I
don't know about you, but for me, going out and evangelizing, i.e. sharing the good
news of the Gospel, is not something I do nearly enough. It's not that I
don't know how important it is, I do. In fact, I have witnessed many
times since I was raised in a Christian God-fearing home where I was encouraged
to witness as soon as I got saved as a child. Almost everyone I knew witnessed
then. Many years ago my parents belonged to an evangelistic team that stood on
the street and fearlessly preached to all who walked by! My Grandpa
handed out tracts and spoke about Jesus with all who walked by his house in
Regina! My dear Uncle Albert never let a day go by where he wasn't witnessing
God's love and saving grace to someone! It didn't matter where he went, he was
witnessing, obeying the call that God had placed on his heart as a young teenager
in Saskatchewan! And it wasn't easy either. He was persecuted for
it. Similar to the first church, back then we had a zeal for the things
of God, and couldn't keep back the great things God had done for us!! But
today, what is happening? I know there are many faithful Christians
witnessing, some of them even risking their own lives, but I know there are
many that never talk about the Lord to the unsaved or share the way of
salvation to the lost.
There
are various reasons for not evangelizing, but personally, I could not honestly
justify this failure for witnessing if I stood before God to try to explain.
Perhaps we could blame the church for not seeming to have a program and a
plan to get us involved in outreach. Perhaps we feel that just inviting
people to church is enough -- let the minister and those that are more learned
witness to them. Perhaps
we feel fearful not always knowing what to say, or appearing foolish, being
laughed at or ridiculed, sounding like a holy roller, and not fitting in with
the crowd. Maybe it will jeopardize our job or social standing.
Perhaps we are just too busy to even think about it. From some
research I have done, I have discovered there are many excuses we have for not
going out and sharing the Gospel to a lost and dying world. And the very
sad and tragic fact is, while we hesitate or even refuse to do our part, people
at this very moment are dying in their sin, and going into an everlasting
eternity without ever knowing that they could have been saved from it. I
wonder how we will feel on the day that we stand before the Lord to give an
account, and cannot honestly say that we were willing to lay down our life out
of love for God and our fellow man who was lost and can no longer be reached.
Perhaps we love ourselves way
too much. I think of the following verse:
Rev
12:11 And
they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;
and they loved not their lives unto the death.
Real
love for God means that we want to love Him with all our being (the first
commandment), and demonstrate our love for Him by loving others as we love
ourselves. It means we want the very best for someone else, and we put
aside our own desires and comforts to that end. When we know the Lord in
a personal way, and have been saved and delivered from our sins, and we are
guaranteed a place in heaven with Him, then we have the only Key to life and eternal life with Him! There is none other!
Joh
14:6 Jesus saith unto
him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
Acts 4:12 Neither
is there salvation in any other:
for there is none other name under
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Why
wouldn't we want others who are dead in their sins to also have the opportunity
to know Jesus? Put another way, where would we be if someone took a
cavalier and apathetic attitude towards reaching us if we were lost in our sin,
and had no hope of salvation outside of knowing and accepting Jesus Christ?
It is like seeing someone about to walk off a cliff to their death, and
just stand there and do nothing to try and prevent them from falling! Or
it is like seeing a burning building and doing nothing to see if there were
people inside who needed rescuing! Who would do that? Sad to say
that if we are not out witnessing or even attempting to, then we would have to
honestly say that we fit the bill! Ouch!!
Many
years ago, I heard a testimony of a young woman who went to visit a friend of
hers that was gravely ill and dying of Aids. While I thought, Isn't
that good, he would have a chance to get saved before it was too late.
Instead, astoundingly, she shared that she DIDN'T say anything to Him
about salvation because it is something she just doesn't do. I was so
shocked I nearly fell off my chair! So her friend died and in all
likelihood slid into hell with no hope of escape because she didn't feel like
witnessing to him? To this day, I can't understand it. I wonder if she
thought that someone else would come along and do the job she was most likely
sent to do herself being that he was her friend. Yet, to be honest, when
I failed at witnessing when the opportunity was there, I've also excused myself
and thought that someone else better equipped will do the job.
What
we may fail to realize is the depth of pain it causes our Heavenly Father,
breaking His heart to see another soul He loves and died for, slip away into
eternity without ever knowing Him. He gave up His own Son to die a cruel
death on the cross for that person, and He counts on us to bring them to Him!
They are already bought and paid for with His own blood! But how
will they know this unless we tell them? And, how can we say that we love
God, and do nothing for Him to bring the lost into His Loving arms? Who
will do this job?
What
if your own beloved child loved someone so much that he substituted his own
life in place of a condemned prisoner to set the undeserving prisoner free, and
the prisoner remained in prison because no one ever told him that the price had
been paid for his freedom, and he was pardoned? And what if that prisoner
died in jail never having a chance to be free? Add that he died and went
to hell? This is what happens every
time an unreached soul dies and slips into hell. Their price has been paid for their freedom from sin, but they
don't know that! Who will tell them? We can think of all kinds of
excuses to NOT tell them, but it doesn't change the fact that they are dying
and going to hell!
Let's
think about why Jesus came to earth in the first place.
Luk 19:10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
When Jesus work on earth was done,
He passed on this commission (the Great Commission) to all of us who know Him,
and have been redeemed (bought and paid for):
Mar 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature.
Mar 16:16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he
that believeth not shall be damned.
So
the first thing we must do is realize that Jesus commanded us to evangelize.
He told us to "go." He is counting on us, and it breaks His
heart every time a precious soul is lost. Let us not be like the woman who said
"This is something I just don't do." Let's willingly go and obey the
Lord's command out of love for Him and our fellow human beings. Let's take some
time today and try to imagine being without the God of love in our life for
even a minute. Then imagine life without Him for an hour, a day, a week,
a month, a year. Can you now begin to imagine an endless eternity without God,
without any hope of salvation?
