our connection to the Lord, not because He’s left us – He never will – but because we got lazy, distracted by work, play, kids, life! If we’re married we’ve all seen it happen in our walk with our spouse. We have to determine to hold one another accountable to do what’s healthy for our relationship, but beyond that, to do what’s right in our walk with the Lord.

We can’t afford to get lazy and risk beginning a slow fade that can rob us of our closeness and usefulness to the Lord.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

What Will You Allow God to Do?

“Next the devil took Him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ‘I will give it all to you,’ he said, ‘if you will kneel down and worship me.’” (Matthew 4:8-9 NLT)

If you want all the glory the world has to offer all you have to do is kneel down and worship Satan. And remember, that’s not necessarily the posture of your body as much as it’s the posture of your heart and mind. Worship isn’t defined by what comes out of our mouth, but what resides in our heart. Many today revere God with their words but are devoted to Satan in their heart. How about you?

What are you willing to allow God to do in and through your life? What has He asked of you that you haven’t done? Where is He directing you to go that you haven’t gone? What has He asked you to give up that you’re still doing or holding on to? Who has He asked you to speak with about Him, but it hasn’t happened yet?

Just like Adam and Eve in the garden we have free will. It is our choice alone that determines who will rule and reign in our heart and mind. But because of their sin and our human nature with its undeniable bent to sin that we inherited from Adam and Eve, we now must make the conscious decision to choose Jesus to be our Lord and Master. Our default position as a human being is to choose our way, not God’s way.

Perhaps you’ve asked God something like: “Lord, what do You want from me? What do You want me to do, say, think, etc. in any given situation?” And the irony is, He’s made known the answers to those and many other questions, crystal clear in the Bible, His holy Word. What He wants is YOU: your allegiance, your obedience, your devotion, your desires, ambitions, in short, your will! He wants your will to equal His will – to be one and the same.

The Lord’s desire is to create you anew through the power of His Spirit when you yield your will to Him. Paul addresses this in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 when he wrote: “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”

Submission to Christ’s authority isn’t captivity, it’s liberation! How so? Knowing Jesus and following His commands and directives is the only path to becoming who we were created to become. Satan robs us of creativity and the full development of the person God created us to be. He seeks to keep us focused on material things that have no eternal value, rather than the Lord Jesus who modeled for us what it means to be truly alive.

God’s will and desire for you is to become the person He created you to be, but the only way that can happen is if you give Him permission. So, I’m back to my original question: “What Will You Allow God to Do?” Will you allow Him to save you, transform you, guide, guard, and hold you? Will you allow the Lord Jesus to cherish you as His child, equip you to be more than you ever dared dream you could be, and gain glory through your submission to His authority in your life?

When your will becomes His will, you’ll see Him in a whole new light. Reading, studying, memorizing God’s Word won’t be a chore, but a delight; prayer will become your lifeline, and serving in a local body of believers will become the joy you never dreamed it could be. Your whole life’s orientation will be to see your loved ones, friends, neighbors, and others He puts in your path, come to Him and begin their life’s journey to heaven.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Seven Fold Blessing

“…the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name” (Eph. 3:14-15)

*May this powerful devotional by Sylvia Gunter guide us as we seek to understand what spiritual blessings are now ours through Jesus Christ our Lord. Blessings, Ed (used with permission)

Spiritual blessings begin with a revelation of God as Abba Father. Be blessed with a love relationship with Him. He wants you to know Jesus personally and grow in Him. Be blessed to desire righteousness that conforms you to the will and ways of God. He wants to give you holy joy in abiding in Him.

Be blessed with emotional blessings. Jesus is your healer of emotions. He releases healing to remove rejection, failure, and shame. Choose forgiveness for yourself and others. Be blessed with peace and joy to replace fear and anxiety (Matt. 10:13) because God never fails. In Him you can have strong hope to believe Him for His promises.

Be blessed with knowing your personal value in Christ. You are of great worth to your heavenly Father. Let Him show you how He sees you in His Son. Receive His favor and His heart for you.

Be blessed with right relationships with others. Let God direct you to right loyalties and wholesome friendships that encourage your life with Him. May you live in healthy community with others.

Be blessed with mental blessing to remove blinders of deception from your mind, so that you will know the truth and have godly wisdom and discernment, knowing good and doing it.

Be blessed with God’s health and safety for all physical needs. Lean into God’s strength and protection.

