7/10/19 Lou (see video HERE)
Do I take vacations from my daily outreach efforts? Short answer – no. But there is a longer answer worth
explaining.
In order to stay connected in fellowship with our Father in heaven,
Christians find we must practice daily disciplines such as prayer and reading
the Bible. Other regular disciplines that keep us connected with God include
church attendance and other gatherings of fellowship with believers such as
Bible studies, taking in the preaching and teaching of more mature and knowledgeable
believers including pastors and
Christian authors, and regular times of fasting along with more focused and
intentional prayer.
We need these disciplines because the temptations of the
world, the flesh, and the devil that surround us are like a weight that is
constantly pulling us down, and God designed us in such a way that we require
fresh and ongoing fellowship with Himself and fellow believers in order to stay
connected and growing in our faith. God has
redeemed us from the alienation and spiritual death of sin not just for our
eternal salvation, but for our ongoing relationship with Himself and our family
of believers here and now.
I have come to view evangelism as one of those spiritual
disciplines. A discipline is something
we do through disciplined effort, regardless of how we feel emotionally. I admit I don’t feel like getting up early to
pray or read my Bible, and I must admit that I don’t always feel refreshed by
these disciplines on a daily basis. But
I wouldn’t trade the benefits of these activities over time for the world, and
I have come to see my daily witnessing efforts in much the same way.
I was on vacation, spending time at the beach in North
Carolina, just after the end of another busy school year. It was a great chance to unwind personally
and to spend quality time with my wife while visiting my mother-in-law. It was tempting to put my outreach efforts on
hold for a few days. But I know from
experience that just as my spiritual life becomes increasingly dry and stale, or
worse, without prayer and Bible study, so it becomes dry without regularly
sharing my faith and allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through me into the lives
of others as I do so.
Every time I share the Gospel with someone new, I’m reminded
of the blessings I have in Christ. I’m
not discouraged by their lack of faith or their negative response, because I
trust that God is and will be working in their life. I almost always leave the conversation
encouraged, either by it’s reminder of my spiritual blessings in comparison, or
by God’s current work in the lives of believers. I believe this is what Paul referred to in
Philemon, when he wrote "I pray that you may be active in sharing your
faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have
in Christ."
It’s not that I can’t take a break from witnessing – I just
don’t want to. Not only does it have a
spiritual benefit for me personally, but I take joy in meeting new people and
helping and encouraging them take steps of faith. So while on a routine errand from my mother-in-laws
house, I initiated a spiritual conversation with a guy named Lou. Much of our conversation focused on the Bible
and it’s reliability and importance, which we need to be assured of if we are
to become committed to reading it. I
hope I helped Lou toward that spiritual discipline, and I know he helped me
with mine!
Thanks, Lou, for letting this crazy Northerner record our
conversation! It can be seen on my
YouTube channel HERE
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