EvangelismCoach

God's Love

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Seeking the Lost Coin

When Jesus was accused of eating with sinners, he said

“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)

With Zaccheus, he declared:

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10)

In these statements, Jesus declares his pursuit of us before we knew Him.

In the three “Lost” parables of Jesus (Luke 15), we see the story

  • of the lost sheep,
  • of the lost coin,
  • and of the lost son.

In these stories, Jesus communicates to us the outrageous love of the Father to go and look for that which was lost, to leave the 99 to find the one, to tear the house upside down to find the missing coin.

They talk about the celebration that happens when that which has been lost has been found.

Parable of the Widow's Mite or Lost CoinThe precious lost item

We look for things that are important to us that are missing.

I had to go to Venezuela on one of my teaching journeys.

Now, I was in Tampa for a conference.  I was to travel home, sleep for a few hours and then go to the Venezuela the next morning on mission work.

I was only going to spend 12 hours in my house before going on to the Venezuela.

When I got home to help my wife pack for our family, we discovered that our passports were missing.

That  was the most stressful night in the life of our family in probably 10 years.

My wife and I finished the evening at 10:00 or 11:00 at night after searching every corner of our house.

We were looking through the trash cans. We were looking through the safe. We were pulling out dressers. We were tossing things upside down. We looked through every single piece of luggage that we had. We were looking in all of our backpacks, and we went looking through the toy boxes in our children’s bedroom.

We made a giant mess in the process because those passports would determine our destiny.  Those passports would determine if we could get back into the country, exit the country, or enter the country with which we were going.

Those passports would determine if we were leaving at 8:00 the next morning.

Those passports would determine our destiny.

They were the most valuable thing in the world.

And when we couldn’t find them, we were breaking down in tears.  I can imagine the widow missing her coin, the stress that she was carrying, and tossing that house upside down.

We went to bed that night in tears. We cried ourselves to sleep.

I wake up at 4:30 in the morning just restless.  I started washing dishes, crying and praying, “Lord, I’m supposed to be in Venezuela this afternoon, and I don’t know how I’m going to get there because I just don’t know where the passports are.”

Then I hear the scurrying of feet across the tile floor, and I hear something some banging around in a seat bench where we store backpacks.

My wife had a dream, and in that dream she saw where she put the passports in her last trip. It was a secret compartment in a black bag that was invisible in the poor lighting in which we had.

There were four gorgeous passports.

We found them!  We found them!

Can you imagine the celebration that erupted in our house that morning? Can you imagine the celebration as that stress just washed right off our backs? When we finally got to the airport gate waiting area, we cried in relief.

Our taxi driver in Venezuela heard the story.

Our friends in Venezuela heard the story.

Those precious passports were the most important thing in the world at that moment and we had found them.  We wanted everyone to know we had found them.

As I ponder the story of the widow looking for her coin, and the celebration she had, can you imagine the joy in God’s heart when that which was lost has been found?

Can you imagine God’s heart for you as God sought you and brought you to faith?

God takes the initiative to seek after you.  Get to know the Father’s heart.

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8 Steps to Use Your Personal Testimony

cheesy salesman1 Each Christian has a personal story of how he/she came to know Jesus in a personal, life-changing way.

You can use your personal testimony to spread the Gospel of Christ in personal evangelism.

Make sure you avoid the cheesy clichés – be authentic.

1.  Use your testimony.

You have both current stories of God’s work in your life, as well as your conversion story.

Even if you had a less-than-dramatic experience in becoming a Christian, it is still important.

You can talk about how the Lord is changing your life on a daily basis.

Tell how He is helping you raise your children or do your job. This is particularly helpful if you sense a similar need in your friend.

Read  The power of personal testimony

You might want to think in terms of transformational stories, rather than testimony. Testimony may have been confined only to the conversion experience.  But we can talk of God’s current work in transforming our life today.

2. Your story has power.

First, it’s personal. You don’t have to memorize Bible verses, or worry about telling it correctly.

Second, it is conversational. It’s not a sermon. It can be shared over a cup of coffee or after a round of golf.

Third, no one can dispute it. If you have joy, peace, and love in your life as a result of knowing Christ, that will be evident.

Fourth, it is interesting. It’s natural for friends to want to know more about each other.

Even if your friend is antagonistic to the Gospel, he/she may still be interested in why you value your relationship with a man named Jesus.

3.  Plan your testimony.

You can use Paul’s testimony in Acts 26 as your outline.

(1) Tell about your life before Christ.

You don’t need to go into embarrassing detail, but you do need to be frank enough about your story so that those who hear it can compare the you back then with the you right now.

(2) Describe the conversion experience that you had.

Be honest and genuine and provide the relevant details. After all, this is when you receive the gift of eternal life.

(3) Explain what your life is like now.

What have you stopped doing, or started doing as a result of your new life?

If you need help developing your testimony, start with this Personal Evangelism Testimony Questionnaire

4. Point people to Jesus.

This is your story, but it has meaning only because Jesus is part of it. The purpose of your story is so that the other person will come to Christ.

The key question to keep in mind:

Where is Jesus in this story?  Where is the activity of God?

5.  Clearly explain the Gospel message.

Take pains to explain the Gospel clearly and simply.

Perhaps use one of the gospel scripts.

Make sure you know how to use a gospel script.

It’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of reliving your life-changing story, but the real story is the Gospel.

But be sensitive to the moment and discern if the Holy Spirit is opening the doors for this.

6. Share several key Scripture verses.

You’ll probably want to share John 3:16; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23; John 14:6; and John 1:12.

Add any favorite verses you may have.

Most gospel scripts have a string of verses that support their story.

7.  Avoid abstract Christian terms.

As a test, define the following terms as simply as you can, so your non-Christian friends understand them: saved, born again, sin, faith, repentance, receive Christ, lost, eternal life.

