Author: Rick (Page 35 of 37)

Part 2 (if you have not yet read part 1 below, you might want to do so first)

Secondly, our greatest motivation for giving the gospel should be love.  It will taint our message if we are motivated by anything other than love.  We should not give the gospel so we can check that off our daily list or so we can put another notch in our belt or so we can report to others our great successes.  We need to look at others the way that God sees them- spiritually emaciated and needing sustanance.  Paul writes, in 1 Thessalonians 2:8, “Having so fond an affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.”  If we love others and see a need we should be want to fill it.  If the need is the gospel, the want should be urgent.

Thirdly we need to be honest, even if we are asked something we do not know.  Our message does not have to be one of perfection because our message is about the One Who is Perfect.   The substance is more important than the delivery.  A signpost might be old and ragged or bright and new.  It doesn’t matter what it looks like as long as it gives a truthful direction.  The same goes with us.  If we point true, we will have more success than if we look good but point wrong.  If we don’t have an answer, we are better saying that we don’t. rather than making something up.  Trying to fool people makes us fools and few fools can positively affect other peoples’ lives in a positive way.  Paul reminds us that the message of truth is what seals us in the spirit, so it does us no good to be anything but honest.  “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,” (Ephesians 1:13)

Fourthly, we need to be humble.  In Proverbs we see that humility will result in success and pride results in defeat.  When giving the gospel, we must set aside pride.  “A man’s pride will bring him low, But a humble spirit will obtain honor.” (Proverbs 29:23 ) As much as we like to think it, we do not have a handle on everything.  One of the main reasons we should be patient with the foolish or angry or prideful or doubting is because we have, sometime during our lives, been those same people.  We should  empathize with those who are not saved because we were once not saved.   We need not talk down to people because any heights we have reached are because of Christ, not our own intellect or efforts.  When we think we are superior to others, they will sense it and be incensed.   Everyone we talk to about Jesus can teach us something, so every encounter should be a positive one- even if it seems not to be. If we look at who we are, who they are, and who God is, we will do the right things, for the right reasons, at the right time.

Finally, it is very important for us to be respectful.  Some people feel that evangelizing is yelling, pointing fingers, or holding up condemning signs.  Even John the Baptist, as fiery as he was, spoke to those who came to him.  He was tough on his listeners, but he did not accost them.  He told the truth.  Truthfully, however, we are not John the Baptist.  His approach was unique and in our case it might be if we tone it down, our words can be heard better.  Too many evangelizers are so obnoxious that the people they turn off may not tune into the message for a long, long time, if ever.

The Good News is too important to the world for us to keep it to ourselves.  But we can never forget the key to evangelism which can be summarized in one word-  Jesus.   If we tell people who He is, in humility with love, others will want to become His.  Although presenting Jesus is our greatest duty, it is also our greatest privilege.  We cannot neglect it or deflect it.   We just need to point to Jesus and He will take it from there.

I read once about some miners who found a great vein of gold.  They promised not to tell a soul and went into town to get more supplies.  By the time they returned their camp was overrun with miners.  One of the men asked one of the invaders whohad squealed.  “No one,” he said.”  Your faces showed it!”  That should be us.  We have discovered a richness more precious than gold and our faces should show it.  Our steps should reflect it.  Our voices reveal it.  When we can reveal Christ without any words at all it is the first step in helping others to find the rich vein that now belongs to us.

Part 1

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16a)

We are not all evangelists, but we can all evangelize.  Evangelism has gotten its share of negative press, especially in recent years.  Opposition to Christianity has gotten more and more vehement, and as a consequence, those who openly profess Christ are more openly ridiculed.  As a matter of self-preservation in an unforgiving society, more and more Christians lie low in spiritual foxholes, popping out when only friendlies are approaching.  We may not all be evangelists, but we are all witnesses and ambassadors.  We have an obligation to walk in the Word daily and be quick to share the Word when our actions provoke others to ask about the Word.

I recently read an article that outlined many of the mistakes that gospel-givers make in the world today.  If we can avoid these stumbles, we will find ourselves in a better position to present the gospel when the opportunity occurs.  It is easy for us to become offensive to others and even easier to be defensive, but the true key is that we be responsive.  We need to lead a life that says the words we cannot say until the time is right.  Our gospel-giving actions can start immediately after meeting someone, the words may need to wait- but not too long. Peter tells us to, “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (  1 Peter 2:12)

Evangelism should not be a hammer that hurts, scares, or shames someone into belief.  On the other hand, evangelism should not bribe, manipulate, or trick someone into belief.   Bad evangelism is worse than no evangelism.  Well over half of hard-core atheists purport to have had a close relationship with the church earlier in their lives.  The meaning of the word “close” is up for interpretation, but for argument sake, let’s take it at face value.  If many atheists have spiritual backgrounds, what went wrong along the way?  There can be a lot of different reasons, as many there are “apostates,” but we need only to be concerned with reasons that we might be guilty of ourselves.

