Monday, September 29, 2008

Preaching the Gospel to: Believers

On my way home from the hospital, in the bus I usually take whenever I have a shift, I sat beside a woman whom I suspected to be a Christian. I waited quietly hoping she'd witness to me, but she remained silent staring out the window (which I have been guilty of doing as well many times before) I thought perhaps I should witness to her because a person might have the "evangelical" look and even lingo and probably not be saved. Jesus tells us in His word that many will come to Him and say "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" and the Lord will reply "depart from me...I never knew you"(Matthew 7:21-23, Luke 13:24-30), this tells us that there are people that will look and act like Christians yet there hearts will be very far from the Lord. For this reason, don't think that just because someone professes faith in Christ they're born again. So I asked, "are you a Christian?" she said yes, and then I thought I'd do what Todd and Ray and the rest of the gang do when encountering a professing Christian, I asked her what I needed to do to be saved. I got the standard "well just accept Jesus into your heart and do what the Bible says" I then explained to her repentance and faith in Christ, to which she agreed and said some things indicating she understood the concept. It was just another case of a Christian with bad Christianese. We had a great conversation over evangelism, Christ and some Bible verses. It was great meeting a fellow Christian, my hope and prayer is that the conversation will trigger her and me to get out of our comfort zones and preach the gospel to someone, even that person sitting next to us on the bus.
When witnessing let Romans 1:16 be our encouragement and verse:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

2 comments:

Penn Tomassetti said...

"When witnessing let Romans 1:16 be our encouragement and verse:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek."
That verse has always both challenged me and provided me with great comfort when witnessing to others. The gospel is powerful because it is God's power to save everyone who believes. Praise God!

Stephanie said...

I love that verse too. :)
Rita, you are a real encouragment in my life when it comes to being a bold witness. Thank you!