lifestyle evangelism

Acts 20:24 My life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus - the work of telling others the Good News about God's wonderful kindness & love.

Many would think this means we're supposed to become what we euphemistically called "Bible bangers" when I was growing up - people who would stand on the street corners waving big, black Bibles, banging them on the tops of cars for emphasis to their speaking, or a someone who would hit the pulpit with the same kind of big, black Bible for the same kind of emphasis.

The interesting thing to me is that most of the evangelism going on when Paul said this was NOT revivalism - it was lifestyle evangelism. Iow, a person would come into a place, live there, work there, be there, build relationships, share the truths that God provided through His Son, Jesus, & encourage people to embrace the grace, mercy,& love God is extending.

(Hmmmmm... kinda sounds like what we're doing up here in Blairsville. Interesting. I hadn't thought about that until now.)

Revivalism didn't come in until almost 2000 yrs later.

Worship services weren't where the evangelism happened. People weren't reached for Jesus that was,& the overwhelming majority today aren't reached that way.

People are reached for Jesus by one person telling another person the deal about Jesus - 1 on 1 - word of mouth - while doing life with people.

That is what defines our lives - the level at which we simply & humbly share with others the new life, the new way prepared for us to connect with the Father.

All the rest is just secondary.

So that means, each & every one of us has an opportunity & a mandate to share the life we found - no, we're assigned that challenge - in our day to day lives, with the people around us - the ones we live with & around, the ones we work with, the ones we run into on a regular basis, the occasional person we see.

This week, I challenge myself & you to do 1 thing - asked God to give us opportunities to share what we've found in our lives with God the Father through Jesus.

Now I will warn you - if we pray this, He'll bring people into our lives to talk to. Better brace ourselves.