I do not appreciate the ministry of the Jehovah Witnesses that come to my door.  I truly believe they are propagating a false message.  I also do not enjoy their approach.  I am uncomfortable with them (even though I do converse with them) because they preconceive my “wrongness” and it is apparent from their very first words.  They are not excited about their faith and seem more excited about my faithlessness.  In all honesty, they are not especially concerned about my relationship with God, but my relationship with their religion.  If I show excitement about my faith and relationship with God, they are disappointed and vamoose pretty quickly.  I think I should avoid treating others in the ways that I see JWs treating me.  I think they miss the point of what John was saying about John the Baptist (and us) when it comes to evangelism.  Jesus should be the key.    “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.”  (John 1:6-8)

Here are a few things I think would be good for us to do that our tie-clad door-to-door friends are not doing.  First of all, our delivery should not make God secondary to anything.  We don’t want to promote our church, our denomination, ourselves, or even our pet doctrines.  We are not salesmen whose smooth words promote themselves more than the product. It needs to be all about Jesus.  It doesn’t even need to be about every theological question regarding Christ.  We don’t need to bring up the deep questions that even mature Christians disagree on or sideline arguments that play no role in salvation.  We need to focus on the person of Christ.  It is Him and Him alone that salvation lies…we should try not to get sidetracked on issues that are for another time.  Jesus is for now, those will be for later.

Part 2 next week

“They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” Psalm 53:3

A few years ago we had a terrible, terrible tragedy in Roseburg.  Murders don’t happen very often in our town, but when they do, it is more often than not, a family dispute or someone passing through murdering someone passing through.  The details of the crime were utterly horrendous.  Lori, a 37 year-old mother of four  worked the graveyard shift in our local fast-stop.  By all accounts, she and her husband were both working hard to make ends meet and to provide a good home for the kids who ranged from ages 11 to 17.   A 27 year-old man who lived  near the fast-stop went into the store, stabbed the woman and then bludgeoned her with a hammer.  The police recognized him from video footage, went to the house and arrested him.  He only told them a couple of things.  One, he did not know Lori, but he hated her anyway, and two, he said he stopped beating her so he would have enough energy to walk home.  He didn’t even take anything- it was killing for killing’s sake.

He had no other ulterior motives.  There wasn’t some kind of jealousy or drug deal.  It was just a thoughtless, heartless act of evil.  How do these kind of things happen?   How can people who purport to belong to the human race be capable of such cruelty?   How is that some even use god as their excuse for wearing bombs and blowing up innocent women and children, or flying planes into buildings killing thousands, or beheading innocent journalists and videotaping it for the world to see?  Everyone has his own theory/excuse.  Some talk about culture and economics and religion, and others talk about mitigating circumstances, misunderstandings, and miscommunication, but there is only one real answer and it is found in Psalm 53:3: “They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.” 

We can look at this verse and say that not all people are corrupt.  After all, it is only a small percentage of our population who can do the cruelest of acts without blinking.  But it is not because we are good and they are not.  It is because we are restrained and they are not.  Some people are restrained by law, some by fear, some by logic and some by society, but the only true restrainer is the Holy Spirit.   Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:17,  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come.”  Our natural hearts are dark and we will, if given the choice, too often pick the darker way of doing things.    Solomon tells us in Proverbs 12:10 that  “A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal, But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.” The man who killed Lori had abandoned any semblance of rightness by joining the forces of evil.

There was a line in the movie “The Giver” that I mentioned a few weeks ago.  “When man has a choice, he always chooses wrong.”  There is much truth to that statement.   We can say that murder is cruel, reprehensible, and unbelievably  disturbing, but unfortunately we cannot say it is inhuman.  We have seen too many humans do too many horrible acts to classify the acts as inhuman any longer.  They are acts that humans are capable of doing if they have no reason not to.   Someone once said, “imagine the worse thing a person can do, and make it ten times worse, and you can be assured that someone, somewhere, is probably doing it.”

