The Enemy Within

Every one of us who belongs to Christ is perpetually engaged in a battle for control of our mind. Our flesh is constantly waging war with our spirit to influence whether or not we will succumb to sin or walk away. We all know this, and we all have experienced victory as well as defeat in different areas. Aside from the fact that our flesh is drawn like a moth to the flame to various sinful pleasures, there are other ways in which the Adamic nature rears his ugly head.
One specific area is in the realm of personal witnessing. All too often, I find that I have much more important things going on than to spend my precious time sharing the gospel with a bunch of people who don't want to hear it anyway. There are fish to be caught, birds to be shot at, sporting events to attend, good TV shows that I can't miss, etc. And on top of all that, there is some really good fellowship to be had with my hunting budd- Ahem- christian brothers. What am I describing? Evangelical laziness. We just don't give it the time.
There is nothing in me that wants to go out and speak to people about the things of God. I would much rather stay home and surf the web or watch television. There is an old adamic nature in me that needs to be continually denied its appetite if I want to serve Jesus and glorify him. I have been in situations where I have gone to certain public places, determining ahead of time that I was going specifically to witness to people, and when I arrived, began looking immediately for some excuse to blow it off and do something else. Have you been there?
If you've ever gone out and done any personal work, then I'm sure you have. Sometimes it is the result of fear, and sometimes it is the result of plain old laziness. We couldn't be bothered to share the words of everlasting life with people because we are so busy doing our own thing, living our own lives. But the Bible says that we should be "in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we shine as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life.."
The next time you are confronted with a witnessing opportunity and you are feeling too lazy or too scared to open your mouth, just take a moment and imagine the tables were turned. Imagine that you were on your way to hell and didn't know it, and this person couldn't be bothered to take a moment and share the words of eternal life with you. How would you feel about that? Wouldn't you want to have been told?
Or what would you think of a doctor, who discovered a cure to cancer, but didn't share the cure with the world because he was going on to further studies as a doctor? Obviously, just the thought is enough to give us a sense of indignation. How much more then, is the gift of everlasting life in comparison with a cure to cancer? And how often do you keep it to yourself when you could be sharing it with those who still sit in the shadow of death?
The world is going to hell. One by one they are falling into an abyss of eternal torment. You and I have been entrusted witht the word of reconciliation by our Lord. We must reckon the old man to be dead, and we must be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The enemy within will come up with all sorts of things for us to be doing other than what we are supposed to be doing, but we must be diligent, continually denying our flesh of its desires and being filled with the Spirit of God.
So be on your guard, and look out for the attitude of laziness and complacency. Determine to ask the Lord to fill you with compassion for the lost, and go out with boldness and power to lead men and women to the source of life, Jesus Christ.

Listening

I recently learned an important lesson on listening. I had the wonderful experince of sharing Jesus with the dentist. I wasn't exactly fired up about how a 1/8 oz. piece of porcelain was going to affect my bank account, but that's the price you pay for playing hockey, I guess. Nobody likes the idea of visiting the dentist's chair, so I had to make things a little more interesting. The way I saw it, I may as well make the most out of my time there.
I know what you are thinking. How in the world does one go about sharing their faith when their mouth is open wide enough for a volkswagon? Well, he did get a few more words in than I did, but it actually worked out perfectly. By listening to him, I was able to meet him where he was at and address some specific questions he had before opening up the gospel to him.
So I began by asking him how many years of education he had to go through, and continued by asking whether his studies of the human mouth and all the intricate details re-inforced a belief in God or atheism.
"Ohh, that is the age-old question that doesn't get answered in the dentist's office" he said, but then went on and on about his viewpoints on evolution. He reasoned that even though it is obviously too ordered for it to be random, there was also some obvious evolution that took place. So maybe God created evolution.
I responded by addressing the evolution question. (He actually paused with the procedure to allow me to speak) I explained that there is such a thing as micro-evolution. That is, that there are all kinds of different types of dogs, cats, etc. Even in the human race, we have black, white, Asian, big, small, etc. But micro-evolution is not the same as macro-evolution, where a cat could become a bird, or a fish become a cow. There is not one verifiable transitional form from one species to another in the fossil record. So, even though there may be some evolution inside a species, there are no examples of one species blending with another to form something new. In fact, if evolution were true, and it took millions of years to occur, then we should have millions more transitional forms than anything else. They should be littering the landscape of the planet. Yet scientists cannot find even one. Strange?
He agreed with me and then went on to describe his Catholic upbringing and that his priest actually told him that the Indians worshiped the same god even though they did it in ignorance. With all the world religions, where is the source of truth? He said he wished that God would just write a "book of truth" that we could read and follow.
WOW! What an open door!
So I was able to speak to him about the "book" in question, and witness to him.
After he finished and left, his assistant was exhilerated. "That was awesome," she whispered. She had been inviting him to church and even had him show up with his family a couple times, but he still was not getting it. That was a real blessing for her as well as me.
I have another appointment coming up, in which I hope to follow up with him some more.
But I learned a very important lesson in all this. Because my mouth was wide open most of the time, I wasn't able to take this guy through the gospel like I usually do. I had to listen to him a whole lot more than speak to him. But in that, I was able to find out where he was at and meet him there. I wouldn't have known to address the issues of evoluton and the Bible otherwise.
Our core gospel message should never change, but we should always use different bait to draw them in before we pull the hook of the gospel through. People have all sorts of issues that they struggle with, and if we take the time to listent to them before we hammer them with the word, we can deal with those issues. Don't worry if you don't know how to combat atheism or intellectualism. You don't HAVE to address them. The gospel is still the the power of God no matter what they say they believe. Just share Jesus and let him do the work in their hearts.
So go out, and be bold! Let your love for those you mean to reach be evident in your actons as well as your words. Blessings...