Episode 2 - Sharing Our Faith: Three Things We Should Make Clear - Strengthen your conversation about Christianity by making the most important things clear.
Learn the simple drawing of the 3 most important things to know about coming to God.
In today’s podcast we focused on becoming more effective in communicating the best news around – that people can know God.
I asked the question: Confusion or clarity – which one of these would you bring to a conversation about Christianity?
If the topic of knowing God came up in a conversation would you be able to really ‘help’ others – by making things simple, easy to understand and easy to remember?
Our goal is to . . .
Help others move from a place of confusion about coming to God to a place of clarity.
-from a place of uncertainty about what God requires, to a place of clear understanding.
The 3 most important truths that people need to know about coming to God [01:56]
The story of Cain and Able, from Genesis 4, helped us to see the significance of each truth.
1. A picture of the cross reminds us of important truth number one. [11:46]
Coming to God requires total dependence on Christ’s death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins.
You see, this is an act of faith, which depends on ‘the method’ that God has chosen.
A relationship with God can only come through depending on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and not through depending on anything that we can do. ‘Strengthen the way’ that you share the Gospel, by being clear about this issue: no one can do enough good to earn their way into a relationship with God.
Coming to God requires total dependence on Christ’s death and resurrection
2. Humility is the subject of this second important truth. [14:20]
A picture of someone kneeling down reminds us that
Total dependence on Christ includes an attitude of humility towards Christ.
There are some people who call themselves Christians. But they don’t act like God is their Father at all. If you ask them about their salvation, they might tell you: ‘Oh, don’t worry about me. I’ve trusted Christ. I’ve prayed the prayer.’
But the fact is, for some people, when they said that they decided to trust Christ to be saved, there might never have been a bowing of the knee -on the inside.
It was a declaration of trusting Christ, without an attitude of submission towards Christ.
But true dependence on Christ is not without humility towards Christ. It includes viewing Him has different than anyone else.
3. The picture of a calendar – a calendar with the word LIFE at the top reminds us of important truth number three [18:00]
On the calendar of our lives, the appointment with God – cannot be erased.
Hebrews [9:27] says man is destined to die once, and after this to face the judgment. This is NOT a meeting that can just be deleted off of our computer. We will ALL stand before God one day.
On the calendar of our lives, the appointment with God cannot be erased.
Christianity in Japan – Missionary Interview [18:48]
We listened to part 2 of the interview with Mark Wolter. Learn more about their ministry by visiting the Wolter”s website.
If you aren’t familiar with ministry in Japan, Mark’s blog can help to open up a whole new area of ministry for you to pray about and maybe become a part of. Check it out!
Helping others to remember the 3 most important truths about coming to God [25:02]
Up to this point we’ve focused on strengthening our conversation about Christianity by making the most important things clear. Now, we’re going to focus on helping our friend to ‘keep these Bible truths clear,’ even after the conversation is over.
The pictures can be a help as we share ….
At this point we heard the restaurant skit being presented by my kids. They showed us how the three pictures can be used in sharing our faith.
Final tips on sharing our faith:
1- There are a couple different times, that I can think of, when we might want to draw out the three pictures for a friend.
The first is like the situation we just listened to.
Maybe we’ve have had several minutes to talk with someone about the Gospel. We’re finished. But before we go, we want to quickly review the basics and give them something simple to remember.
Another time might be if we just have a couple of minutes to make some brief comments about Christianity.
2- Sometimes the hardest part is just opening our mouth and getting the first few words out. But, If you and I will get started, God will help us to keep going.
3- We’re not going to pressure anyone. And we’re certainly not going to be arrogant or talk down to someone. Instead, we’re going to just casually, gently and respectfully pass on some of the things about God that have changed our own lives.
We’re going to trust God to work in their heart.
4- We’ll leave the rest to God, and remember to pray for them.
We aren’t there to judge them. Instead, we’re sharing how we learned to be ready for God’s judgement -and we want them to be ready, too.
Your thoughts?
Today in the skit, sharing the Gospel was happening in a restaurant setting.
What are some of the settings that you have been in when you were able to share your faith?