We look at others who do such cruelty and think, how did they get there?  One day at a time, I would say.  They allowed more and more evil to creep into their lives.  They rejected God more and embraced goodness less.  They took our natural inclinations and moved them to a place where few will go, but they are just an extension of our own hearts.   How did they get there?  The same way we would if took the restraints off and lived as our evil hearts could.   I am not giving us excuses for our evil behavior.  Satan, the world, and our flesh constantly war against the “hope which lies within us,” but we still have a choice which influence we decide to heed.   But by God’s grace we could be committing acts that would seem horrific to the civilized world. Remember, even though we are being tempted by Satan, the world, and our own fleshly lusts, we cannot use that for an excuse because ultimately we still have choice.  On the other hand, if we deny the influences around us and erroneously believe that none of our choices are swayed by the three afore mentioned influences we will go along like the “unsinkable” Titanic, and we will sink.

We all need the strength of the Holy Spirit to experience righteousness.  In Proverbs there is a verse that I feel can be extrapolated  to encompass even more things than the verse calls for.  I put my additions in parentheses.  “He who oppresses the poor (weak, lonely, dependent) taunts his Maker, But he who is gracious to the needy (weak, lonely, dependent) honors Him.”  Proverbs 14:31  We must not taunt our maker because He is not one to be taunted.  Not only do we need to armor up everyday, but we need to unsheathe our sword and fight against the forces that would see us give in.   If not,  we might look into the mirror and see the person we have always despised staring back.  The only way to avoid seeing that image stare back at us is to stay close to our Lord.  If we can no longer restrain ourselves than we must retrain ourselves through the power of the Holy Spirit.  We must follow the one who did all things right, so that we might not do all things wrong.   To steal a line from Uncle Sam,  God is looking for a few good men (and women).  We have more than our share of cruel, selfish, and unfeeling people out there. The world could  sure use some loving, obedient, spirit-filled Christians to offset the mess this world is in.

“We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

This sums up the gospel in just a few lines. Christ died on our behalf, paying a debt He did not owe, the one we owed but could not pay. On the cross, Jesus took our sins on himself, and God treated Jesus as if he had lived our lives. All our sinful thoughts, dishonest deeds, and selfish ways were put upon Christ and he was punished as if they were his own thoughts and deeds and ways.

“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5.) Jesus was our substitute; he took our place on the cross, but just as importantly, He gave us His righteousness. In the eyes of God we have the very righteousness of Christ Himself. So because Jesus went to the cross undeservedly, we go to heaven undeservedly. But wait, it is not underserved because it is now as though we have lived Jesus’ life! Our rap sheet is as white as snow- there is nothing there. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).

In a wonderful but heartbreaking book by Ernest Gordon, Miracle On The River Kwai, he tells stories of courage among the Scottish soldiers who were forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad. Over 80,000 men died in the construction of the railroad, over 350 deaths per mile of railroad built. Under the strain of captivity, brutality, and starvation the men had degenerated to barbarous behavior. But as is the case in every critical situation, men of character rose to the occasion. In the midst of the daily degrading conditions, acts of sacrifice and love influenced the camp. On one occasion a man who seemed near death had his blanket stolen and his meager rations stolen. A man named Agnus gave him his own blanket and everyday would take a portion of his rations to give to the weak and emaciated man. As the man grew stronger, Agnus grew weaker until the man had recovered…but Agnus had died. Men who watched the daily sacrifice were deeply moved by the act of selfless love.

However, it was another man whose act of sacrifice succeeded in changing the hearts and minds of the camp as a whole. One afternoon in the daily tool count a shovel was found missing. The officer in charge demanded that the shovel be returned and the culprit show himself. When no one came forward the officer threatened to kill everyone on the spot and he walked up to the first man in line and put a gun to his head. Immediately a man stepped forward from the line admitting guilt. The officer beat the man with his gun and then with a shovel and then ended his tirade by kicking the lifeless body over and over. When he was done, the soldiers picked up their bloody friend and carried him away. As they did the shovels were counted again. No shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount the first time. The man, seeing the situation was futile, sacrificed himself for the rest of his comrades.

The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp and the incident had a profound effect. . . The men began to treat each other like brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors and instead of attacking them or insisting on their deaths they said that death and hatred must be left behind and replaced by forgiveness. Only sacrificial love has that kind of transforming power. We, ourselves, can experience that transforming power. Though sacrifice at Kwai was great beyond imagination, the greatest act of sacrificial love was when Jesus stepped forward for crimes he did not commit and hung in our stead on a lonely cross on Calvary. If the sacrifice of one soldier could change a camp, surely the sacrifice of Christ on the cross should change the whole world. At the least, it should change each of us.

Although the above story is a impactful one, there is one important difference. We have stolen the shovel and Christ still steps in and takes our punishment. Jesus steps in before we are frisked and are caught dead to rights. He becomes the thief for us and stops the search and saves our lives.

