7/17/12 Ioni,
about 50
To be a follower of
Jesus is to be a lifelong learner. I
suspect that many of my witnessing conversations end up with me learning more
than the people I talk to. So what am I
learning? Lots of things: spiritual
lessons, like how precious our faith is. How horrible it is to be lost in sin. How glad I am to have the hope of heaven. How much spiritual opposition there is to the
gospel. Things one can't simply learn
from a book - even the Bible. Things we
can only learn by being doers of the word and not hearers only. But there are
also practical lessons. Every gospel conversation
I initiate helps prepare me that much more for the next one. This morning I asked a woman named Ioni at the
park about her spiritual beliefs, and she shared a long, fascinating account of
her spiritual journey which, unfortunately, has brought her nowhere near a
right relationship with God through faith in Christ. By the time she finished, 45 minutes later, it
was too late to share Gospel truths at a level that she hadn't already
considered - truths that would take some time to explain. The next time I encounter someone who loves
to talk and has an interesting story to listen to, I think I'll be more aware
of my limited amount of time to share the Gospel and my need to be more
assertive in guiding the conversation toward biblical truths. These might seem like small, insignificant
lessons, but they add up. If it takes 99
ineffective conversations like this one with people to prepare me to become the
tool God can use in person #100, isn't it worth it? We may have to talk to dozens of strangers in
order to be able to able to clearly share the gospel with our loved ones, but oh
what a joy when we do! I am committed to
being a lifelong learner, and to learning by being a doer of the word and not a hearer only.
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