Here is the great
expectation: Paul says, “I ought to speak.” He had a mandate from his Master—it wasn’t up for debate or
discussion.
Folks, evangelism
is not optional. It isn’t one of those
things that a select few with a gift of evangelism are called to do. There is a gift of evangelism—I think of Billy
Graham as an example. Now, those kinds
of folk are a select group but the reality is that God doesn’t want you to be
Billy Graham—He
wants you to be you, sharing your story with someone you know!
Neither are you
expected to tell more than you know but what you have experienced, to “make it manifest.” I love
the story in John chapter nine of the man born blind that Jesus healed. Because the Lord did it on the Sabbath, the
religious elite were infuriated that He had transgressed their traditional way
of interpreting the Sabbath laws. They
summoned the man in and demanded that he tell them what was done. How did the fellow respond?
So they again called the man who was blind,
and said to him, “Give God the glory! We know that this Man is a sinner.” He answered and said, “Whether He is
a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I
see.” (John 9:24-25 )
He was not a Bible scholar, so he didn’t try to debate the finer points of theology. There is no great virtue in ignorance, but we don’t have to wait until we are on the level of a seminary graduate to share what we do know!
You say that you
don’t
know when to speak and what to say even if you knew when, but look at the
mandate: “walk
in wisdom toward those who are outside.” We can ask God for wisdom and we can study
the wisdom in the Word. The Spirit of
God will teach us!
How urgent is
this? We are to be “redeeming the time.” We have a limited number of days—death and judgment
are certain. If we miss the deadline,
then there is no hope!
So, let’s get busy!
No comments:
Post a Comment