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Realities of Witnessing (in internet chatrooms,
e-mails, or in real life)
(Mat 28:19-20 KJV)
And Jesus came
and spake unto them, saying,
All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth.
{19} Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost:
{20}
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you:
and, lo, I
am with you alway,
even unto the
end of the world. Amen.
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DEAR BROTHER BOB: CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT TO
RESPOND TO THIS MESSAGE, AS I AM TOTALLY AT A LOSS, I AM VERY UPSET BY THIS KIND
OF LANGUAGE HE SOUNDS TERRIBLY LOST: PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE I RECEIVED THIS
MORNING: ALL I CAN DO IS PRAY FOR HIM: OR HER:
-------------------- the
message...
HOW THE H___ DID I END UP ON
THIS LIST??? AND WHAT THE F___ ARE YOU SENDING ME????? IF YOUR A NEWBIE THEN WHY
ARE YOU SENDING ATTACHMENTS FOR. YOU NEED A GOOD OLD FASHION A__ KICKING. DEATH
TO ALL NEWBIES. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Christian
Friend,
Welcome to the wonderful
world of aggressive evangelism !!!! Jesus said," Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature." The two words "go" and
"preach" are imperatives, or commands . In other words "just do it"...and
these commands come from God.
We dont need to apologize or
make excuses for why we want to present the Gospel to someone. We dont even need
their permission to do so. We are following orders from Jesus Christ. We are on
a mission, a search and destroy quest to search for those who will respond to
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, while those who reject the Gospel destroy themselves
because of their hatred of God.
Study Jesus' method of
evangelism: For the most part it was "one strike and I move on". He never begged
people to get saved, or watered down the gospel, or kept going back to the same
person and giving them a second or third chance. God's method has always
been
(Josh 24:15).
Choose you THIS
DAY whom you will serve.
and
(Heb 3:7-8a
KJV)
Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,
To day if
ye will hear his voice,
{8}
Harden not your hearts,
Of course, people who are
interested in receiving deserve all the attention and follow-up we can give
them. But we have to just pray and wait for God to work on the rest. And we must
"speak the truth in love", and always leave the door open for another time. Our
goal is to "disciple" those who respond to the Gospel, pour our energy and
teaching into them, and help them to be further evangelists, as God tells us in
this classic verse:
(2 Tim 2:1-2 KJV)
Thou therefore,
my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
{2} And
the things that thou hast heard of me among many
witnesses,
the same
commit thou to faithful men,
who shall be
able to teach others also.
In our present society, we in
America are being so brainwashed with this "political correctness" rubbish, that
we are being terrorized into being afraid that we may "hurt
people's feelings" if we tell them the gospel in a direct manner. Well,
let me just say that their feelings are REALLY going to be hurt if they dont get
saved and wake up in hell !!
I get this kind of
whining or foul-mouthed response a lot from people I dont even know on the
web, just because I let it be known that I am a Christian evangelist,
or send them a gospel message. By that act of unsolicitedly sending them a
gospel message, I am encroaching somehow on their right to privacy or
intruding into their precious "comfort zone" of moral oblivion. But
actually, they get hundreds of unwanted "spam" ads in their life from tv,
movies, vidioes, magazines, newspapers, bus signs, billboards, internet sites,
pop-ups and more. Somehow all this doesn't register with them that it is equally
unwanted encroachment into their so-called right to privacy. But you dont see
them calling the ACLU because they have just had to endure one too many ads
for the local fast food palace.
So why do they feel so
threatened by a Gospel tract or message?? Can't they just hit the "delete"
button and move on? Apparently not. What they are reacting to is God The Holy
Spirit convicting them of sin, and they are not yielding to the Spirit's urging
to repent. And this is spiritually uncomfortable and painful, and produces guilt
and shame and conviction. It is not the same as any other message. It is the
power of the Spirit of God withnessing to their spirit that they stand guilty
before the Judgement Seat of God, and that they need to repent and turn to
Christ, or they will face the full fury of the Wrath of God !! This is a
terrifying message, because
(Ezek 18:20a KJV)
The soul that sinneth, it shall die...
And their terror is thereby
justified . But they just want to keep living in their little amoral
dream world where they can keep on sinning and not be disturbed about
it.
And so their anger at us for bringing them this terrifying
message should not be unexpected. Jesus says the
following:
2 Cor 2:14-16a (KJV)
Now thanks be
unto God,
which always
causeth us to triumph in Christ,
and
maketh manifest the fragrance of his knowledge by us in every place.
{15} For we are unto God a sweet fragrance of Christ,
in
them that are saved, and in them that perish:
{16} To the one we are the odor of death unto
death;
and to the other
the fragrance of life unto life.
This is what is called,
"The offense of the Gospel". Since they can't immediately strike back at
God, their first response is to "shoot the messenger", as it were...that is, to
lash out at us, since we are perceived as the cause of their discomfort. Jesus
says
(Mat 10:32-34 KJV)
Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men,
him will I
confess also before my Father which is in heaven.
{33} But
whosoever shall deny me before men,
him will I also
deny before my Father which is in heaven.
{34} Think
not that I am come to send peace on earth:
I came not
to send peace, but a sword.
And so, we can be assured
that they are getting the message when they act out against us. But after
all, we are trying to rescue them from a Christless eternity of torture in the
flames of Hell !!! So the stakes are high, and for them the risk is
high.
What you should do when you
encounter people like this??? My approach has eventually become,
just read Bible verses to them, and thereby you let God speak directly to them.
