Prof Zebulon No E21

G) Evangelism (How to Break the Silence)

You're sitting around a table with some unsaved friends either at work in the cafeteria or at school at lunch break and you say to yourself: "How can I break the silence and talk to these people about Jesus?" You know that your testimony to them will change the opinion that they have about you and you're afraid of failure and ridicule but you also know that they need to hear the Good News of the Gospel; the Good News that you have!

So what is a person to do? It has happened to me several times and do you know what? I get goose bumps every time but they soon disappear when I "push it a bit". What do I mean?

After having prayed silently and asked the Lord for guidance you just say something about the Lord or the Bible; anything! You'll see the eyes and ears of your friends perk open and, from that point on, the Lord will take over; He will fill your mind with Bible verses. This is where the four basic principles of witnessing come into play; do you remember? They are: GOD SIN JESUS REPENTANCE. You just make sure that the verses you use, even if you don't have a Bible, cover these Four Spiritual Laws and your job is done.

As we said before, the Lord is the one who saves and He uses us as instruments in His hands to direct unsaved, sin-sick people to divine bliss and contentment. He operates miracles in people's lives and He lets us be partakers in the joy of seeing someone become a child of God. The Bible says in John 1:12: "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name". There is no greater an experience for a Christian than to be used by God in His wonderful work of reconciliation.

J) Doctrine (The grace of God)

The concept of the grace of God is completely foreign to humans and were it not for the Spirit of God bestowed on us at salvation, no one would have ever known how God's grace truly functions. The very fact that we are saved by grace through faith (Eph 2:8, 9) shows us that our God is a gracious God because when Adam and Eve committed the first sin, God could've condemned the rest of humanity; sin is an absolute abomination to Him. The Bible says in Luke16: 15: "And he said unto them, ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God".

God's grace is true in that He spared and is still sparing the human race from condemnation. In the Old Testament, it was by God's grace that Israel was saved, through the law; in the New Testament, we are still saved by God's grace, only now, it is through Jesus Christ. In both the Old and the New Testaments, faith is the vehicle through which God operates His miracle of reconciliation.

God is so gracious that He even gives us repentance so that we, by our own decision, can come to Him by faith and be saved. The Bible says in: 2 Timothy 2:25 "If God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth".

Only when we will be with Him in heaven, will we be able to comprehend His grace which is really His love for us. Ephesians 3: 17-19: "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God."