Excuses, Excuses!

11/26/11     Scott,     48

If you are a Christian, do you think of more reasons to share the Gospel, or do you more often think of excuses to keep it to yourself?

One goal I have as a Christian is to be ready and willing to share the Gospel "in season and out", in any situation God gives me. But I still struggle with getting out of my comfort zone and being a bold witness.

I really enjoy having longer, more in-depth conversations with people, but sometimes I just don't have the time. It can be hard to settle for the shorter conversations that usually come with handing out tracts as conversation starters. If someone responds favorably and does want to talk more, I know I won't have much time to continue the conversation.

One day this was the situation, and I almost used it as an excuse to not even try. But after praying about it I decided to reset my sights and just hand out a few interesting Gospel tracts and see what might happen, which led to a short but meaningful conversation with a man named Scott.

Scott confessed to a lifetime of drinking and womanizing and freely called himself a sinner, confessing his sins but showing no evidence of having repented of them. Yet he still believed he was saved because of a youth camp experience he'd had as a teenager. He talked about a Bible he had been given there, with the date of his "conversion" written in it. I wondered whether this experience had opened him up to a relationship with God or caused him to be a false convert whose closest experience with God had occurred over 30 years ago.

My time was limited because of my situation, so I had to leave Scott with some good questions and some good info to answer them. Should I have listened to the excuses replaying in my head and not begun the conversation in the first place, since I knew I wouldn't have time for follow-up if needed?

One well-known Christian wrote that the lack of Christian follow-up is like "bringing a spiritual baby into the world but not sticking around to care for it." He wrote this in a book about fulfilling our Great Commission as Christians, to "...go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you..."

But this commission must be read in context. Just before it, Jesus said "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me." And just after it, he said "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

Our Great Commission begins and ends with Jesus! We are just a small part in it. And we are also just a small part of Jesus' Church. Our CO-mission is to be a team effort, and Jesus is our coach, our chief strategist, and ultimately responsible for it's success. So much of the New Testament tells us how we are to do our small part. But no one of us can do it all.

So let's lower our high personal expectations that too often become stumbling blocks, in favor of just going out and doing our part, trusting Jesus and His Church to do theirs. Let's pray past the excuses, proclaim the Gospel, and see what might happen!