You dont need to add any of your own thoughts. Just let the Word of God do
its own powerful work.
(Heb 4:12-13
KJV)
For the
word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword,
piercing even to
the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow,
and is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
{13} Neither is
there any creature that is not manifest in his sight:
but all things
are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to
do.
And remember, that people are
in different stages of becoming saved at any given time. Like in the parable of
the sower, some people reject the gospel right away. Some people are totally
ready to accept Christ before you even meet them. The Holy Spirit has been
working on their heart for a long time, and they may just need
someone to tell them how to give their lives to Christ. And there is a
whole spectrum of growth and development in-between..all tended to and
supervised by God Himself.
Look at your job of
evangelism as though you are like the proverbial "Johnny Appleseed" of
old...walking through the earth with a back-pack of seed, scattering them
everyplace as you go: a messenger of the Gospel. It is not your job to
worry about how many people accept Christ through your ministry; what
matters is whether or not you are faithful and obedient to Christ's
command to go and teach, and to have faith that God will bring the
increase.
(1 Cor 3:6-9
KJV)
I have planted, Apollos watered; but God
gave the increase.
{7} So then neither is he that planteth
any thing, neither he that watereth;
but God that giveth the increase.
{8} Now he that planteth and he that watereth
are one:
and every man shall receive his own reward
according to his own labour.
{9} For we are labourers together with God:
ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's
building.
We are compelled to go
and tell, but we can rest easy because the results are up to
God.
When it comes to
receiving emails from hostile people, I have learned to just hit the "delete"
button and move on, and trust that the Holy Spirit will continue to work on them
. There are so many people out there that actually are open to the Gospel, that
these take the prioity to be ministered to NOW, while their hearts are ripe for
salvation. The hostile ones can wait. Even if you spend a lot of time trying to
convince them that they are wrong, usually you are wasting your time. They need
to be "spiritually convinced", which only the Holy Spirit can accomplish.
I realize that this may sound
harsh to some people...but i have been a "whimpy warrior for the Lord" for
almost my whole christian life. I used to think that if I were sort of
apologetic for the claims of the gospel, or kind of made it easier for them to
accept Christ, or watered down the Gospel to make it more appealing, that that
was somehow a good method of evangelism. Then I wouldn't
confront people and risk hurting anyone's feelings if they weren't ready to
accept Christ. And for sure I wouldn't have to put up with their hostility
and insults or worse. But this got me nowhere!! It only a yielded
2 true converts that I know of in 30 plus years of being a christian.
Actually, both of them were my daughters. I was even to the point of
believing that I had no gift of evangelism, but only a gift of counselling
and discipling to those who were already christians.
But now I have an
appreciation of God's "behind the scenes" work of wooing and making a person
ready for the gospel. All the compromising and begging we may do to "win" a
person to Christ is really unnecessary and counter-productive. We should be
praying that God would prepare this person's life and heart to be ready to
receive the Gospel. Then when God gives the opportunity, be prepared to deliver
the message...and then, leave the results up to God. If they reject the message,
don't take it personally, it is not your fault ! They are rejecting God Himself,
not us, if we are faithful to present the Word. As Jesus
said,
(Luke 10:8-12,16 KJV)
And into
whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you,
eat such things
as are set before you:
{9} And heal the
sick that are therein, and say unto them,
The kingdom of
God is come nigh unto you.
{10} But into
whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not,
go your ways out
into the streets of the same, and say,
{11} Even the
very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you:
notwithstanding
be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto
you.
{12} But I
say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for
that city....
{16} He that
heareth you heareth me;
and he that
despiseth you despiseth me;
and he that
despiseth me
despiseth Him
that sent me.
God Bless you as you serve
the Savior and deliver His Gospel message.
in Christ....brother
bob..........<><
1 Cor 3:6-11 (KJV)
I have planted,
Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
{7} So then neither is he that planteth any thing,
neither he that
watereth;
but
God that giveth the increase.
{8} Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one:
and
every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
{9} For we are labourers together with God:
ye
are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
{10} According to the grace of God which is given unto me,
as a wise
masterbuilder,
I have
laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
{11} For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid,
which is Jesus Christ.
Ezek 1:28-2:7 (KJV)
As the
appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain,
so was
the appearance of the brightness round about.
This was
the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.
And when I saw
it, I fell upon my face,
and I heard a
voice of one that spake.
Ezek 2:1-7 (KJV)
And he said unto me,
Son
of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
{2} And the spirit entered into me when he spake unto me,
and set me upon
my feet,
that I heard him that spake unto me.
{3} And he said unto me, Son of man,
I send thee to
the children of Israel,
to a rebellious
nation that hath rebelled against me:
they and their
fathers have transgressed against me,
even unto this very day.
{4} For they are impudent children and stiffhearted.
I do send thee
unto them;
and
thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD.
{5} And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will
resist,
(for they are
a rebellious house,)
yet
shall know that there hath been a prophet among them.
{6} And thou, son of man,
be not afraid of
them,
neither be
afraid of their words,
though briers
and thorns be with thee,
and thou dost
dwell among scorpions:
be not afraid of
their words,
nor be dismayed
at their looks,
though they be a rebellious house.
{7} And thou shalt speak my words unto them,
whether they
will hear, or whether they will resist:
for they are
most rebellious.
IXTHEUS CHRISTIAN GROWTH DEVOTIONALS
ALWAYS FREE OF
CHARGE
(but not
necessarily free of COST)
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God Bless
You
In
Christ.....brother bob.......<>< For more information, please visit our home page http://www.nazerene.com
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