Thursday, September 29, 2011

Uncomfortable

I think all followers of Christ would agree that at times, and specifically at some points in the Bible, God calls us/commands us to do certain things. Some examples: Love each other as God has loved us (John 15:12); Let your light shine for others to see (Matthew 5:16); Obey your parents in the Lord (Ephesians 6:1). They are everywhere - more than 680 commands in just the New Testament alone (source). But there is one command that is more highly regarded than the rest: many of you may know it as the Great Commission. This passage is at the end of the Gospel of Matthew:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore 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. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20).


This is God's greatest command to us besides loving Him with all of our heart and accepting Christ as our Savior. This is our call to action - this is what we are here for, plain and simple. We are called to go and make disciples of the Lord. Let's address a few questions here...the first of which is:

Why would God command us to do this? Why us? 

The answer is simple: we are the only way! We are the only way in which the Gospel can be communicated verbally. Ultimately, it is an individual's personal choice as to whether or not they want to accept the love of Christ - we can't force anyone to do it, or it won't be an actual acceptance of His Love, but rather a reluctant one. People can read the Bible and find the Gospel in it of course, but the only way someone can hear about it is for someone else to tell them about it! There are millions of people all over the world that have never heard the Gospel - never even heard of Christ, period. Some of that is out of our control...we only have a certain amount of funds that will allow us to travel to different parts of the world and reach these unreached people groups. But what we DO have is people all around us who do not know the Lord. Many, if not most, have at least heard of Christ and heard about what it means to have a relationship with God. We are called to make disciples of all nations - that includes our own!

Who are we to share with? Do we have to go to a third-world country to reach people?


As I just stated in the last paragraph, we are called to share with all people, including the people around us. So although it is awesome and really important to do missions work outside of our state/the US, we have people that we can minister to right here in our own city (unless you live in a perfect, holy city where everyone loves and obeys the Lord, then of course this doesn't apply to you). There are always people we can share Christ with, just look around you! One problem you can run into: as you get further along in your walk you may start to surround yourself with Christians more and more. This is a good thing, but if you are only hanging out with people who know God then you are cutting yourself short of opportunities to share God with people who don't know Him! Try to reach out to others who don't have a personal relationship with the Lord, but remember to share Christ with Christians too! We all need Him, and need to be reminded daily of all that He has done for us. And now...for the big, uncomfortable question:

How do we share Christ with others? How do we share Him with others without sounding self-righteous or up in someone's face?


One of the main criticisms from the secular world to the Christian world is that we are too up in people's faces and too self-righteous when we try to spread the Gospel and share the love of Christ. Unfortunately, this is true in many instances. Case in point: Brickyard preachers at NC State, pit preachers at UNC. This is so sad, because this is not how we are to spread the Gospel. The Bible teaches us that pride is the root of all sin - we are to conduct ourselves in the most humble manner possible. Christ was the perfect example of this - He was God and perfect, and yet came down to Earth as a human and lived a life of a servant to us - washed His disciples' feet with His own hair, healed the sick, caused the blind to see. He humbled Himself to serve us...and ultimately paid the greatest sacrifice with His life. To properly spread the Gospel, we must approach it with as much humility as possible. The first step to doing this is pray for it. And then pray for it again. And then pray about it some more. Pray that the Lord will give us a servant's humble heart. Another key to this is to go outside of our comfort zone (hence the title)! Sharing the Gospel is not a naturally comfortable thing to us. Christians can often be looked down on when trying to spread the Gospel. But at some point, we have to stop caring so much about what people think of us and our comfort level, and more about the urgent issue that is people hearing of God! Does this mean you should be extra-super bold and go out and start screaming Scripture and declaring that Jesus is Lord? Absolutely not. Some people take this too far, and that's when pride starts to set in and change the motive. Our motive should be one: To make Christ and what He did for us famous. He deserves all of the glory for our spreading of the Gospel, it should never come back to us. However, we have to have a willing heart to follow His commandments.
      So I encourage you to share Christ with someone who doesn't know Him: this can be through your actions or your words, but at some point you are going to have to verbally speak the Gospel. This may not be comfortable for you at first: that is ok! Just like anything else, effectively communicating the Gospel takes practice. One way you can practice is to talk to another believer about Christ  - in other words, share the Gospel with someone who already knows it. They can help you get more comfortable with it. Once again, however, I want to make sure you know that the key here is to be humble, and not over-zealous with your actions.
     He has given us so much through everything we have in our lives - why would we not in turn want to give that to others? Share with others the greatest gift you have been given: true, eternal life in Christ. This is how we serve the Lord - by stepping out of our comfort zone and communicating God's great love for us!


Lord,
      Help us be strong in our faith to You. We know that we need You like we need the air to breathe - that same air that You freely gave us. Thank You for everything that You are and for the work that You have already done for us. Thank You for Your commandments and for Your calling us to go and make disciples. Help us to be humble and give You the glory for our successes and failures. Thank You for the work that You are doing in our hearts and in the hearts of our brothers and sisters. Help us to step outside of our comfort zones and spread Your Gospel. Amen.

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