It’s Not My Job!

Posted on August 5, 2011 by coachmc

God never intended that you or I should bear the burden of convincing anyone of the truth about the cross. Our role is to explain the message, and help them understand it, not make them accept.  When we think it’s our responsibility to have them become Christians, we’ve likely forgotten one of these three big ‘If’s.

  1. IF a friend is truly not interested when we share the gospel, it’s because God hasn’t brought them to the point of interest yet. You can be assured that the One who is responsible to create that interest is an expert at His job.
  2. IF they listen, but don’t accept their need of a Savior, the Holy Spirit has not completed his work. Explaining sin is our task, making another recognize their guilt isn’t.
  3. IF they tell you that everything you’ve said seems true, but they just can’t believe, there’s one piece of the puzzle that’s missing – faith. Without faith, which by definition is certainty of unseen things, there will be doubt. Once they receive this amazing gift, and it’s available only from God, their disbelief will vanish.

God is deepening my understanding and trust in the truth contained in these three ‘If’s. The process is helping me enjoy evangelistic opportunities more than before, and keeping me from responding impatiently with those who ‘just don’t get it.’ Where are you with our 3 ‘IF’s?

Read what the Bible says about them…

IF #1          IF #2          IF #3

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Buy a Present or Have a Presence

Posted on August 3, 2011 by coachmc

Anytime you think about what present to buy for a family member or friend, remember that the best gift they could ever receive is nothing you can purchase and wrap.  In fact, it’s not a thing at all, but a person.  There’s no better Presence than Jesus!

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Are Friends Uninterested in Jesus?

Posted on July 28, 2011 by coachmc

If you’ve ever become discouraged because someone you care about seems totally disinterested in God, take heart. There are only two possible things going on in their life, and we can praise God in both circumstances.

1. There is no interest in things of God

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to us. We know that people without faith in Christ are alienated from God and enemies of his. (Romans 5:10) This built-in enmity is not something to lose any sleep over however, because God is the ultimate Enemy Exchanger!

Remember Saul on the road to Damascus? He hated Christians, and was personally persecuting Jesus. Yet in a moment, the unlimited power of God changed him into a willing servant, and committed follower of his former enemy.

True, your dear friend or beloved family member may seem like a hopeless case, but there is no one beyond the reach of our Mighty God! And he’s not just powerful, he can be magnificently persuasive!

2. There’s an interest because God is drawing them

Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…” (John 6:44), and that included Saul.  We have no way of knowing what was going on inside the soul of this man as he railed against the early church. His heart could have been as hard the moment Jesus spoke to him, as it was the day he watched Stephen being stoned to death.

It’s equally possible though, that he could have been feeling the strong arms of God drawing him ever closer to the Savior he sought to persecute. It is not uncommon for people to resist the change God is bringing about, especially when they begin to sense that the battle is being lost.

Though everyone doesn’t act like Paul when they are being drawn, many do seem frustrated or upset during this process. For instance, you might find your friends…

  • Withdrawing from your friendship.
  • Being fearful to relinquish previous beliefs.
  • Refusing your invitation to church.
  • Telling you to drop the religious talk

If this happens, don’t despair. Hang in there, and keep loving them…perhaps you’ll see God pulling them toward a great salvation!

Bottom Line

The same power that raised Christ from the dead, and the incomparable ability to turn even the hardest heart soft, are available to God for the task of reaching your friend or family member, who is resisting His message of grace.

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Who’s Your Power?

Posted on July 28, 2011 by coachmc

We need X-treme Power! Our friends have many great needs if they have not received the promise of heaven through faith in Christ, and we won’t be able to meet even one of them. We’re going to have to rely on someone else to help…God.

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How to Witness to a Pagan – Part 3

Posted on July 16, 2011 by coachmc

In the first article of this series, I introduced you to Gwydion Oak, a professing Pagan, Wiccan in particular, who, surprisingly to me, had written an article helping Christians learn how to share their faith with Pagans.

Part 1 dealt with Gwydion’s opinion that Christians should treat Pagans as people first.  Accepting that we can’t win everyone to faith, and how to treat people who don’t accept our beliefs, was the focus of Part 2.  In our final installment, we’ll look at the point he made first and foremost…Never Attack!

Gwydion tells of reading Christian tracts on Paganism, and finding that many attack Pagans as evil and devil worshipping people, doomed to hell. In response, he says, “the overwhelming majority of Pagans are fundamentally good and decent people…” and that to most of them, the devil “has no more meaning than the Christian god does.”

If I understand the Bible correctly, all people without faith in Christ, are slaves to sin.  So much so, that true worship of the God of creation is impossible.  Is that evil?  I would say tragic is a better word!

As Paul tells us in Ephesians 2, we were also slaves to sin, and followed the ruler of the kingdom of the air.  We did not worship Satan though.  We acted according to the ways of this world in subjection to his will, and for the gratification of our sinful nature.

We too may have been good, decent people, but according to the passage in Ephesians, we were above all else, objects of God’s wrath.  That is a tragedy, and Christians don’t attack those living in a tragic situation.  I agree with Gwydion…never attack!

Instead let us ask the Father to help us love Pagans, and everyone without Christ, showing them the mercy He demonstrated to us through Christ on the cross.

