I was listening to Pilgrim’s Progress this morning while I was cleaning the kitchen. If you haven’t read it (or listened to it) I really encourage you to do so.
Long story short, it’s about a guy (Christian)who learns that the city he lives in is doomed for destruction and that there is a way to be saved from it. So he goes on a pilgrimage to the Holy City. On his way he is helped by some and hindered by others. He is helped by people named Evangelist and Prudence and Charity and so on and so on. He is hindered by people named Sloth and Worldly Wiseman and Obstinate.
You see the pattern I’m sure.
Once Christian truly understands where he’s going and why he is going there, his interactions with those who hinder him or question him begin to change. In the beginning he listens to them, follows their lead and ends up in trouble. But after a while you’ll notice a change in his behavior. People approach him along this road and warn him of the dangers ahead and tell him to turn around or go back or to take a different road but he tells them what he’s doing, why he’s doing it, and what will happen when he gets to where he’s going and then you’ll read “and he went on his way”.
When I heard that it made me think about sharing the gospel and why so many who profess to be believers do not make an effort to share the gospel with others.
When I ask other believers why they don’t go out and share the gospel I generally receive the same answers.
They tell me that it’s just not something they are called to do.
I can't think of a nice way to say it, so I'll just say it.
That is a lie. Every single believer is commanded by Jesus to go and make disciples.
Including you!
Some say that they don’t because they don’t feel that they know enough about the Bible to share it with others. This too is an excuse. If you are a believer and you know that you are saved and you know how you came to be saved then that’s all you need to say. Or you can just hand them a Bible or a tract with the gospel written on it and say “did you get one of these?“ or if you are too afraid to do that, just leave it somewhere.
My husband can put a tract in someone’s pocket without them even realizing it but that’s a whole other blog post.
I know people personally who say that they know they’re supposed to and that they want to and that they’re angry with themselves because they don’t.
That’s the answer that I struggle with more than any other answer. Seriously, you know you’re supposed to, you want to, and you’re mad that you don’t.
But….?
Then it occurred to me today while listening to Pilgrim’s Progress that maybe the reason that they don’t is because they aren’t really sure what they are responsible for and what they aren’t. Maybe no one has actually told them how. Sure, they know that they should and why they should but they don’t know how.
I suppose you could do that circle thing that's all over Youtube. I guess it's more popular than I thought. Personally, I don't like it and I wouldn't chose that method myself (I'll tell you why if you're interested) but there are other ways.
When Clay and I first started our homeless ministry we thought that we needed to build relationships with the homeless first. You know, talk to them, get to know them and help them to know us before we could share the gospel with them. It didn’t take us very long to realize that wasn’t really going to happen. We do know a couple people by name and we do stop and talk to them when we see them but most of the people we interact with in those situations aren’t really interested in what we have to say. They are either tweaking and can’t focus on the words coming out of our mouths or they’re just waiting for us to shut up and hand over to them whatever it is we have to give.
I was disappointed because I didn’t really feel that we were making a difference. I didn’t feel that we were making disciples and we certainly weren’t building relationships. It wasn’t just homeless people though, it was anyone we tried to talk to.
Practically no one outside of a church wants people to talk to them about Jesus. They just don’t. The funny thing is- the Bible even says that. We are all haters of God until God sees fit to give us the grace to feel any differently.
Until God enables us to love Him, we don’t. We won’t. Period. No talking or arguing or pressing is going to change that.
So after several attempts at sharing the gospel with strangers (homeless or not) we had to take a long look at what we were doing wrong and what we needed to do to fix it. So we thought about all the attempts that people had made through the years to get us to convert to Christianity. They would try to convince us. They brought pastors to our house, sent missionaries to our door; people would say things like “Jesus loves you” or “you can be happy if you accept Jesus”.
Even that day I stepped into that man’s office at Lifegate church. Almost 2 hours of talking, arguing and convincing me to say the prayer to accept Jesus into my heart but not a word of Scripture. There was no Gospel. There was no conviction of my sin. I didn’t even really know what sin was or what was so devastating about it. Yet I walked out of that office believing that I was “saved”. I didn’t really even understand what I was saved from! I just wanted that horrible, panicky, I don’t understand what’s happening feeling I had been experiencing to go away.
It did, but it was soon replaced by something else..
(another blog post perhaps).
It wasn’t until four years later when I heard some guy by the name of Paul Washer preach the real gospel on YouTube did I truly understand how much my sin was an offense to God and how desperately I needed a Savior that I was truly saved.
It wasn’t someone inviting me to church that saved me. It wasn’t the dozens of conversations I had with others throughout my life trying to convince me to become a Christian that saved me. It certainly wasn’t by observing the behaviors of other Christians, nor was it the relationships that had been formed with anyone either.
It was the gospel.
It was scripture.
It was the hearing and the reading of God’s Word at God’s appointed time that saved me.
So that’s it. That is all you are responsible for. You are NOT responsible for convincing anyone, converting anyone, hounding anyone, pressing or pushing anyone. You don’t have to be their friend. You don’t have to make them your project. You are not responsible for their walk with Jesus or how they learn or what church they go to. All you are responsible for is sharing the Word of God with them.
God does the saving.
Not you
Not the pastor
Not a church
Just God.
There is no one way to share the gospel.
Some people go door-to-door, some people preach on the sidewalks, my husband works in foreign countries where he shares the gospel with people who have never heard of Jesus. He even shares the gospel with people who could possibly kill him for doing so.
But he also sticks Bible tracts into Fifty Shades of Grey books at Walmart, hands Bibles to waitresses and leaves tracts on mirrors in public bathrooms.
I have a friend who orders Bibles by the case and then rents a table at a flea market and puts up a sign that says “free Bibles”. She doesn’t preach to them, she doesn’t argue with them, she just lets them have a Bible. That’s it.
So don’t overthink it. Don’t let it overwhelm you. If you can’t bring yourself to approach a stranger and tell them what they need to hear to be saved, just hand it to them and then be on your way.
It really is that simple.
Just get out there and DO SOMETHING.
You can purchase tracts just about anywhere on line or at any Christian book store. This is where I buy mine http://www.tractplanet.com
or you can email me and I will give you (or ship you) some for free.
I have bibles too.
You can get tracts online for free at http://www.bibletractsinc.org
You can read Pilgrims progress for free too
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