"Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"The Son of Man has come to save that which was lost."
Matthew 18:11
If it is the utmost importance for Jesus to reach the lost, shouldn't it be a major priority for you? Three million years from now your fine car, good job, nice home won't matter. What will matter is who is in heaven and who is in hell. Today, every day, some 600,000 people will die and enter eternity. You can make a difference to some of them. Therefore wouldn't you want to reach out to as many of them as you can, while you still can?
"Preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season."
2nd Timothy 4:2-8
"I would sooner bring one sinner to Jesus Christ than unravel all the mysteries of the divine Word, for salvation is the one thing we are to live for."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
"Oh my friends, we are loaded down with countless church activities, while the real work of the church, that of evangelizing the world and winning the lost, is almost entirely neglected!"
Oswald J. Smith
We should desire to be used by God in what really matters to His heart.
Jesus talked with the woman at the well first about natural water, then about living water. He went from a natural topic to a spiritual one. When apostle Paul was giving his sermon on Mars Hill, he mentioned an altar he saw with the inscription "to the unknown God." He took something natural around him and turned it into a supernatural conversation. Shouldn't we?
Didn't someone lead you to Jesus?
"Why does the church stay indoors?"
Samuel Chadwick
"I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes..."
apostle Paul
For "whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? ...As it is written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"
Apostle Paul
People believe when the good news is preached and the Spirit of God touches their hearts. So preach the good news as God through Paul tells us to! We should want to see people in heaven so much that we would be willing to do anything for them to know Jesus.
What is the value of a soul?
"To be a soul winner is the happiest thing in the world. And with every soul you bring to Jesus Christ, you seem to get a new heaven here on earth."
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Every breathing person you will ever meet needs Jesus. Use the breath that God has given you to futhur His kingdom here on earth.
There can be not getting around this scripture, no rationalizing away the sharing of your faith:
Proverbs 11:30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.
He that winneth souls is what? Then conversely he that does not win souls is what?
I know of a pastor who came to the conclusion that evangelism is only for some Christians but not all Christians. This man of God had a small church. As he reached out in evangelism his small church grew fast, and I mean fasssst! As more and more people came into his church and caught his model of evangelism and shared their faith out in the highways and byways of life, his church grew exponentially. Then one day he decided that he wasn't very good at evangelism so he gave it up and concentrated on teaching the bible instead of his former evangelistic efforts. He said,
*Quote*
"As I started reading and studying the Word of God, I could not find the Scripture that
said the primary purpose of the church is the evangelization of the world; I still can't find
that Scripture. But I did find in Ephesians 4 that God has placed gifted men, apostles,
evangelists, prophets, pastor-teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the
ministry, the building up of the body of Christ. This brought into my life a tremendous
philosophical change as far as my concept of the purpose of the church was concerned.
Rather than seeing the primary purpose as being the evangelization of the world, I saw
that the purpose of the church was for the perfecting of the saints, making the believers
strong, bringing them into maturity, feeding them, loving them, strengthening them so
that they would be able to engage in the work of the ministry, for I realized that God has
called all of us and placed us into His body and He has a plan and purpose for each of us.
*Unquote*
I respectfully disagree!
No major battle has ever been won without a plan, without a strategy, the battle we are talking about(winning a soul to the kingdom) far surpasses any other of the battles in life that we might encounter. The above is called "lifestyle evangelism" and lifestyle evangelism is one of the great cop outs of our fellow Christians. When you realize your Position in the vine, aware of your unconditional eternal security being you will begin to work toward others coming in to the kingdom. You will in fact get the message out instead of being "Keepers of the aquarium rather than fishers of men." Jesus told his disciples to "GO and make disciples of people of all nations...teaching them.." It is clear that they went from town to town and house to house in proclaiming the good news or gospel about Christ and His kingdom. Jesus' words: "A workman is worthy of his wages." Luke 10:7
Paul at Acts 20:20 "I did not hold back from...teaching you publicly and from house to house." Paul's NEXT words show that he was ministering to nonbelievers. He says: But I thoroughly bore witness both to Jews and to Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus."Explain how the Jews and Greeks that Paul was bearing witness to about repentance, (by going from house to house among other things), was simply an encouraging visit amongst fellow believers.
