From Charles Colson's book
Being the Body:"The true Christian...is not only to teach truth but to practice truth in the midst of such relativism," said Francis Schaeffer, and this will "bring forth confrontation--loving confrontation, but confrontation."
Yet confrontation is something most Christians seem to want to avoid. Not only because we want people to come to our churches, but because of our fear of offending and being rejected...
Conviction must precede conversion. You cannot present the gospel truth until you have also presented the fact of sin. Without this message we are simply offering our own brand of therapy. And therapy can only modify behavior. It is the gospel that transforms character.
The object is not to make people able to live with themselves; it is to make them able to live with God. Forever. (p. 209)
More from John 4
Verse 9: the woman, intrigued by Jesus' counter-cultural, loving behavior, asks him "Why are you talking with me?"
People notice. They notice how we treat them with love when others treat them like objects. Instead of thinking of someone as "the checkout girl" or "the guy in the drive thru window" we can go beyond that to see them as a real person. It's usually that we're so busy that we can't think of them as real people. Instead, they're just cogs in the machine of the store.
What if Jesus lived in our world today? He'd still be breaking those cultural molds by speaking to those whom we just ignore.
And he
can break those barriers by speaking to 21st century people in the workplace. It's just that he has to use our mouth. We have to be sensitive to His leading so that we'll actually do it.
Evangelism from John 4
John 4 contains many lessons on how Jesus did evangelism, at least in Samaria.
v. 4 tells us that Jesus went through Samaria, despite the animosity between Jews and Samaritans. Many Jews would travel around Samaria, just to avoid "those people." Jesus did not. As Christians, we must not avoid people just because we or others "don't like them."
v. 6 says Jesus was tired. How often God will use our ordinary humanness to get us in the right place. The dry cleaners, Starbucks, the grocery store -- all are potential places for God to use us.
vs. 7-9. Jesus broke his cultural conventions by asking the woman for a drink. What cultural conventions keep us from intervening in someone else's life? Silence in an elevator. Avoiding eye contact on the sidewalk. That kind of stuff.
Look at how Jesus started by asking for a drink - an earthly type of question. Then he moved on to spiritual matters, using a similar topic (well water & Living Water) to make it relevant.
More later...
Evangelism is a Discipline
Just read the chapter on Evangelism from Donald Whitney's
Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. Here are some great quotes from the chapter:
"Evangelism is to present Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit to sinful people, in order that they may come to put their trust in God through Him, to receive Him as their Savior, and serve Him as their King in the fellowship of His Church." (p. 100)
"We need to learn that sharing the gospel
is successful evangelism...conversions are fruit that God alone can give." (p. 103)
"So if God by His Spirit has changed your life, be confident of this: God has given you Acts 1:8 power. That means in ways and methods compatible with your personality, temperament, spiritual gift, opportunities, etc., you do have the power to share the gospel with people." (p. 104)
"Evangelism is a natural overflow of the Christian life...but evangelism is also a
Discipline in that we must discipline ourselves to get into the context of evangelism, that is, we must not just wait for witnessing opportunities to happen...isn't the main reason we don't witness because we don't
discipline ourselves to do it?" (pp. 106-7)
This last one really sums up what I've been convicted with. If we don't make an effort, it won't happen, and we'll look back and say "Why did I just let time go by without sharing?" But create opportunities (especially at the church), look for them everywhere, and God will use us.