Be blessed in all your labors that God has authored. May your work or studies prosper in the provision of His hands. Acknowledge that He is your source and provider.

I pray blessings. I speak blessings. I choose to be a blessing.

Taken from Blessings For Life: Words Of Hope and Healing p. 22, © 2017 by Sylvia Gunter and Elizabeth Gunter. Click here to learn more and order. An archive of past devotionals is available at www.thefathersbusiness.com

A Fresh Look at Repentance

“Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.” (Matthew 3:8 NLT)

Repentance is a multi-dimensional process. Have you ever been on a road trip and well into your journey you realize you are going the wrong way? If you’re adventuresome you may blow it off and keep going, but usually we have a destination and we’re bent on getting there. Repentance is like that.

Many alive today have no clue where they’re headed. They just get up and do what they do, go to bed, then get up and do it all again. Same thing, just a different day. Repentance is looking around and realizing: “Whatever I’m doing isn’t working, so, I’m going to make a change.” To repent means to change your mind, then to change your direction.

No one changes the direction of their life without first changing their mind. You may know intellectually that something is drastically wrong, but until you decide to do something about it, nothing changes. That’s what it means to repent.

It’s a military term that paints the picture of a soldier making an “about-face.” They’re marching in one direction, then, upon command, they go in the opposite direction. What are the implications? Heaven and hell are not reached by going in the same direction. We may reach hell by default, by making no specific decision, simply continuing to do what we’ve always done. But to reach heaven requires an informed decision to yield our life and allegiance to Jesus.

The goal of repentance is to introduce us to Jesus, leading us in the formulation of a new direction in our life, but ultimately to lead us to an eternal home in heaven. We have a new destination – heaven, but the pathway is Jesus. John 14:6 teaches us that Jesus “is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through Me.”

The Christian life is a purposeful, intentional journey that requires guidance by the Holy Spirit, and focus on Jesus. The logical question then becomes: “How do I get to heaven? What signposts do I look for? How do I know I’m going in the right direction?” The simple answer is: “Follow Jesus!” But in practical terms what does that look like? How can we know for sure we’re following Him and not our own inclinations?

Repentance isn’t a one-time decision, it’s an ongoing heart attitude demanding discipline, flexibility, and a willingness to confess our failures, get up and carry on. Just because we’ve made a decision to allow the Lord to turn our life around, doesn’t mean Satan’s going to stop trying to influence us to follow him. Sin is a very real presence as long as we live, but the Holy Spirit is our constant Friend who will guide and protect us against the enemy of our soul.

Kevin DeYoung wrote: “Repentance is more than a repeated apology.” As a rule, each Jesus follower is plagued by some specific “weight” that becomes for us our “sin of choice.” Often our sin of choice becomes habitual and over time we tend to expect to do whatever it is, even though we know it’s wrong and is keeping us from being fully engaged in our walk with the Lord.

It can, as DeYoung implies, become a repeated action that leads to repeated “apologies” to God. But over time our habitual disobedience to God can become so familiar, rather than repenting (turning from our sin), we begin to embrace it and in some twisted way, believe the Lord is okay with it. He’s not! And until we face the truth that our sin is driving a wedge between us and God, we’ll never repent, put it behind us and move into a consistent life of holiness and devotion to Christ.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Who’s Poorer?

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I’ll say it again – it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!’” (Matthew 19:23-24 NLT)

Is Jesus saying here that it is impossible for a person of wealth to enter the Kingdom of God? I certainly hope not, because on world standards Americans who are counted among the poorest are still rich.

In Jesus’ day many larger communities were walled with gates. After dark the gates were closed, but within many gates were smaller doors called “the eye of the needle,” through which a camel could enter, but without its load. Jesus isn’t saying it’s impossible for the rich to be saved, but it’s highly unlikely due to their allegiance to their riches.

What comes to your mind when you think of “riches?” Years ago, it was rare to find a person who generated more than a million dollars a year. Today there are a growing number of billionaires who own companies worth trillions of dollars. And how has all of that money profited the world?

Gratefully there are those who invest their wealth in humanitarian and even spiritual causes. But, on the other hand, who do you think funds the illegal drug market, sex trafficking, prostitution, arms used to slaughter millions of innocent people, and many other God-dishonoring enterprises? Rich people too often have “rich taste” that includes the degradation of children and adults against their will.

