"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
Using the reference of the newborn from yesterday, it will also apply to today's lesson. Once you have a newborn, until they're old enough, you have to be committed to their welfare and well-being, and even after that! This also goes back to the Bible verses we looked at on the first day of this miniseries. It says that we should spread the Word, which means we take the Word to people so that they can come to faith. Jesus also says that we have to teach the faith, which means that we have to continue to educate. A teacher doesn't come in on the first day and hand you a textbook and tell you to learn the stuff on your own. In the same way we shouldn't hand people the Bible to learn the Word on their own. We have to continue to teach them about the Word and about God.
This was the shortest devotion of this miniseries, but it could be the most important. It apples to every lesson, not just being committed to your Christian friend. You should also be committed to your evangelism, committed to your compassion towards others, committed to your knowledge and education, and committed to the strength you show in your conviction of your faith. Commitment means that you know what your goal is, and you strive for that goal every single day of your life. In this case, you are committed to bringing as many stray children of God back to Him. The Lord will leave his flock to find on lost sheep, and through you all He will find all of the sheep He has lost since the beginning of time. Don't deny the Lord when He calls you! Stay committed to your faith!
Throughout your whole life, you should try to bring people to God. But if you only bring one, you have accomplished more than anyone could dream. However, don't stop when you've converted one, keep going! Keep working! Help God bring everyone back to the Word! Have a great evening, you all are awesome! God Bless!
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Monday, July 25, 2016
July 25, 2016 Devotion: Showing Strength
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that they hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey you also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the one who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now the have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me, hates my father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law, 'They hated me without reason.'"
John 15-18-25
"'They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the LORD.'" Jeremiah 1:19
Some people out their are not going to want to accept God into their lives. A few of these some are going to not want anyone to accept God into their lives. They're going to fight against you and challenge you. I personally have had a lot of experience with people fighting my statements because of my belief. I can assure you that it helps to take the advice of yesterday's devotion, know what you're talking about before you go talk about it! But not only do you need to to have knowledge, you also have to have the willpower to stand your ground, and help God stand His ground in your place.
Jesus predicted this moment of hatred towards His disciples in the book of John. If you believe in the "live by example" motto, you need to make sure that you stand your ground. By standing your ground, you can teach your new convert to stand his or her ground alongside of you, or on his or her own. Sometimes these antitheists (people who don't want anyone to believe in Jesus and God) will try to argue your recruit out of their new life-changing decision. You have to help them, and be their shiled. When you come to the Christian faith, it's like becoming a new born. Until this person learns to walk on their own, they have to be protected by the bigger and stronger, let that bigger and stronger be you!
John 15-18-25
"'They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,' declares the LORD.'" Jeremiah 1:19
Some people out their are not going to want to accept God into their lives. A few of these some are going to not want anyone to accept God into their lives. They're going to fight against you and challenge you. I personally have had a lot of experience with people fighting my statements because of my belief. I can assure you that it helps to take the advice of yesterday's devotion, know what you're talking about before you go talk about it! But not only do you need to to have knowledge, you also have to have the willpower to stand your ground, and help God stand His ground in your place.
Jesus predicted this moment of hatred towards His disciples in the book of John. If you believe in the "live by example" motto, you need to make sure that you stand your ground. By standing your ground, you can teach your new convert to stand his or her ground alongside of you, or on his or her own. Sometimes these antitheists (people who don't want anyone to believe in Jesus and God) will try to argue your recruit out of their new life-changing decision. You have to help them, and be their shiled. When you come to the Christian faith, it's like becoming a new born. Until this person learns to walk on their own, they have to be protected by the bigger and stronger, let that bigger and stronger be you!
July 24, 2016 Devotion: Showing Knowledge
"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." Proverbs 1:7
Once you've stopped having this personal conversation with your potential new convert, what do you do next? You have to know about the Gospel to be able to preach it. There aren't too many verses about this from Jesus and Paul, but this one from Proverbs that I find very important in this discussion. Proverbs 1:7 states, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." So, this starts by saying that your knowledge starts by confessing your love for Jesus, but you cannot continue if you lack or don't want to receive instruction. You cannot expect there to be a new Christian among you, if you cannot take the time yourself to bring in some knowledge to show other people, that is just foolish!
