Evangelism Motives: Why bother?

I’ve been recently reading “One To One: How To Share Your Faith with your Friend” by Michael Green (unavailable from Amazon). 

This book focuses on personal evangelism skills, and in the opening chapters, Green reminds of various reasons to do personal evangelism (p. 8-11)

1.  God is the supreme evangelist.  He loves us and pursues us.  I wrote a post on this at “God, The Evangelist“

2.  Jesus displayed constant and profound care for those he called lost: lost in loneliness, separation from God, defeat, lack of purpose in life.

3.  The Holy Spirit was given to us to fulfill his plan to reach the lost.  It is the Holy Spirit who goes before us to prepare the way, and empower us to full his plan.

4.  We’ve been entrusted with the Gospel — therefore we are his ambassadors.

5.  People’s need.

6.  The greatest joy on earth — to see one come to faith in Christ.

A deathbed confession

This morning, my taxi driver shared with me that, he was at the bedside of a lady dying with cancer.  As a family friend, he was called in to be with the family. 

The lady was slipping in and out of consciousness, and clearly was in her final moments.

With great passion and urgency, he shared the gospel with her, in a gentle and non-obnoxious way, not knowing if she was receiving the information, or what God might be doing. 

It’s hard to know what is possible in a situation like this.  Could she comprehend, could she respond if she didn’t have the ability to speak any more?

He asked, “have you received Christ in your heart?  Can you tell us?” 

The lady opened her eyes, squeezed his hand and said 4x, yes, yes, yes, yes.  Then her final breath, and she passed into eternity.

It was a brief story my taxi driver told me.  But he did share with me the greatest joy on earth — seeing this woman come to Christ and hear her declaration of faith in Him, just before she died.  He’s excited to share his faith, and is propelled with great joy to continue to do so.

He routinely shares his faith with those on the streets, who have no home, and he notices people that God underlines for him.

Let me ask you this?

Who can you share your faith with today?