A Link in the Chain..

Oom (uncle) Joe spoke to us today about evangelism. I didn't take any notes so this'll be off the top of my head, and kind of my own interpretation of what he said. I think he basically talked about what evangelism is, how we can do it, and why we do it?

Firstly, evangelism means spreading the gospel (good news of God) to others. We don't do it to earn God's blessing, we don't do it because we're religious, which are both misconceptions that a lot of people have about christianity. The media likes to portray us as bible hugging, crucifix wearing, "honk if you love Jesus" type of people (as said in A Walk to Remember). Look at how The Simpsons portray us - Ned Flanders. Well.. it's not like that at all.

He gave the illustration of blogs (which I thought was a fabulous illustration). The reason that people start blogs is to either share something about themselves with people, or possibly share something they've learnt or spread the news about something new they've discovered, like a book they read, or a restaurant they went to. People write blogs, in order to obtain a response from the people reading.

Evangelism is like that. It comes from a desire to share the good news about God coming down to our level in the form of Jesus, to save us from eternal death and suffering. The reason we do it, is we want to get a response. You might get a negative response (with swearing involved).. or you might get a positive response (with someone's life being changed). Either way, evangelism is spreading the good news about God in order to achieve a response.

The reason people evangelise is because they are convinced that Jesus died in our place, that he rose again, that God did all this not because of who we are, but because he is a loving God!

So that basically sums up the what and the why. So what about the how? We don't have to be missionaries in some foreign country to be evangelising. We can be evangelising right here, right now. With our friends. With our family. Living as an example as an individual. We might not be the ones to "convert" other people, but we are very much a link in the chain. Someday, further down the track, one little thing that you said (that you can't even remember) might have planted the seed for someone to accept Jesus into their life as their Lord and Saviour. Isn't that really encouraging? You might not see the result of your words, but someday, they might mean something to someone, so don't be discouraged thinking that you don't have the power to make people accept Jesus into their lives. That's not your job anyway and you wouldn't even be able to do it in the first place. We plant the seed, we water it, but GOD is the one that makes it GROW.

All in all, Oom Joe's talks are always good, and he's such a funny guy. But his jokes aren't just stupid, they're witty and you really have to think a while before getting them, hehe. But he has a very unique sense of humour. It was great, I really liked it.

For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
- 2 Corinthians 5:14-15