Recently I was watching Fiddler on the Roof again, and it hit me during one song that "here was an interesting perspective to explore."
I am a sometime student of history, I find it fascinating! but for many people the subject leaves them cold.
They see History as applying to someone else, some other time, and it has very little bearing on the here and now.
Now, I know otherwise, however getting through to them might be an uphill battle!
Funny thing is that this attitude also applies with the Bible.
When we (Christians) are reading the Bible we really get into the Miracles written there.
But there are many people who will try to explain them away.
(I saw a History Channel episode once that tried to explain how wind drafts could have parted the Red sea, and I recently heard a guy try to explain that the Red sea might have actually been a river that drained into the Red sea, not the sea itself.)
People do not believe the miracles, or they try to explain them away, or they see them as being something for someone else in another time and place.
"What might have triggered this thought?"
Right after the tailor "asks" Tevya for Sidel's hand in marriage (and gets "papa's" blessing) he sings his little song "Wonder of wonders, Miracle of miracles" and I, who like to actually hear AND understand the words in a song, noticed that the tailor was naming a lot of the big miracles listed in the Torah, but the most amazing miracle of all was that, in this matter, he was heard and answered.
Now if you were to ask me (or probably any other person of faith) which was more important or impressive, the parting of the Red sea or a guy getting a wife, we would probably all say "the parting of the Red sea!".
But that was an event that was distant to him. It happened to someone else, somewhere else.
But his prayer/wish being answered was immediate! It was tangible! it was right there and real to him in a way that the parting of the Sea or the Plagues of Egypt, or even the Great flood couldn't be.
The great thing about God is that he still does those works today!
I personally have experienced some really awesome things. Some true miracles.
There are people who would say they were only coincidences but I was there and I KNOW what they were.
So I too know what it is to be blessed like that. so I would suggest to you that you watch for all the miracles going on out there, and when someone has an experience like that, don't "poo-poo" them.
Listen and rejoice!
Because it is often the little Miracles that happen every day that will first convince others of the Almighty.
Let him be real to people in a way that is personal.
This is the difference between "knowing" it in your mind and KNOWING it in your heart.
Knowing it in your heart takes you a lot further... trust me I know!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Why is it so hard to reach people for Christ?
This is going to get a little hairy, so hang on.
There is a problem in reaching people for Christ these days.
Really there has always been a bit of friction between non believers and believers. But I think the problems faced COULD be overcome! Here is the problem... Are you ready?
In order for us to reach the unsaved, we, ALL OF US, have got to stop being hypocrites.
When we all get into arguments over the color of the carpet and what color we think God would rather have, or how the chairs ought to be set up, or whether we should have chairs or if Pews mightn't be better, These are stupid arguments which are divisive and petty, people who see us acting like that are going to say, "why bother?" or "I thought their 'GOD' was supposed to be a God of love and here they are fighting."
On the other hand!!! We DO need to follow Christ fully.
(This is where we find DOCTRINE.)
We often will not agree on the important points of Doctrine, some even try to claim that Doctrine is divisive and "we all should just love each other and stop looking for ways to divide the church of Christ".
But this is a path to destruction.
Then, of course, we do not have a clear understanding of what is really in the Bible! We don't learn it or study it! We just pay lip service to it.
As for an example of hypocrisy; I can think of several...
We say that we follow God and we go to church EVERY Sunday to prove it. Then the rest of the week? Not only do we not follow God's word we rationalize WHY we don't!
We lie to people "oh but it is just a little white lie!".
We Steal! "oh but I needed it more and anyway it wasn't REALLY stealing."
We commit Sexual sins as in premarital sex, adultery or cohabitation. "but I had a really rough week and needed to let off some extra pressure, anyway how am I supposed to KNOW if s/he is the right one if I don't live with her/him first."
And what may seem biggest of all? We act like we are better or more important than everyone else while telling them that we are all servants of Christ.
I Knew a guy who was a good Christian. There was no doubt about his sincerity, there was no question about his walk with God. But he had a real problem with bringing people to God because he just could not relate to others.
One reason for this was because he was a nitpicker. you know the kind... He delighted in finding the Typographical or English errors in letters, He would jump on a single point in a counter argument and hound it to death ignoring the whole picture that people were trying to present to him.
In short he missed the forest for the trees.
People were driven away by his behavior! he had an undeniable ZEAL for the Lord. But he couldn't reach people on their level to tell them about it.
He even drove "Christians" a little batty.
He Might have seen himself as being like one of the judges or prophets of God in the Old testament, I don't know, but there were many who wouldn't listen.
Now for someone FOLLOWING Christ already, this is all well and good! We do need an Elijah, Samuel or even Paul to let us know when we are straying.
But for non Christians there is an attitude that says, "I will not listen to you spewing out about your, apparently, hateful GOD."
We need to reach these people ... differently.
The first thing we need to do is to PRAY for those who do not know Christ, those we are trying to reach.
Then we need to LIVE the life that we are supposed to be following, Show them how different it is and show them the peace that God gives us even in tribulation.
We need to Study God's word, ALL of it. And we need to KNOW it... I have seen and dealt with people who have truly had real questions about the faith. (I once taught a 3rd grade Sunday school class... they had LOTS of questions!)
In order to teach them I had to know what I was talking about. Even more so with evangelism!
People will always have questions, some of those questions will be designed to catch you out, to show the "silliness" of your "religion".
Other questions will be honest representations of struggles a person has with trying to understand, maybe something s/he was taught or heard conflicts with what they perceive the God of the Bible to be, maybe they saw too many Movies or T.V. Shows where Christianity was falsely presented.
In order to teach these people we need to know what the Bible says and we need to be prepared to answer those questions.
