If Only

In our Sunday night Lifegroup, we are talking about other religions and cults.  It is a very interesting look at what others believe, why they believe it, and how we can reach out to them.  The topics range from the interesting to the bizarre as we discuss the practices of other belief systems, but there is one thing that has come back several times.  I have heard something like this phrase being said on multiple occasions, “If only we were as good as they are about witnessing to people.”

I can hear the sadness in the slight tremor of the voice each time it is said by each person.  I can feel the shame as the words are cast out into the room and die away.  The unsaid looms, “Why don’t we witness like these other groups?”  The Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t know who God is.  Their relationship is confused by the lies of the Book of Mormon and the Watchtower.  We have the Way!  We have the Truth!  We have the Life!  It is Jesus Christ!  Yet they outdo us all the time in telling others about Him.

Jesus said that the all the Law and the Prophets depend on this:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15), and when He left this world, He said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).  It is quite easy to put these Scriptures together.  You received power when the Holy Spirit came upon you, and if you love God, you will go tell others about him and teach them to follow Him.  It is that simple, and there is no exemption clause for age or gender or anything else.  I have seen children that have not reached ten years old passing out Bibles to friends at school, and I have seen old woman crippled with age lead a teen to the knowledge of Christ.

You may be scared, but God did not give you a spirit of fear.  That is Satan.  Don’t listen to him.  Listen to Jesus!  How grateful are you to the one who told you about Jesus?  You have the opportunity to be that to someone else.  If you really care, tell them about Jesus.  Don’t be a coward and wait for someone else to do it.