See my use of Christianese: What is a prayer burden?

8. Explain how you actually received Christ.

Share enough detail so the other person will know what to do if he/she has the desire to know Christ. Often, not knowing the logistics of receiving Christ keeps people from doing what their hearts long for.

For example, my friend last week asked me, How do I start following Christ – he wanted to know how to pray, how to receive that gift.  He actually asked me to help him pray.

Adapted from Sharing Christ When You Feel You Can’t by Daniel Owens.  Order your copy from Amazon.

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Definition of Evangelism: What is the Gospel?

Our definition of evangelism (from the PCUSA) has both:

  • A message to share (“joyfully sharing the good news of the sovereign love of God)
  • A destination (“calling people to . . . . . “)

The good news is the gospel.  This is what gospel means in its most basic form: “good news.”

However, we have developed a rich theological heritage around that word that gives it a more fuller meaning.  As such, we should ask “What is the gospel?”

What is the Gospel?

Embracing Grace Scott McKnightThe PC USA definition of evangelism elaborates one aspect: “the good news of the sovereign love of God.”

The evangelism definition here doesn’t contain a mention of sin (though indirectly in the call to action part in “to repentance”).

This week, I’m reading Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us, Scott McKnight.  It is subtitled “A Gospel for all of us.”

Scott is a prolific writer at JesusCreed and has a large following on his blog.  I had him as a exegesis professor during my studies at Seminary in the 1990s.  I’ve commented on him before.

In his introduction he writes that to get a conversation started among his students, he’ll ask the question “What is the gospel?”

He typically receives answers that fall into three categories:

  • Jesus came to earth to die for my sins so I can be forgiven and go to heaven to be with God for eternity.
  • Jesus came to liberate us from oppression, systemic evil, slavery, so there would be justice and peace.
  • Being part of the church.

How does Scott’s answer the question?  It takes him the book to develop this:

“The work of God to restore humans to union with God and communion with others, in the context of a community, for the good of others and the world” (Introduction to Embracing Grace: A Gospel for All of Us, xiii).

Scott’s answer goes beyond focus on the love of God and into restoration of covenant community.

In fact, God’s destiny in history is a redeemed community.

Let me ask you this?

How would you define gospel? (I can’t believe I’ve not asked this question here before).  I invite your comments.

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Prayer and Evangelism

HandsPrayerShadowsHow can you pray for the work of evangelism?

Praying for yourself:

Jimmy Kinnaird has developed a useful prayer acrostic called “BOLDNESS” to help you prayerfully prepare yourself.

This is an awesome acronym and a helpful structure.

Here are some things I pray for:

  • To live a consistent and holy attractive life.
  • To be authentic and honest as I go through life’s ups and downs
  • To sharpen my skills as an evangelist
  • To have appropriate boldness and courage
  • To have the eyes to see the opportunities and open doors for conversation
  • To have frequent conversations with people.
  • To taste the “Father’s Heart” for people who don’t know Him.

Praying for others:

For starters, I have a list of names of people that I pray for regularly.  Using names brings to mind faces of people that I know and love and are apart from the outrageous love of Christ. It moves beyond a nebulous “them” to my friends — its personal.

Jimmy Kinnaird has shared another useful acrostic called “HEART” to help you pray for your friends.

Here is what I pray for:

  • To reveal Himself and draw my friends unto Himself.
  • To open their eyes to see the emptiness of life without Him
  • To open their eyes to see their need for forgiveness, to remove the confusion in their mind, to grasp the meaning of the cross.
  • To help me see what He is doing in their life.
  • To hear from God about how to engage them in conversation — sometimes God shares some information.

Let me ask you this?

Take a moment, write down the names of people you love who do not know Christ.  Spend time every day this week praying for them.

Photo Credit: Creative Commons, Josh Kenzer, Flickr

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Three ways to repel / Three ways to attact

I was cleaning out a file cabinet this morning (what a way to spend a day) and came across my notes from a talk by Bill Hybels of Willow Creek given to an evangelism conference.

I share them here as a pointed reminder about considering our life and witness.

Three ways to repel:
1. “In your face Christianity” — the pushy Christian forcing spiritual conversations at the wrong time. The conversations tend to be one sided, with the Christian not even listening, but marching through an agenda.

2. “Holier than thou” — holding to “my life is better than yours” “you are a sinner and i can’t hang out with you” “I’m better because I’m not like you” etc. This may manifest itself in all sorts of other ways.

3. “Cosmetic Christians” — skip deep, hypocritical, and unchanged deep down. This is the salt that stings, or the light that glares.

Three ways to attract a seeker:
1. Costly Christianity — you live your faith even when it costs. People see how important your faith is.

2. Compassionate Christianity — love demonstrated. Christianity is not all about right doctrine, but demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ as well.

3. Consistent Christianity — being real, authentic and consistent.

Let me ask you this?
As you spend time with the Lord today, ask Him to show you how your life reflects the gospel.

Does your life help or hinder the advancement of the gospel?

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Friday Finds

Sin must exist for grace to mean something. Eli Dorman at Invite One raises a question about sin and grace in our cultural context.

One atheist encourages Christians to listen at the eBay Atheist.

Preachers Magazine gives a sermon about Peter and Cornelius, looking at all the conversion that occurs.

Glenn Hager has a good discussion happening about the church, doing vs. being. In fact, he’s written a series of articles called “Be the church.” Follow the related posts links.

Otto Ekk, in his first post on his new blog raises a question about the transforming work of the gospel. It’s just the beginning of a conversation, but he raises some good questions nonetheless.

Over at The Word on the Streets, the author is writing a series about Sin, God’s Love and the Gospel. Check out this entry on God’s love.

Have a great weekend!

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