We ALSO need to be ready to speak up against the false teachers!
I know that I mentioned the problem with the divisiveness people see in the church BUT one really important point made in the Bible is that we must NOT associate ourselves with those who call themselves followers of Christ but don't obey/follow Christ.
Paul makes that very clear! (1 Cor 5:11)
When we relate to people (hang out with) who do not live according to God's word, we are saying to those watching, that the word I claim to believe doesn't matter as much as keeping my friends and hanging out with them.
We are then condoning sinful behavior.
And at that point the one you are trying to reach will say, " why should I listen to you? You do not have anything different let alone better."
So there you go, a few points of why it can be hard to reach others for Christ.
To review.
In order to reach people with the Gospel we need to...
Pray for those who are lost, and this is the most important step to begin with,
Live our lives FULLY for Christ removing all hypocrisy,
And KNOW what it is that we are talking about, through studying and learning the Bible.
And By the way, another good reason for learning the Bible and understanding it is, when you are talking to a "pastor" who is teaching a falsehood you can gently correct him, or know to find a place where the truth is taught.
O.K. Now you have this info... what are you going to do with it?
There is a problem in reaching people for Christ these days.
Really there has always been a bit of friction between non believers and believers. But I think the problems faced COULD be overcome! Here is the problem... Are you ready?
In order for us to reach the unsaved, we, ALL OF US, have got to stop being hypocrites.
When we all get into arguments over the color of the carpet and what color we think God would rather have, or how the chairs ought to be set up, or whether we should have chairs or if Pews mightn't be better, These are stupid arguments which are divisive and petty, people who see us acting like that are going to say, "why bother?" or "I thought their 'GOD' was supposed to be a God of love and here they are fighting."
On the other hand!!! We DO need to follow Christ fully.
(This is where we find DOCTRINE.)
We often will not agree on the important points of Doctrine, some even try to claim that Doctrine is divisive and "we all should just love each other and stop looking for ways to divide the church of Christ".
But this is a path to destruction.
Then, of course, we do not have a clear understanding of what is really in the Bible! We don't learn it or study it! We just pay lip service to it.
As for an example of hypocrisy; I can think of several...
We say that we follow God and we go to church EVERY Sunday to prove it. Then the rest of the week? Not only do we not follow God's word we rationalize WHY we don't!
We lie to people "oh but it is just a little white lie!".
We Steal! "oh but I needed it more and anyway it wasn't REALLY stealing."
We commit Sexual sins as in premarital sex, adultery or cohabitation. "but I had a really rough week and needed to let off some extra pressure, anyway how am I supposed to KNOW if s/he is the right one if I don't live with her/him first."
And what may seem biggest of all? We act like we are better or more important than everyone else while telling them that we are all servants of Christ.
I Knew a guy who was a good Christian. There was no doubt about his sincerity, there was no question about his walk with God. But he had a real problem with bringing people to God because he just could not relate to others.
One reason for this was because he was a nitpicker. you know the kind... He delighted in finding the Typographical or English errors in letters, He would jump on a single point in a counter argument and hound it to death ignoring the whole picture that people were trying to present to him.
In short he missed the forest for the trees.
People were driven away by his behavior! he had an undeniable ZEAL for the Lord. But he couldn't reach people on their level to tell them about it.
He even drove "Christians" a little batty.
He Might have seen himself as being like one of the judges or prophets of God in the Old testament, I don't know, but there were many who wouldn't listen.
Now for someone FOLLOWING Christ already, this is all well and good! We do need an Elijah, Samuel or even Paul to let us know when we are straying.
But for non Christians there is an attitude that says, "I will not listen to you spewing out about your, apparently, hateful GOD."
We need to reach these people ... differently.
The first thing we need to do is to PRAY for those who do not know Christ, those we are trying to reach.
Then we need to LIVE the life that we are supposed to be following, Show them how different it is and show them the peace that God gives us even in tribulation.
We need to Study God's word, ALL of it. And we need to KNOW it... I have seen and dealt with people who have truly had real questions about the faith. (I once taught a 3rd grade Sunday school class... they had LOTS of questions!)
In order to teach them I had to know what I was talking about. Even more so with evangelism!
People will always have questions, some of those questions will be designed to catch you out, to show the "silliness" of your "religion".
Other questions will be honest representations of struggles a person has with trying to understand, maybe something s/he was taught or heard conflicts with what they perceive the God of the Bible to be, maybe they saw too many Movies or T.V. Shows where Christianity was falsely presented.
In order to teach these people we need to know what the Bible says and we need to be prepared to answer those questions.
We ALSO need to be ready to speak up against the false teachers!
I know that I mentioned the problem with the divisiveness people see in the church BUT one really important point made in the Bible is that we must NOT associate ourselves with those who call themselves followers of Christ but don't obey/follow Christ.
Paul makes that very clear! (1 Cor 5:11)
When we relate to people (hang out with) who do not live according to God's word, we are saying to those watching, that the word I claim to believe doesn't matter as much as keeping my friends and hanging out with them.
We are then condoning sinful behavior.
And at that point the one you are trying to reach will say, " why should I listen to you? You do not have anything different let alone better."
So there you go, a few points of why it can be hard to reach others for Christ.
To review.
In order to reach people with the Gospel we need to...
Pray for those who are lost, and this is the most important step to begin with,
Live our lives FULLY for Christ removing all hypocrisy,
And KNOW what it is that we are talking about, through studying and learning the Bible.
And By the way, another good reason for learning the Bible and understanding it is, when you are talking to a "pastor" who is teaching a falsehood you can gently correct him, or know to find a place where the truth is taught.
O.K. Now you have this info... what are you going to do with it?
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