Statesman63 Admin
Posts : 287 Points : 631 Join date : 2010-09-30 Location : Cleveland, OH
| Subject: The Harvest is Ripe Fri Mar 20, 2015 8:14 pm | |
| The Harvest is Ripe
I have been concerned with a trend that I have noticed with many Christians today. We are too silent!! I am not sure if we are too scared to offend unbelievers, or too ashamed of the gospel to speak out and answer our call to evangelize unbelievers. Jesus said that the harvest is ripe. There is a lot of work to do. There are a lot of people to harvest. He said this before the Church existed and there were hardly any Christians. So naturally, the harvest was very ripe for picking and doing a lot of evangelical work during Jesus’ day. But we are wrong if we were to say today that America is no longer ripe for evangelizing. I hear people say that everyone now knows or heard of Jesus so why bother evangelizing anymore. It seems we have this notion in the work place and in public. We should be outspoken in our workplaces. It should be very apparent that the world is sharing their world view much more than we are sharing God’s perspective to them. The world does not care if we they offend us with their propaganda and ungodliness, so why should we be concerned to offend them with Truth and true godliness? Don’t think that all are Christian in America. Even those who say they are Christian may not actually be Christian. There are 2 we need to evangelize to: non-Christians and those who think they are Christian, but are actually not. So an incorrect approach to evangelizing is not to go up to someone and ask, “Are you a Christian?” And if they answer “Yes, I am” you go away thinking there is no evangelical work to do with them. They may say “yes” but not know they are still lost. For example, Catholics say they are Christian, yet they strive to work for their own salvation. They also serve more than the one Tri-une God when they invoke Mary in their prayers and pay homage to the pope over Scripture. To work for your salvation is to cancel the free gift which is offered to those who only believe in what Jesus did for them. Salvation is by believing that Jesus paid our sin debt, not by your good deeds plus what Jesus did. A better approach to broaching this topic would be to ask the person: “How can you be sure that you are saved for Heaven?” This will perhaps prompt the responder to saying, “I believe in Jesus and I am a good person. I go to church…” When they add to Jesus, you know that this person needs to be evangelized to. What is sad today is that Christians have been passing up many opportunities for evangelizing. This is our great commission from Jesus Himself. We are to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (the sentence does not end here…) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And finally, we have a plethora of Christians to evangelize to in regards to the Word of God itself. Yes, Christians need to evangelize to Christians. Of course, non-Christians do not believe in the Word of God as Truth. But did you know that most Christians do not believe that the Word of God is absolute Truth? For example, ask your friend who says they are Christian if they believe that the Earth and everything on it was created in 7 days, or do they believe what the scientists say: that it took about 4 billion years for things to evolve as they are. Most Christians side with the world’s propaganda over what God said. Jesus, referring to the Old Testament said, “If it were not true, I would have told you.” Jesus Himself confirmed that God’s Word, including the Genesis chapters 1-3 account are all true. We don’t realize how important this issue is. For if the Genesis account is not true, then that would mean that not all of God’s word is true; and, since not all of God’s word is true, then that means that there must be other parts of God’s word that I can waive off as fictional. This leads to a dangerous interpretation of the bible and creates a subjective view of Truth according to one’s own conscience and opinion. This leads to agreeing with the world’s propaganda on many issues including ungodly ones like abortion, gay rights, etc. Let us answer our calling by speaking out and stop being bashful of the gospel of Jesus. Jesus was never afraid to offend the world. Indeed He did offend the world and cut people’s consciences—and He calls us to do the same. | |
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