I've been pondering on how to engage people during personal evangelism. Every 3rd week of the month, YF would go to East Coast and give out gospel tracts and if the opportunity arises, we share more in-depth on the wonderful Gospel.
Too often I've been dumb strucked and I feel kinda bad about it, not being able to belt out more clearly the most important message in the world, the Gospel, the saving grace by Jesus's blood. Hence, I've been thinking about what I should say.. and by God's grace..I would just simply......
SAY HIS WORD! His plain and simple word. Somehow I am having difficulty using gospel tracts as I dun really find myself engaged with it. Please note that this is just my own experience and many many others have found gospel tracts to be God's Word speaking through it and being able to reach out to people through it. And of course they are something which people can bring back and read at their own discretion.
Back to sharing with people with His Word. Specifically, His Word in John 3:16.
Below is a typical scenario which I ｗｉｌｌ ｒｅｈｅａｒｓｅ ｎｏｗ ｈｏｐｅｆｕｌｌｙ ｔｈａｔ ｉｔ ｗｏｕｌｄ ａｄｅｐｑｕａｔｅｌｙ ｐｒｅｐａｒｅ ｍｅ ｍｏｒｅ ｗｈｅｎ Ｉ share with someone in the future.
What is this? (referring to the tract)
This is a gospel tract, sharing the good news about Jesus Christ. Jesus loves you and wants to save.
这是福音单张,要报耶稣的福音.耶稣爱你,他要拯救你.
Would you be willing if I were to speak a few minutes sharing with you about the good news of Jesus Christ?
If he/she replies no, just give him the tract and say a friendly thank you plus a good afternoon rounds it off well.
If yes! Thank God! Proceed on.
The bible says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life."
圣经里说:"神爱世人,甚至将他的独生子,赐给他.叫一切信他的,不知灭亡,反的永生."
"God so loved the world" This God which created the heavens and the earth, loves you. He loves you like how a parent loves a child.
The unfortunate thing is that man have sinned (can elaborate about the sins, should be quite easy). And the sin have caused us to be separated from God. This sin if left uncleansed, would cause us to be departed from God.
But God loves us too much to leave us to departed, hence. "He gave His one and only Son" to us
His love is so great till He is gives His Son to us. Specifically to die for us, to suffer for us. That He paid the price for all mankind's sin.
"That whoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
Jesus had paid the price. His grace to us, undeserving sinners. To receive this gift, we accept it back believeing. By Believeing. Not by good works, but by faith.
(can elaborate about salvation by faith, and not by works as comparison to other religions.)
Having received this gift, what's the end result? "have eternal life." The end state of man is not in a urn or grave. Beyond, we either spend eternity with God, or without Him. In receiving this gift, we are assured, confirmed, very confident and sure that we will spend eternity with God and also with other believers.
If by God's grace, our listener is still patiently listening, let's go on and help him/her to learn how to pray, to call out to God. No rocket science. Its simply calling out in your heart, to Jesus. To accept Him as saviour.
Glory to God if we have reached all the way here! If he/she is willing, we can lead him in a prayer that is contained in all gospel tracts. The prayer where we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and saviour.
And of course, don't forget the logistics part, get address, fone no., provide church address, worship timings, contact address or email. Encourage to come to church and even if not our church, other churches. Using address, we can follow up with more booklets, tracts, and reminders about worship timings.
Ok! May God grant me the strength to apply all these in my next personal evangelism!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Why can't I?
Why can't I?
Just a summary of what I took away from Pastor Teo's preaching at YF.
Why can't I do this or why can't I do that(Dye hair, pierce ears, drink...)? Its not based on rules or a whole book of laws. (律法主义)。There would be no end to the adding of rules, the debating of them and also the agreement of to what extend the rule covers. eg. how short/long should my hair be? How light should the shade of my dyed hair color be? How many ear holes can I drill? Is one allowable..is 2 allowable...
Since why I can't do this/that is not based on rules? What should it be based on? Very clearcut, its:
1. Its based on PRINCIPLES being revealed to us in the bible. Please note that capital letters. Its the principle being brought out in God's Word.
eg. Why can't I be scantily dressed?
From the bible, we know that those in the nude or almost in the nude are always being shamed. Like Noah when he was drunk, Adam/Eve when they realized that they are naked after eating the fruit, the minor prophets when God wanted to make a point that Israel would be shamed similarly because she as a nation had rebelled against God.