Paraphrasing Ephesians 2:6 & 7, I hope we can pray for all who are still spiritually dead, that God would raise them up with Jesus, and seat them with him in the heavenly realms in Christ, in order to show in the coming ages, the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to them in Christ Jesus.

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You’re on God’s Team

Posted on July 13, 2011 by coachmc

At any moment, God may direct you to pull alongside a friend and, like a AAA tow truck, provide what they need, so they can move down the highway on their journey toward Jesus.  Just like that, you might be someone’s spiritual roadside service!  Share the Savior…and on they go!

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How to Witness to a Pagan – Part 2

Posted on July 9, 2011 by coachmc

In a recent post, I introduced Gwydion Oak, a practicing Pagan, “Wiccan in particular”, who wrote an article for WitchVox.com titled, How to Witness to a Pagan.

Though written to introduce Christians to Pagan beliefs, hopefully making them “more effective in sharing” their faith, and presumably, less obnoxious, his remarks often provide principles for sharing with anyone who doesn’t embrace the Christian faith.

In this article, I’d like to share more of his thoughts, and add some of my own, on the topic of ‘successful’ evangelism.

Accept that You Can’t Win Them All

“Realize before you begin that you will not convert everyone you meet,” Gwydion begins, “and know when to stop.”  He recalls missionaries who seemed to regard a Pagan’s refusal to join their church as evangelistic failure or a personal rejection.  “In most cases, neither is true,” he wrote.  “If a Pagan finally tells you that they have found their path, and wishes you well on yours, that simply means that you need to let go…”

Interestingly, Gwydion has described what often happens, when a Christian forgets who’s in charge of changing minds.  Only by the Spirit of God, can a Pagan, or any non-Christian, become convinced of the truth of the cross.  When we don’t recognize this fact, and keep pushing our opinion in the hope we can get them to accept our way of thinking, we’re trying to do the Spirit’s task, and we are never very good at it.

Make sure your listener understands the message, when sharing your faith, instead of making acceptance your goal.  That is a responsibility God puts in our hands.

One Last Comment from Gwydion

Gwydion thinks, and I agree, that knowing when to back off will help foster religious tolerance, which is not a bad thing if we understand all that truly means.

“You don’t have to accept their beliefs, or agree with them, but since you never know what the future may hold, suspend judgment.  That is the spirit of religious tolerance…that everyone has a basic right to believe according to their conscience.”

And we understand that God’s Spirit is able and responsible to change consciences!  Thanks again, Gwydion!

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Their Journey is In Good Hands

Posted on July 6, 2011 by coachmc

You won’t locate your friend’s place on their spiritual journey by looking at Yahoo Maps, and you can’t use a GPS device to track their progress toward Christ.  Where they are and the direction they’re heading is up to the Father.

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How to Witness to a Pagan – Part 1

Posted on June 29, 2011 by coachmc

This short series is designed to help you share the gospel with people who embrace polytheistic religions, and much of it is written by one.

About the Co-Author

Gwydion Oak posted an article online at WitchVox.com in 1997 to “…help Christians understand better who and what Pagans really are, and, in the process become more effective in sharing their beliefs.”

“For starters,” he wrote, “I am not a Christian. I am and have been Pagan (Wiccan in particular) for several years now.  So why am I writing this? Because I understand that believing Christians feel they have an obligation to share their religion with others…” and also because “…believing Christians tend, however unintentionally, to ignore their own strengths, and to consistently put their worst face forward when dealing with those who do not share their faith.”

About the Series

In the next few posts, I’ll be including some of Gwydion’s suggestions about evangelizing, and at times, making some comments of my own.  In this first post of the series, I want to share some of his thoughts on…

Treating Pagans as People First

“On many occasions Christians have approached me in, what was at first, a friendly manner.  Sometimes I was invited to their homes for dinner, sometimes to church social activities or services.  There was a conspicuous effort to “get close” to me, and the topic of religion came up very often.

This continued until it became clear that I wasn’t going to jump into the baptismal pool right away, and that I was firmly committed to my religion. Then the ‘friendship’ cooled off rapidly, phone calls ceased, and many times I was later treated with open hostility by the very people who had taken it upon themselves to approach me.”

Gwydion calls this, “perhaps the most disturbing tendency Pagans encounter in Christians who would share the Gospel with them, and also one of the chief reasons Christians are often bluntly considered to be hypocrites in Pagan eyes.”

Fortunately, he has not received this type of ‘friendship’ from every Christian and commendably says so.

“I have also met many Christians who value friendship, and who accept me, even if they don’t like my religion’s views.”

Then he adds something very important for all of us to hear.

“But a crucial question that any would-be missionary must ask themselves before they begin is whether they can be a genuine friend to those they would teach – and stay a friend even if those people don’t accept their message.”

Thank you Gwydion, you’ll get no argument from me on that point.

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Grace does More than Save

Posted on June 29, 2011 by coachmc

In a culture that screams at us to earn everything we possess, God’s grace arrives unexpectedly when we least deserve it and dramatically changes what it touches. It is this very grace, a precious gift to believers all over the world, that does much more than save…it equips and empowers us to reach out to others.

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