Ok, let's start off the week with a shorter
post I've been meaning to write for a long time. I was finally pushed into
action by my pastor's two-part sermon on the passage I was inspired by (I will
probably be borrowing a few ideas from his sermons).
So many authors exhort Christians to evangelize, and they should,
and I’m about to do more of the same. There is no such thing as trying too
hard, and I still am not sure we can even try enough. This topic came to mind a
few weeks ago when I read Mark 4:8. The Word of God, from the lips of Jesus
Christ, recorded by the pen of the apostle Mark says thus: “And
other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing
and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Who are the
seeds who fell in good soil? We are, the Christians, the Church! And what does
this passage say? The good seed produced grain. But, the part that really shook
me up was the part about “yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
I don’t know about you, my beloved readers, but I had never even dreamed of
yielding a hundredfold or even thirtyfold. Can you imagine you in your current
state bringing a hundred people to Christ? I certainly can’t see myself doing
the same.
The problem is
the flawed mindset of many in the church today including myself. All of us have
heard the stories of young Christians at college or in society in general; they
live good lives, everyone knows they are a Christian, and eventually some shy
classmate approaches them with questions about their faith. This is great, but
these Christian students are not “fishing.” They are not being proactive, going
after others with the Gospel; they are simply waiting for the occasional fish
to jump into the boat.
Jesus
apparently seems to think that we as Christians can lead a huge “crop” of new believers
to Him, and you may be thinking, “That sounds awesome, but a hundred is a big
number.” The fact is, it’s true. And neither you nor I are capable of leading a single person to salvation. We can
only strive toward that goal and pray that the Holy Spirit will work within
them. This is a vital realization you must make: you cannot save anyone. In
fact, we humans are pretty pathetic creatures, vulnerable to every temptation,
fickle, foolish, stubborn. The only way we can become anything better is
through grace. And, grace is the only way new converts are made. We are but
tools, humble servants to God (more on that in a later post).
And, we need to
be trying. And trying harder. I cannot simply be content waiting on the fish
that jump into the boat. I was content with sharing my faith once every two
weeks or so, trying to get more people to come to church. My “yield” is small,
if it even exists.
We as
Christians exist to share the
Gospel. The Gospel is our life until our last breath. Everything else comes
third to the Gospel (nothing is close enough to be considered second). We need
to remember daily that this is our purpose. We need to exhort and encourage one
another, and to pray for one another often.
In Christ,
Phil
May God make
you, dear readers and fellow believers, armor-plated warriors for Him, loyal
servants daily prepared to fight for Him.
Something hit me while I was reading this. I have always known and been reminded to live and act in a way glorifying to God, but I have never really put verbally sharing the Gospel with people in that same category. I guess you could say I get pretty nervous when I think about doing it, but like you said, it's not like I am even going to do anything. The Holy Spirit does all the work, and the Lord will give me the words to say! I definitely need to get better at sharing my faith. I wont make a very good missionary if I don't, and I will be disobeying the Lord. I don't know if all this makes sense, but it helped me figure some things out in my own mind. Thanks, Phil! ;)
ReplyDelete(this is actually from Em. Im gonna be getting my own username soon :)
Definitely! Remember that we are always to be God-pleasers and should find our joy in Him, and thus have no need to worry about offending people as long as we are acting out of love. :) Can't wait to hear more of your input.
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