It causes me to ponder the ways that I overlook the poor, hungry, and destitute in my spheres of influence. Am I unable to get through “the eye of the needle” because of the burden of my riches? Satan’s strategy is to keep us focused on “them,” with the express intent to keep our eyes off our own hypocrisy in the ways we misuse the “riches” with which the Lord has blessed us.

Billy Sunday said: “The fellow that has no money is poor. The fellow that has nothing but money is poorer still.” The longer I walk with the Lord the richer I realize I am. But I also realize how indebted I am to my Savior. If you want to measure how rich you actually are, calculate what will be in heaven when you get there. What is the “treasure” you’re accruing in heaven?

Certainly, the souls of the people we’re leading to and influencing to follow the Lord, but what about the things that can’t be calculated by human measurements? The kind words spoken – to a child, a homeless person, a grieving parent, a struggling teen, someone doing a menial task. How about the person in whom you invest time, not for something you can get, but simply for the vital contribution you can make in their lives?

How about the hours you invest in volunteering at your church or community ministry that feeds and clothes those who can’t afford to provide those things for themselves. I think of the ministries of churches of which I’ve been a part and the selflessness of those who have and are giving time, money, and effort for no other reason than to glorify God and help those who can’t help themselves.

Do you not realize the Creator of the universe keeps a record of every one of those precious moments? Riches entail so much more than dollars and cents, just as poverty of soul involves so much more than a singular focus on the accumulation of wealth.

In my mind the poorest person isn’t the one who has no wealth, it’s the one who has no need of a Savior. “Holy Father, glorious Savior, powerful Spirit, enable us by your richness and indwelling presence to reach those in our spheres of influence who are so desperately in need of You!”

Blessings, Ed 😊

Does Worship Bore You?

“All the nations You made will come and bow before You, Lord; they will praise Your holy name. For You are great and perform wonderful deeds. You alone are God.” (Psalm 86:9-10 NLT)

Worship is the one thing that human beings can do that gives them opportunity to distinguish themselves from all the other creatures God placed on this earth, yet, among all of God’s creation we’re most reluctant to do so. Why is worship of the Lord God Almighty so foreign to us?

Because it’s contrary to our human nature. Humans, for all their positive qualities, have a love affair with themselves. While worship is second nature to us, it takes a spiritual heart transplant to give us insight into Whom we should be worshipping and why.

Worship is common among virtually every people group. Often, worship ceremonies are a means of either giving thanks for provision or in preparation for the procurement of food, either through crops or hunting. Perhaps a carry over in current societies, especially in the Christian Faith, is giving thanks before a meal.

For centuries worship has been accompanied by music and or dancing, and has been a communal event, often involving many participants. What many churches have done with worship is to make it more performance oriented, to be led by the “experts,” which has served to destroy much of the purpose of worship, make it exclusive rather than inclusive, and allow it to become boring.

One of the many things I appreciate about our church is that the musicians and vocalists don’t see themselves as “performers,” but prompters. While they are excellent, they don’t point the spotlight of attention on themselves, but often remind us that they, with each person present, are the worshippers, and there’s only One person in the audience – the Holy God who deserves all praise, adoration, and worship.

Corporate worship is the highlight of my week, but I have time set aside everyday and throughout my day to worship the Lord individually and with my wife. God’s Word and prayer are key elements in my and our times of worship, but another key that is, at least for me, the most enjoyable, is listening.

Jesus said: “My sheep listen to My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.” A.W. Tozer wrote: “The fellowship of God is delightful beyond all telling.” Listening isn’t something I do intuitively. Just ask my wife. I struggle to listen well. One thing that has been helpful for me to understand is that listening and hearing are two very different things.

Often, I will turn on Christian music when I’m working on a project in the garage, and I’ll enjoy the music, but I often don’t pay a lot of attention to the words. And I suspect I’m not alone in that. Unfortunately, we often do the same thing in conversation, but especially when listening to a message. And I intentionally didn’t use the word “sermon.”

When the Pastors of the church of which I’m a part speak, I listen. Why? Because they don’t preach sermons, they deliver messages from God. You can see for yourself at hopechurchlv.com/watch. You can watch services live on Thursday evenings at 6:30 and Sunday mornings at 8:30 and 10:30. Special Christmas services will be on Thursday, December 21^st at 6:30 p.m. and on Sunday morning, December 24^th at 8:30, 10:30 and 12:30 pacific time.