This does not meant that you have to know every last detail about the Gospel, but you need to have a general idea, and a motive to keep on learning. If you cannot answer you new friend's questions, don't pretend like you know the answer, take one of these two approaches. The first option is to open that Bible in your bag or tucked under your arm and try to answer the questions together. The second option is to direct your friend (and yourself) to your pastor who can probably answer your questions. Once you have brought this knowledge to one new recruit, or many potential converts, you need to make sure that you have the ability to stand your ground against those who are going to try to cause you to fall, or the new Christian to lost their faith right away!
Once you've stopped having this personal conversation with your potential new convert, what do you do next? You have to know about the Gospel to be able to preach it. There aren't too many verses about this from Jesus and Paul, but this one from Proverbs that I find very important in this discussion. Proverbs 1:7 states, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction." So, this starts by saying that your knowledge starts by confessing your love for Jesus, but you cannot continue if you lack or don't want to receive instruction. You cannot expect there to be a new Christian among you, if you cannot take the time yourself to bring in some knowledge to show other people, that is just foolish!
This does not meant that you have to know every last detail about the Gospel, but you need to have a general idea, and a motive to keep on learning. If you cannot answer you new friend's questions, don't pretend like you know the answer, take one of these two approaches. The first option is to open that Bible in your bag or tucked under your arm and try to answer the questions together. The second option is to direct your friend (and yourself) to your pastor who can probably answer your questions. Once you have brought this knowledge to one new recruit, or many potential converts, you need to make sure that you have the ability to stand your ground against those who are going to try to cause you to fall, or the new Christian to lost their faith right away!
Saturday, July 23, 2016
July 23, 2016 Devotion: Showing Compassion
John 4: Jesus talks to a Samaritan Woman at a well in Samaria and brings her to God, when she comes aware of Him being the Messiah, she decides to follow Him.
When you begin to have a conversation with the intention of conversion, there is something you should keep in mind. Running up to someone and yelling in their face, "Confess your love for Jesus or you will go to Hell!" While this may be true, it tends to turn people people away. Talk to them about the problems and worries that are going on in their lives. Then, move on to find out why, or if, these problems turned them away from the Lord. Jesus did this with the Samaritan woman at the well too! He spoke kindly to her, listening to what she had to say, and then He said things that only she and God could know. She knew that He was the Messiah and spoke with Him as such.
Of course you cannot speak to someone and tell him or her things that only they could know. What you can do is listen to them, and then try to explain how it is possible that all of these trials could lead them to Jesus. Show them that there is joy in your life even in the hard times, only if you have Jesus. Show them that you know that they are having a hard time, but that you know that Jesus could really turn their lives around.
You can show people Jesus through the kindness that you show them. What happens next, though? Should you just walk away after being nice to them? Should you not inform them of the Gospel? Should you not stand strong by your faith, and help them to stand by theirs? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO! Keep tuning in so that you can learn what you can do to bring people to the Christian faith!
When you begin to have a conversation with the intention of conversion, there is something you should keep in mind. Running up to someone and yelling in their face, "Confess your love for Jesus or you will go to Hell!" While this may be true, it tends to turn people people away. Talk to them about the problems and worries that are going on in their lives. Then, move on to find out why, or if, these problems turned them away from the Lord. Jesus did this with the Samaritan woman at the well too! He spoke kindly to her, listening to what she had to say, and then He said things that only she and God could know. She knew that He was the Messiah and spoke with Him as such.
Of course you cannot speak to someone and tell him or her things that only they could know. What you can do is listen to them, and then try to explain how it is possible that all of these trials could lead them to Jesus. Show them that there is joy in your life even in the hard times, only if you have Jesus. Show them that you know that they are having a hard time, but that you know that Jesus could really turn their lives around.
