Evangelizing

Dear Family,

Paul tells in Romans 1:16 that he is "not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.." I'm wondering if we have not watered down our personal evangelism to the point where it is not evangelism at all? Many of us witnessed to the lost with almost a wild abandonment when we were first saved. We told everyone we met about Christ and what he had done for us. We tried to share with them the good news and urged them to believe it too. In our zeal in witnessing to friends and relatives we made lots of mistakes and sometimes said things, and used methods we wouldn't use today. But at least we did it. Then as time went on we cooled off and eventually got to the place where we seldom got to the point in our witnessing but spent out time "breaking the ice" thinking this would help us reach the person later. We rationalized and explained to our conscience why it was really best not to share the gospel at that time to that particular person. Inviting people to church became our "gospel". Bill O'Reilly prides himself in conducting a "no spin', 'get right to the point' news program. I wonder if we who have been transformed from death to life by the marvelous grace of God could learn something here. If we are "not ashamed of the gospel of Christ because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth," should we not be bolder to give a "no spin" direct witness to the lost? Let's try to keep in mind that every person we talk to whether in person, or on the phone is a soul who will spend eternity somewhere. Don't use ignorance as an excuse. John 3:16 is the gospel. If you know nothing else, you can quote that. You will not regret it.

Today 5 men stopped by the house. Three of them were from Montana. I broke the ice by telling them that 50 years ago I fished some of the rivers in Montana. Then while 4 of them were busy elsewhere, I was able to draw one of them aside. I asked him some questions and found he'd just been discharged from the army after 33 years of service. He'd been to Iraqi 3 times and had parachuted into Afghanistan. I thanked him for serving our country. Then I asked him if he was afraid while in combat and what he thought about death. He said he'd discovered that there were no "foxhole atheists." I was able to share the gospel with him and gave him a tract I'd written with my testimony on it. By his language I knew he was not a believer.(it changed during our conversation) This 58 year old man got quiet, took out his wallet, and folded it carefully and put it in his wallet and we shook hands and went our ways. I try to use the pattern Jesus set for us in John chapter 4 when he dealt with the woman at the well. In closing this epistle I want to urge you to try to convey a 'no spin' gospel to someone this week.

Dad