From the above, the principle is of cause that a state of scantily dressing represents shame.
Another example. From His Word, we know that we as children of God should not follow the world. From this principle, we do not follow the world in its latest fashion. Also, we know that we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. Being slaves to righteousness, we just CAN'T lead a life of that of a slave of sin.
2. Love for God, love for others and love for self.
We love God. We love His temple and do not mess up the church, spray graffiti all over. Similarly we know that our body is also a holy temple belonging to Him. We can't just mutilate/tattoo our selves because that is simply not God's intention.
Jesus commanded us to love others as we love ourselves. Loving ourselves means taking care of our body, ensuring that we are healthy. If we pierce our tongues for example, there is a risk of infection even to the point of being a mute. We are not really loving ourselves if we expose ourselves to such risk.
3. Wisdom
Why can't I drink?
Well we do not go to the extreme of saying that if you drink, you are a dead devil/sinner. Its simply because the words of the wise man in proverbs mentions that we should not indulge in drunkenness. And the easiest way of avoiding drunkenness is to avoid drinking.
Again we emphasize the point that we do not go by a follow the thick book of rules approach in a 'legalistic' way of deciding if this can or tthat cannot. We do not just condemn someone who drinks a little. By just that the surest way of avoiding drunkenness is to avoid drinking.
And the consequences of being drunk might just occur once, eg. being involved in an accident and the results are non-recallable, resulting in life time regret for that one mistake.
4. Submission
Finally, why can't I? Its simply to submit to God. God does not give us 101 reasons why we can or cannot do something. He wants us to have faith in His Will and submit to it. To submit to His principles as revealed in the His Word, the bible. To submit and love God. To submit to His wisdom.
Thanks be to God for His Word revealed to us.
Just a summary of what I took away from Pastor Teo's preaching at YF.
Why can't I do this or why can't I do that(Dye hair, pierce ears, drink...)? Its not based on rules or a whole book of laws. (律法主义)。There would be no end to the adding of rules, the debating of them and also the agreement of to what extend the rule covers. eg. how short/long should my hair be? How light should the shade of my dyed hair color be? How many ear holes can I drill? Is one allowable..is 2 allowable...
Since why I can't do this/that is not based on rules? What should it be based on? Very clearcut, its:
1. Its based on PRINCIPLES being revealed to us in the bible. Please note that capital letters. Its the principle being brought out in God's Word.
eg. Why can't I be scantily dressed?
From the bible, we know that those in the nude or almost in the nude are always being shamed. Like Noah when he was drunk, Adam/Eve when they realized that they are naked after eating the fruit, the minor prophets when God wanted to make a point that Israel would be shamed similarly because she as a nation had rebelled against God.
From the above, the principle is of cause that a state of scantily dressing represents shame.
Another example. From His Word, we know that we as children of God should not follow the world. From this principle, we do not follow the world in its latest fashion. Also, we know that we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. Being slaves to righteousness, we just CAN'T lead a life of that of a slave of sin.
2. Love for God, love for others and love for self.
We love God. We love His temple and do not mess up the church, spray graffiti all over. Similarly we know that our body is also a holy temple belonging to Him. We can't just mutilate/tattoo our selves because that is simply not God's intention.
Jesus commanded us to love others as we love ourselves. Loving ourselves means taking care of our body, ensuring that we are healthy. If we pierce our tongues for example, there is a risk of infection even to the point of being a mute. We are not really loving ourselves if we expose ourselves to such risk.
3. Wisdom
Why can't I drink?
Well we do not go to the extreme of saying that if you drink, you are a dead devil/sinner. Its simply because the words of the wise man in proverbs mentions that we should not indulge in drunkenness. And the easiest way of avoiding drunkenness is to avoid drinking.
Again we emphasize the point that we do not go by a follow the thick book of rules approach in a 'legalistic' way of deciding if this can or tthat cannot. We do not just condemn someone who drinks a little. By just that the surest way of avoiding drunkenness is to avoid drinking.
And the consequences of being drunk might just occur once, eg. being involved in an accident and the results are non-recallable, resulting in life time regret for that one mistake.
4. Submission
Finally, why can't I? Its simply to submit to God. God does not give us 101 reasons why we can or cannot do something. He wants us to have faith in His Will and submit to it. To submit to His principles as revealed in the His Word, the bible. To submit and love God. To submit to His wisdom.
Thanks be to God for His Word revealed to us.
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