Why Do So Few Christians Share Their Faith?

In answer to the question: 

“What do you think are the reasons why more Christians aren’t helping to spread the Good News? How can we encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to share Jesus with their family, friends, & co-workers?”

I recently wrote a response for the “Not Ashamed Of The Gospel” blog, and I wanted to repost my response here. So, here it is. I would appreciate your comments.

I think there are peripheral reasons, but one central reason. One peripheral reason might be that we are taught that we never discuss religion or politics in polite company. As if letting someone know how they can have eternal life is somehow rude. I think society has made many such impositions on us so that Christians, for the most part, remain silent.

But I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and I believe that God provided the central answer. We today are a lot like the Christians right after Jesus’ ascension, they met in private and prayed together, but they had no witness outside their own group.

And then came the day of Pentecost and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. On that day alone, two thousand were saved. Later, in Acts 5 we read about Peter and John being threatened by the religious authorities, and their answer was, whether we should listen to men or to God, you be the judge.

Filled with the Spirit, these early believers were unstoppable. Filled with the Spirit, WE would be unstoppable too.

I am definitely interested in pursuing online and personal evangelistic methods, but even more, my heart desire is to fully surrender myself to the Lord that His Spirit fill me in such a way that I would be truly effective for Him.

And I am hoping that others will join me.

We Are All “Broken Ones”

I was introduced to a wonderful music video by “The Tally Trio” this weekend called “The Broken Ones”.

But, who are the broken ones?  The seventeen year old girl in the video who has been beaten by her boyfriend, or perhaps by her father, and needle tracks up and down her arm is pretty obvious, but what of the immoral person, or the man who is embezzling from his company?  For that matter, what of the man who struggles with impure thoughts?  Or the person who has raised the pursuit of food to the point of near idolatry?  Are these not all broken ones too?

Yes, indeed.  In fact, until Jesus reached out to each of us and purchased us with His own blood, until He began His work of polishing us “diamonds in the rough” to a sparkling luster, we were all broken ones.

And now, Jesus has charged each of us to go into the world and find the broken ones, the lost and the confused, and to point them to Jesus.

I have thought a lot recently about the image of God shining through me.  In fact my two earlier posts have been re-blogs that deal with this very issue.

I love the line in the song, “She’s just doing what the One who died for her would do; Love the broken ones.”

I know that this is what the Lord has called me to do.  Has He perhaps called you to do the same?

Separated to the Gospel of God

Separated to the Gospel of God.

via Separated to the Gospel of God.

As believers, we have been called to do our part to fulfill the Great Commission.

We Are The Light Of Jesus To A World In Darkness

It has been said, that to many people we (Christians) are the only Jesus they will ever know.  If they never go to church, never listen to an evangelist, never read a Bible, then we are their only chance of knowing the love of God and the salvation that He so freely gives.

There may be people in our lives today that have no other means of hearing our Lord’s Gospel, other than through us.  The Apostle Peter said:

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.  –  1 Peter 3:15, KJV

God has given His followers an awesome responsibility!

In Time Of Trouble, Jesus Loves You

Sometimes we reach a point in our lives where it all just stops making sense.  Sometimes the things that used to be fun have become boring.  Or maybe a relationship is ending or has just ended.  Or life has become a sad and lonely place, and full of questions and doubts.  Is this all there is?  What’s the point?  Is it really worth it?

If this sounds like you, then know that you are not alone.  I am writing from personal experience, and each of the above circumstances is from my own personal history.

Sometimes things can seem pretty hopeless.  Inside, there is a gnawing, perhaps a feeling that there are needs that are not being fulfilled.  Perhaps some of those needs are so deep that they don’t even have a name.

But, there is hope!  There is one who knows every one of those needs, and who knows exactly how to fill them.

If you are like me, you have tried many different avenues to try to fill those deep needs.  Perhaps it’s been drugs or alcohol.  Perhaps it has been relationships or promiscuous sex.  Or spending money, or risky behavior, or any of a myriad other “fixes”.  But, except perhaps for a short while, none of those things have worked.  They may feel good for a little while, but soon the good feelings have worn off, and the feelings of emptiness return, only now they are worse than before.

The fact is, none of these things have worked, because none of them can work.

We are, each one of us, created for a personal and intimate relationship with our God.  Two thousand years ago, God was manifest in flesh when Jesus Christ walked the earth.  The Bible tells us that God is love, and Jesus demonstrated that love when He ministered to the sick and hurting, when He forgave sins, and even when He restored families by raising a dead loved one.

That same Jesus is calling to you, right now.  Jesus said,

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

“Rest for your soul”.  I don’t know about you, but my soul could use rest.  And Jesus’ invitation and promise are one hundred percent reliable.

Did you know?  There is only one thing that separates you from God right now.  Sin.  And not just the big ones like murder, adultery and fornication.  When God speaks of sin He means the seemingly less important ones as well.  Sins like, lying, bearing false witness, disrespect to parents, and the like.  You see?  Our God is a holy God, and all sin, any sin, is sufficient to separate us from His love and His presence in our lives.

But Jesus loved us enough that He took care of that as well.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  John 3:16

But, what does it mean when the Bible says, “God gave His only Son”?  Well, the Bible tells us, “The wages of sin is death”, and the death the Bible talks about is not physical death, but spiritual, that is, separation from God.  In fact, all of us start our lives spiritually dead, separate from God.

