I happen to catch a listen on the radio this week of how author and apologist Lee Strobel became a Christian. Part of his journey to faith was accepting an invitation to church. At church, he heard Christianity explained to him with such clarity that it started his thorough investigation into the Christian faith. I found myself thinking: . . .
No one has ever reported praying for me to come to know Christ. Check out these various prayer themes to help you pray for your friends who don't know Jesus.
A reader question via Ask EvangelismCoach wonders: What are some prayer points for church growth? While there are many different avenues for intercessory prayers for church growth, let me suggest 3 avenues.
Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. 1 Peter 2:7 What is precious? I’ve been pondering this word in my devotions this week while looking at the current difficult circumstances of my life. Are the challenges I face now worth the price of my calling to follow my Savior? Is following Jesus worth …
My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed; I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me. — Hymn, My Faith has found a resting place …
How has the Lord been good to you? If one of your friends were to ask you today: What has God done in your life recently? Would you be ready with an answer that is not generic? God blesses me. God forgives me. Those are generic statements, versus awesome stories that demonstrate the work of …
I volunteered the other day and I had lunch with another volunteer. As we talked about my mother’s recent death, she startled me with the following question. I’ve always wondered, how do religious people deal with death? She wasn’t opposed to religion. She didn’t have a defined set of beliefs of her own. Spiritual Conversations occur …
Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10, NIV) Jesus has a remarkable insight. He knew the true spiritual thirst of this …
In today’s devotional prayer, take your bible and read Ecclesiastes 2. The teacher is a man who experienced tremendous spiritual thirst and chapter two gives us the various ways he tried to fill that emptiness in his heart.
Every person comes to Jesus for a different reason. I started my search for Jesus because of a search for unconditional love a purpose greater than my own self. I had no clue that I was a sinner, or that I needed a Savior. Sin is not always the starting point While it is true …
Jesus declares: John 12:32 — “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” The verb “draw” signifies something of an attraction that leads to a focus or action, perhaps even a change of direction. That attraction is fueled by something within each person that begins to see the beauty …
In this series on getting more church invitations and visitor traffic, I’m looking at various ways to increase the number of personal invitations to church that your church members give. The statistics show that a personal invitation from a friend is the best way to get church visitors. I’m going to look at 6 different …
Mark 4:29 – “As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” In the past few days, we have seen the process of evangelism. Sowing the seed into the soil (A farmer sows the seed. . . ) The mysterious process of growth (The seed sprouts …
I once gave a talk to children at a Bible Camp in Panama. Outside of the covered patio we used as a lecture hall, mango trees were getting heavy with fruit. The mangoes were almost in season. I had picked one bruised and green mango that had fallen on the ground. Turning it over in …
In the picture to the right, this lady with the child was visiting the church for the first time. When the service was over she came up to the pastor and I (I was the guest preacher, and pastor is to my right). She began to talk with us. She had been walking by the …
“Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.” – Mark 4:27 How does the seed grow? I remember science projects I did in elementary school to make seeds sprout. We played with the variables of soil, light, water, and even gravity (by using …
Part of our task is to take the word of God and scatter it in the field.
Jesus tells us another parable about the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 13. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.” Matthew 13:44 In contrast to the parable …
Jesus give us a parable, found in Matthew 13, about the kingdom of God. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:45-46) Looking for the fine pearl The merchant was …
Before we came to know Christ, we were sinners. Before we started following Jesus, we were spiritually dead, and spiritually blind. If we have been a Christian for a long time, perhaps we have forgotten how our spiritual eyes couldn’t see in the dark, how impossible it was to see the value of God’s truth, …
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Cor 3:6-7 (NIV) Paul gives us a great analogy to talk about the conversion process. It picks up on some of the parables …
Shawn Anderson’s research into the conversion process reveals some interesting statistics about evangelism through personal relationships. (Read: Living Dangerously: Seven Keys to Intentional Discipleship) Looking at the time from when Jesus is first mentioned in relationship to the point of a person following Jesus: Fifty-one percent of the time this process took over a year. …
“Where do you go to church?” inquires the barber cutting my hair. I’m sitting in the barber’s chair, getting the personal haircut that has been needed since the last day I left that chair nearly 3 months ago. I try my best to get the same barber every time to nurture a contact relationship. The …
Prayer sensitizes us to subtle changes in the landscape of our circumstances. – Andy Stanley, Visioneering. Seeing the harvest field A few nights ago, I took a flight home, back to the city where I live. The flight path of our final descent runs us parallel to the city. I got to sit in the …
