Evangelize - I

Learn from, serve and love those who don’t yet believe

VERSE

Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!  1 Corinthians 9:19-23 The Message

REFLECTION

Often when we hear the word evangelize we break out in a cold sweat, I know I do! We somehow believe we need to be experts, defenders of God’s word, world class theologians in apologetics before we can even begin to engage people in spiritual conversations. Often the result is that we swing from two extremes: fear (being afraid to share our faith at all) or insensitivity (using pressure to argue someone into the kingdom of God). But what if sharing our faith became just a natural outpouring of our own love and gratitude to God in response to all that the Lord has and is doing in our own lives?

I love Paul’s instruction and example to us in the above verses.  He tried to experience things from the point of view of others without being afraid of people who looked, behaved or believed differently than he did. Paul was a lifelong learner of cultures. He met people where they were, wherever that happened to be, and he served them where they were. He respected people in their differences without trying to pressure them into become someone they were not. 

We are given opportunities everyday to bring the light of Christ into the dark places of our world, if we can just remember to learn from and serve those who are different from us.

Do you want to be attentive to whatever the Lord is doing to advance His kingdom within each person you meet?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• What can you learn from one of the non-Christians who is in your life?
• What internal responses or reactions do you have when you encounter others who don’t look like, think like, behave or believe as you do? 
• What might the Lord be trying to refine in your own character through these encounters?

ACTION STEPS FOR THE WEEK:

• Make a list of names of those non-Christians you already come in contact with everyday. 
• Pray for the Lord to give you Spirit empowered opportunities to learn from, serve and love these people towards Jesus.

 This blog post is by Lisa Smith who is on staff with staff with Alpha New England and a servant of God who has given her life to making known the great news of Christ in Greater Boston and around the world.