And this is where Jesus comes in with His love for us.  Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay the debt for our sins, that is, He died, and was separated from God, His Father.  But Jesus not only paid the price for our sins, He rose from the grave, victorious over death, and providing a way of reconciliation with God, that we may once again enjoy that intimate and personal relationship that sin destroyed.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!   Romans 5:8-10

The way is clear!  With Jesus paying our sin debt for us, there is nothing to stand in the way between us and eternal life and a wonderful relationship with God and our Savior.  There is but one thing to do:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  Romans 10:9

Will you do it?  After all, isn’t a relationship with the One who created you, who knows you and understands you, isn’t that what you are really after?  Will you pray with me now?

Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.  But I now understand that you came to earth to die for my sins, and that my sin debt is now paid.  I believe that You rose from the dead, victorious over death, and that you offer eternal life to me now as a free gift.  I accept You as my Lord and Savior, and I accept your gift of eternal life.  Amen.

Did you pray with me?  Because if you did,  God’s Holy Spirit now dwells in you, and He is now testifying with your spirit that what I have told you is all true!

The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Romans 8:16

If you prayed with me, look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself,  ”I am a child of God, and Jesus is my Lord and Savior!”.

If you would like to send me an email to tell me what you have just done, or if you are still not sure and have questions, just click on my picture on the far right of this page.  If you would like to read more about asking Jesus to be your Savior, please visit Just 33 Minutes.

God bless you, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Would They Have Called Me “Christian”?

This morning at worship, our Pastor asked a very pointed question.  He was using the Book of Acts, ch. 11 for an illustration (read especially, verse 26):

Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews.  Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus.  The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

 News of this reached the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch.  When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.  He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord.

26 Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul,  and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.  -  Acts 11:19-26

The question he asked was, if the “Antiochians” had followed us around as they did the disciples of Christ, would they decide that we should be called “Christians”  In other words, would the Light of Jesus show forth from us as it did from them?  Or is our light hidden from the world?

Our Pastor was actually preaching from 1 Peter:

Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.  Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.  1 Peter 2:11,12

So, the question asked by Pastor remains, do the people who know me think of me as “that Christian guy”?  Or do they just say, “Oh yeah, that John guy is pretty cool!”?

Or, to put it another way, into which Kingdom do I fit better, the Kingdom of God?  Or the Kingdom of this world?

Islanders: A Modern Parable

The earthquake was recorded by the monitoring station.  Jesus Mendoza watched as the seismograph scored jagged lines on the drum of paper.  It looked like it might be a big one.  On the other hand, it might be that the epicenter was close to the seismic sensors and that the earthquake was really quite harmless.

In either case, Jesus was on the phone, setting up a conference call with other monitoring stations even before the last diminishing shock waves had been recorded on the seismograph.  After a few minutes consultation and some hasty calculations, a first approximation of magnitude and location was made, and this was no harmless temblor, this was a monster!

The epicenter was about 2500 miles out in the Pacific, a few miles under the seabed, in very deep water.  But the magnitude was what was most troubling.  According to their calculations the earthquake was somewhere between 8.7 and 8.9 on the Richter scale.  And, as with any quake that large, tsunami was a very real danger.

And then Jesus remembered that several months ago, two families had set up residence on a tiny island a few miles off shore.  The island was so small it didn’t even have an official name, and Jesus wondered how they ever expected to survive.  But there they were.

Jesus knew what he had to do.  As soon as the conference call ended he ran from the station down to the boat dock only a block away.  Once there, he borrowed his friend’s skiff and made for the tiny island as quickly as the boat was able to carry him.  The island occupants had no idea what danger was coming.  It was up to Jesus to save them!

When he got to the island, Jesus ran the boat up on the beach and killed the motor.  Getting out, he tied the boat off to a nearby tree so it would not drift away and ran for the nearer of the two huts.  Thank God the family was in the hut!  In fact, both families were there, sharing stories and food and each other’s company.

Jesus rushed into the house and began to explain excitedly about the tsunami.  He pointed out that the island had no high ground, no place of safety.  Then Jesus admonished the inhabitants to make haste and come with him in his boat, so that they would be safe.

One family readily accepted Jesus’ offer, but the second family refused.  No amount of pleading would convince them.  Their attitude was that there was no danger, for there was nothing out of the ordinary to be either seen or heard.  Therefore, they would be safe.

Finally, for the safety of the family that had agreed to go with him, Jesus was forced to leave the island with the agreeable family and leave the refusing family behind, know that they would surely die in their ignorance.

I’m sure that this parable was quite transparent to most people, in fact, I am hoping that it was.

I am too often amazed at the number of people who are convinced that either sin is not a problem that concerns them or that the Gospel of Salvation is nothing more than a fairy tale that can be safely ignored.  And often it is both!  The prince of this world has done his job well!

I am impressed that we as believers must never cease to take every opportunity to share the Gospel with any who will listen.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son…” the verse goes.  God has already given it all to save a world of lost and helpless sinners, because of love.  Now it is up to us, as lovers of Jesus, to give our all for Him!

Father, I pray for opportunities to witness to Your love and grace.  Amen.