In my humble opinion the only way anyone could be bored with worship is if they haven’t met the King of kings and Lord of lords. To know Jesus is to love to worship Him.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Are You Angry?

“Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires. So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.” (James 1:20-21 NLT)

May I confess that emotional intimacy is very difficult for me. Whether I blame it on genetics, past hurts, or something else is irrelevant, it still makes it hard when my wife asks, “Why are you upset?” And while I know it frustrates her to hear me say, “I don’t know,” it frustrates me even more.

That’s why Andy Allan’s words in a Family Life devotional really spoke to me: “When it comes to emotional intimacy, I’ve found myself similarly limited. When my wife asks, ‘How are you feeling?’ my sentence starts with ‘I feel’ but usually ends with ‘…like taking a nap,’ ‘… eating Taco Bell,’ or ‘…punching the wall.’

Emotions serve as signposts pointing to deeper realities within us. Like when I’m mad as I wash dishes, muttering about how dirty our kitchen is and clanking plates at earsplitting levels. My wife knows I’m angry (the neighbors must know, too). When she asks, ‘What are you mad about?’ I’ll respond with ‘I’m not angry,’ in my best Clint Eastwood impression.

At some level, I know I’m angry but don’t want to admit it. But I need to see through my feelings to what caused them and go from there. If I pause to process, dirty dishes accuse me of failure. ‘If you were a better man,’ their crumbs shout, ‘we’d be clean by now.’ A dirty kitchen makes me feel like I don’t measure up, and I’m filled with anger at myself.

James 1:20 says, ‘the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God’ It produces quite the opposite, causing stress and turmoil from the kitchen to the bedroom and everywhere in between. Examining the belief underneath my anger, especially alongside my wife, has been so helpful. She doesn’t judge me by how quickly our plates are cleaned, and she reminds me God doesn’t either.”

As I age, gratefully it’s not as prevalent, but in my younger years I found myself angry and I genuinely didn’t understand why. Does that ever happen to you? At first I would try to brush it off and ignore it, but then I began to seek, with the Lord’s help, to process it in a healthy way. I’ve been able to share some with my wife, which is helpful, but the bottom line for me is that it’s a distraction from the enemy of my soul.

It’s easy for us to blame ourselves for not only our failures, but for the person we’ve become. In our mind and heart, we never quite measure up to that person we envisioned we’d one day be, or, perhaps, who we thought everyone else wanted or needed us to be. It’s a weight too heavy to carry when we keep piling on, not only our own expectations, but the expectations of others. It will literally kill us. It’s unbearable.

That’s why the Lord has made a way of escape for us. It’s called grace. It’s the free, undeserved, unmerited favor of God where He takes our sin, our shame, our unrealistic expectations, and places them on Himself. That’s what He did on the Cross and that’s where we need to leave them.

Are you angry? Join the club! We should be angry at the enemy for holding over our heads all the things the Lord died to free us of, including our sense of self-loathing for not being who we thought we should be. What comforts me, and I pray comforts you, is that we’re the apple of God’s eye just as we are. He made us the way we are for a very specific purpose: So, we’d learn to depend solely on Him, not on ourselves.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Checklist or Benchmark?

“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.” (Matthew 5:17-18 NLT)

There are several implications for us in the verses above that we may well miss if we don’t pay attention to what the Lord is saying. As Gentile (non-Jewish) believers we tend to pay very little attention when the law is mentioned because we fail to see any relevance to 21^st century believers.

Our attitude is essentially that the law was fulfilled by Jesus, that we’re offered peace with God by grace through faith and all we have to do is read the Bible, pray, and follow the Lord’s directives and we’re good to go. And that’s good as far as it goes, but I believe we miss something vital when we fail to realize the law still has relevance to us today.

If “not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved” doesn’t it make sense to determine what purpose it’s designed to achieve? Even if we just consider the Ten Commandments, why is it so important to recognize those “laws” still apply to us? Largely because we still have an obligation to obey them.

Photo by Jos van Ouwerkerk on Pexels.com

What is the purpose of any law? Stop signs or traffic lights? Laws that demand we pay taxes, treat others with respect by not stealing from them or killing them? The late Timothy Keller wrote: “The Law is not a checklist we keep but a benchmark we fail.” So?