In 2 Corinthians 5:20-21 Paul begs us to be reconciled to God, for God has done the impossible and a way has been made for us- corrupt and faulty sinners that we are – to have complete, unhindered access to and communion with the holy God. God’s wrath (which should have been reserved for us) was spent on Christ. His death brought (and brings) reconciliation to all who believe on Him. This is the message we must spread, both through our words and deeds. Any other message we can share pales in the light of this great truth.

There is an apologetic book called The Fifth Gospel and I think the premise of the book is very interesting. In a word, it states that believers are the Fifth Gospel. There are hundreds of people who will never open the Bible to read the gospels, but they read us every day. If we are not totally incognito, there will be many people around us who know we are Christians. We are then, to them, the Cliff Notes version of the Word. For one reason or another, they will not read the word but instead will look at someone who has read it and assume that that person reflects what is written. We need to ask ourselves, “Do our actions steer someone to the Word or away from it.?”

Let’s look at it another way. If I were to say that tomorrow the people around me were going to read either Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, or Rick, and the percentages were with the latter, maybe would I act a little differently. We all know people who want to see a movie over reading a book. Watching how we act is a much easier task than picking up the Word daily and reading if for themselves. Mark Twain once said, “Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” There is truth to this statement. Our actions should, in this day and age, be as striking to people as the words of the gospel. 

I had a young man in class a few years back who was a freshman in high school and had never read a book. I gave him a Louis L’amour book, and he loved it. A few weeks later I asked him about how his reading was going and he told me he had about ninety more L’amour books to go, but that he was going to read every one of them.

Hopefully, when we expose the Good Book our to others through our lives, they will want to read the same Book by the same Author. Our lives should encourage others to say, “What I have read so far is so good, I want to read more.” If our lives do not reflect the gospel accurately, then others would have little reason to explore God’s Word further. They might say, “Yeah, I saw a movie by this God-author and I wasn’t impressed. Don’t think I will keep His book on my Kindle.”

If we are the Fifth Gospel, then our daily actions are critically important to spreading the message of Jesus Christ. Charles Spurgeon once said that people “reckon our deeds as dollars and our words as pennies.” I think that is very accurate. As believers we are representing more than ourselves every day. Our actions or inactions to reflect Christ can result in others action or inaction to get to know Him better.

I think I might have heard a collective sigh on that last statement. Surely we cannot be responsible for another’s pursuit of the gospel. That is their personal decision, not ours. Well, we can say that, but unfortunately the world does not work that way. Our good or bad actions do affect others, good or bad. We can say as Charles Barkley the ex-NBAer said, “I ain’t no role model,” but we would be kidding ourselves as much as he was. Paul told young Timothy, “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12) When addressing the Philippians, Paul went so far as to say, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:9) Can we say that to others? Can we say that imitating us will give others peace? If we can’t, we need to reevaluate the example we are leading. There may not be any sadder words to hear than, “I was thinking about doing this Jesus thing, but I have been watching you and I think I will skip it.”

We can be bitter about the fact that there is more pressure on us as Christians to live a life of “rightness” or we can accept it, embrace it, and do it. If we take our responsibility seriously, it will empower and enrich us. 

There once was a small fishing town in California that was a pelican’s paradise. The fishermen would come in with their catches, gut their fish, and toss the offal to the birds. Consequently, the pelicans got lazy and stopped fishing on their own. Eventually, the fishermen found other uses for the offal and the pelicans supply dried up. Many of the birds began to starve to death. It looked bleak until the fishermen brought in birds from another location. The new pelicans set the example, started doing their pelican thing, and after a short time the native birds began to fish and get healthy again. There are a lot of spiritually starving people around us. People who will someday notice their need for nourishment. At that time they will look around and ask themselves, “Who seems to have the nourishment they need? Who seems satisfied?” Hopefully, they may look at us and see that person. Their next question should be. “Why are they like that?”

Titus 2:7 says, “Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity.” When people feel weak, they look for those who are strong. If people can read our lives and they see them as positive, they will seek out what we have. It will lead them to the Word and the Word can lead them to the Lord. In Matthew we read, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Many years ago a young author was commissionedby the government of China to do a biographical book discrediting Hudson Taylor, a courageous and godly missionary. As the young man researched the life of Taylor, he was moved by the man’s charity, love, and convictions. He finally put his pen aside and could go no further. At the risk of his own life he abandoned the task that he had been instructed to do. He consequently accepted Christ as his savior. He looked at the life of a good man and was drawn to it. People around us are examining our lives. Will they be inclined to abandon the lives they live to experience the life they see in us? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and us. Four necessitate a book. One just necessitates a look. Who will look at us today?