You can show people Jesus through the kindness that you show them. What happens next, though? Should you just walk away after being nice to them? Should you not inform them of the Gospel? Should you not stand strong by your faith, and help them to stand by theirs? The answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO! Keep tuning in so that you can learn what you can do to bring people to the Christian faith!
Friday, July 22, 2016
July 22, 2016 Devotion: Showing Evangelism
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 19-20 NIV
"and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." Luke 24:47-48 NIV
To open up this website, I decided to provide you with five days of five tips on how to evangelize our faith in Jesus Christ. Understand that I am not telling you that you are doing anything wrong, I am simply telling you a new method of preaching and teaching the Gospel. The first step to evangelism is to understand what evangelism really means. To be an evangelical Christian means that you don't keep the Word of God to yourself, you go out there and tell people about the Lord! If you're reading this, then I can hopefully assume that you are a Christian, or wanting to become one, and you follow/want to follow what our Savior, Jesus Christ says. In Matthew's 28th chapter, verses 19 and 20 it says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the nam efo the Father and of hte Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching tehm to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV) In this case, Jesus is point blank telling us to go out into all the world's nations telling them about Him. He also says that not only should you tell them about God, you should continue to teach them about God, and continue to lead them in the right direction.
The dictionary definition of evangelism is, "The spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or public witness." Wikipedia also provides the little extra tidbit, "with the intention of converting others to the Christian faith." This means that you shouldn't just go out and talk about the LORD, you should go out there with the intention of bringing all of God's lost sheep back to Him. Over the next four days, I will write to about some big points of evangelizing and helping others to convert. These include, Showing compassion and understand, really knowing what you're talking about, not giving up when people fight back, and helping the people that have come to the faith but don't know where to go from there. You can take any approach that works for you, but this approach seems like it could bring a good number of new Christians into the world.
These five days were inspired by the book Tell Someone by Greg Laurie, it is a wonderful book, and I advise you to check it out if you want to learn even more about evangelizing than what I'm going to tell you! Have a great day, and God bless!
"and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." Luke 24:47-48 NIV
To open up this website, I decided to provide you with five days of five tips on how to evangelize our faith in Jesus Christ. Understand that I am not telling you that you are doing anything wrong, I am simply telling you a new method of preaching and teaching the Gospel. The first step to evangelism is to understand what evangelism really means. To be an evangelical Christian means that you don't keep the Word of God to yourself, you go out there and tell people about the Lord! If you're reading this, then I can hopefully assume that you are a Christian, or wanting to become one, and you follow/want to follow what our Savior, Jesus Christ says. In Matthew's 28th chapter, verses 19 and 20 it says, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the nam efo the Father and of hte Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching tehm to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV) In this case, Jesus is point blank telling us to go out into all the world's nations telling them about Him. He also says that not only should you tell them about God, you should continue to teach them about God, and continue to lead them in the right direction.
The dictionary definition of evangelism is, "The spreading of the Christian gospel by public preaching or public witness." Wikipedia also provides the little extra tidbit, "with the intention of converting others to the Christian faith." This means that you shouldn't just go out and talk about the LORD, you should go out there with the intention of bringing all of God's lost sheep back to Him. Over the next four days, I will write to about some big points of evangelizing and helping others to convert. These include, Showing compassion and understand, really knowing what you're talking about, not giving up when people fight back, and helping the people that have come to the faith but don't know where to go from there. You can take any approach that works for you, but this approach seems like it could bring a good number of new Christians into the world.
These five days were inspired by the book Tell Someone by Greg Laurie, it is a wonderful book, and I advise you to check it out if you want to learn even more about evangelizing than what I'm going to tell you! Have a great day, and God bless!
Welcome to the Blog
This blog is meant to help you deepen your faith and spread the wonderful Word of God. This blog will provide devotions, tips and tricks of evangelism, empowering news stories, and ways to show the world God's love. Everyday there will be a new devotion for readers, and every Friday there will be some sort of empowering news story that is going on in the country or world. For the time being that is how things are going to go on this site, but as it progresses we will expand the things that are posted! I hope you enjoy! Have a great day, and God bless!
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