The Pharisees and religious leaders of Jesus’ day held, at least by profession, to the strictest letter of the law. That’s what drove them nuts about Jesus. While Jesus said the two most important laws were to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and love others as yourself, the Jews had developed hundreds of miniscule laws to cover virtually every detail of life. Which ironically, they didn’t even keep themselves, yet, expected everyone else, including Jesus, to keep.

So, what’s the application for us. We’re Jesus followers, but we’re still accountable to the Lord for how we live and treat each other. So, as Dr. Keller noted, we have a choice to make, which, ironically, we must make nearly every minute of every day. Are we, like the rich young man who came to Jesus in Matthew 19, checking the boxes, but missing the Savior?

Are we content to see even the 10 Commandments as a checklist we check or a benchmark by which we measure our failures. A benchmark is a measure whereby we compare our own progress. It’s like the 4-minute mile that no one believed could be achieved, until someone did. Now it has become the benchmark for mile runners.

Similarly, as Jesus followers, Jesus is our “benchmark,” our goal being to approximate His likeness in our lives as best we can, realizing we’ll always fall short, we’ll always fail, yet, by God’s grace and with His help, we continue to make the effort. But why? Why do we keep allowing our failure to urge us on? Largely because we’re not saved to stay the same.

If the sum total of the Christian life was to receive the gift of eternal life and never change, what’s the point? Out of the shoot we know we’ll always fail to be everything Christ died to enable us to become this side of eternity, so we use His law to measure our progress; to help us have a tangible means of showing we’re actually making progress; otherwise, our constant failure would be debilitating.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Do You Love Evangelism?

“Jesus came and told His disciples, ‘I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’”

While the words “evangelism” or “evangelize” aren’t found in Scripture, the term “evangelist” is and was used to describe those who weren’t Apostles but were commissioned by the Holy Spirit to share the gospel. An Evangelist is the bearer of good news, specifically news about who Jesus is and what He did on the Cross. As a believer in Jesus, it should be in our DNA to want to share Him with others.

For the early Jesus followers sharing about their new life in Christ wasn’t a burden, but a privilege. It never entered their mind NOT to share their love for Jesus and to encourage everyone they met to do the same.

Ed Stetzer made an interesting observation when he wrote: “Many Christians love evangelism as long as someone else is doing it.” On some levels for a person who is born again of the Spirit of God to not desire to share their love for Christ is like a parent not wanting to talk about their child. It’s counter intuitive. Why is that?

Could it be we’ve come to believe that because we’re not a Pastor or church leader we have no responsibility to share? Or could it be we just don’t know how? May I ask you, if you’re a parent, who “taught” you to talk about your baby? “But that’s different!” You may object. How is it different?

A new life has been brought into the world by you and someone you love and with whom you’ve shared life. When a person becomes a child of God, there has been a “new birth” experience that has required two persons, us and our proud heavenly Father who has given us the privilege of having His Holy Spirit come to dwell in us. Why? To empower us to live the life of a Jesus follower.

While it’s not necessarily intuitive, like being a new parent, we learn from those who are parents, but some things we learn by trial and error. The first time I was left alone with my infant daughter I couldn’t get her to stop crying. I checked her diaper, offered her a bottle, laid her down, picked her up, rocked her, and walked her up and down the hallway, but nothing was working. Finally, in desperation, I began to hum songs to her and finally she settled down and went to sleep.

What’s my point? Just because it’s unfamiliar to share your faith with an unbeliever, learn from your mistakes, but don’t stop trying to reach them. What motivated me to keep trying to help my daughter was my love for her. When she was upset, I was upset; when she needed attention, I was there to give it to her, and even if I didn’t know exactly what to do to help her, I kept trying things until something worked.

Because someone I love rejects my efforts to lead them to Jesus, I don’t stop trying. There are two fundamental “rules of faith” that I have to keep me moving in the right direction. First, I don’t push them to make a quick decision. If I sense they’re getting agitated or uncomfortable, I backoff. But, secondly, I continue to love them in practical ways until they give me another opportunity to have a faith conversation with them.

Leading someone to the Lord is rarely a one contact or one conversation process. I have friends and loved ones with whom I’ve been sharing Jesus for years, but there are others who have been much more receptive and have given their lives to the Lord more quickly. The point is, don’t stop trying. Keep praying, learning, and investigating new ways to share your love for Jesus with whomever will listen.

What motivates me to share my faith isn’t my love for evangelism, it’s my love for those who will die and miss heaven if I don’t.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