Randolph O. Yeager wrote that Paul taught "both in public assemblies [de'mo'si'a] and from house to house [ka'ta'] Paul had spent three years in Ephesus. He visited EVERY HOUSE or preached to all of the people. Here is SCRIPTURAL WARRANT for house to house evangelism as well as that carried on in public meetings. A similar use of ka'ta' appears at Luke 8:1, which speaks of Jesus preaching "from city to city and from village to village."
Remember that at Acts 5:42- in addition to going "from house to house," (In the same sentence and verse), they were also preaching and teaching at the Jewish temple.Were they just having "fellowship with believers" at the Jewish temple too?They were preaching to unbelievers in both cases. Just two of the many ways they followed Christ's example of a bold preacher of the gospel.
You'd have to ask as well if these disciples were just visiting with fellow Christian why Jesus would say:"When you are entering into the house, greet the household...if (He) is not deserving, let the peace from you return upon you. Wherever anyone does not take you in or LISTEN TO YOUR WORDS, on going out of that house or that city shake the dust off your feet." matt 10:7, 11-13
Those were some unfriendly "fellow believers". Paul said "I did not flinch from...teaching you publicly and from house to house."- ACTS 20:20, Byington.
Then in the next verse, (21), he says that he was "Testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God." It seems clear that those "Houses" didn't contain fellow believers, at least not initially.
"House to house dissemination of the gospel characterized the first-century Christians from the beginning (cf. Acts 2:46, 5:42). ... [Paul] had thoroughly discharged his responsibility both to Jews and Gentiles at Ephesus, and they were left without excuse if they perished in their sins."- The Wesleyan Bible Commentary, Volume 4, pages 642-3.
"He (Paul) was not content with teaching and discoursing in the synagogue and the market. He was ever diligently teaching from house to house. It was a house-to-house, hand-to-hand, face-to-face contest with evil, and to win men to Christ, that he waged in Ephesus." Biblical scholar, Edwin W. Rice.
One thing I recall about the early days at this pastors church was the sense of all of us young people participating in the birth of new Christians. We would bring others to church with us and pray for them as the "altar call" was being given, 'every eye closed and every head bowed', we would be in deep prayer that the Holy Spirit would move upon those present who did not know the Lord yet. Then the invitation would be extended for everyone that had raised their hand to come forward and bear witness to their acceptance of Christ before everyone. O, I can't tell you of the joy and the excitement of seeing others receive Christ. All of us young people were so turned on to going out and sharing our faith with others at the beach and everywhere else we would go. We would see so many other Christians out on the streets sharing their faith. Then we would bring them to church to hear the gospel message where they would then get an opportunity to respond to the call of God through our pastor while we prayed fervently.
Then you can imagine our frustration when suddenly the altar calls were no longer and the excitement of everyone participating in evangelism as a Christian family sort of fizzled out. Evangelism was relegated to once in a while crusades while the main emphasis became bible study. It was if a spiritual 'birth control' pill had been taken by the Church!
Today you hardly ever see Christians street witnessing. In fact, when was the last time you even saw anyone out in public with a bible, except at church? Is it any wonder that the Church is losing the battle for souls in America? Is it any wonder that church attendance is waning across the land.
That Church reproductive model that I first witnessed as a 17 year old worked! The church grew and grew. There was such an alive environment every night at that church. Today, if I go there, to that same church, there is a "worship team" that everyone kind of just sits there and listens to. Everyone claps after each song as if they are watching entertainment instead of worshiping together like we kids used to do. People go in and go out. No after glow like there used to be. Sure some people linger and stick around talking but it is nothing like it used to be.
The angels of heaven rejoice greatly when anyone passes from judgment into salvation (Luke 15:10). Shouldn't we as Christians rejoice too? Shouldn't we weep over the lost? Shouldn't we ask the Lord of the field to send laborers into His harvest (Luke 10:2)? Certainly! The salvation of others is the goal of your efforts.
Look how Bible tracts have had results:
Chick tracts are everywhere One constant throughout my life is those pesky little Chick tracts that I seemed to find no matter where in the world I went! Even when I was stationed in Japan, there they were. By His grace I am found at last. Thank you for being there all of my life.
An E-Mail
Over twenty years ago my brother and his wife gave me several of your tracts. After reading THIS WAS YOUR LIFE! the Holy Spirit convicted me so strongly that I knelt down at the foot of the bed and repented of my sins and confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
Alabama E-mail
I'm now a pastor. I was saved in jail in 1984 after reading a Chick tract!
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