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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion Friday, January 23, 2004 Let the Spirit Do It's Work |
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Frontline Devotion for
Friday, January 23, 2004, By Mike Martine
Bible text:
Acts 7:51-8:13
As much as we revere Stephen, and as important as he is to the history of the
faith, I don’t consider him a model of effective evangelism.
Yes, many were brought to the faith as a result of his death. The story of his
courage was no doubt contagious. People searching for God in that 1st century no
doubt saw in this man, who faced death unafraid, a model of faith to follow. But
still, Stephen’s approach, in addition to being personally painful, turned his
listeners off—big time.
As a Christian I’ve never been much into ranting, raving, and scaring people. And, had I been listening to Stephen on this sad day, I’m afraid that, after
listening to him, my emotions would have gotten the better of me as well. I
would have been searching for a rock, rather than searching my heart and
questioning my beliefs.
If I’ve learned one thing as a parent (aside from the fact that I am far from
perfect) it’s that my ability to “parent” almost disappears when I start
yelling. No matter how good a point I have, no matter how “right” I am, when I
start yelling, all my kids care about is the fact that I’m angry. They can’t
focus on the need to change their behavior; they can’t even appropriately
apologize. Daddy’s mad, and that’s all that matters to them. All that’s
accomplished is 1) I feel worse, and 2) they feel worse. And the biggest
problem? They feel worse about themselves - not about the behaviors that led to my
anger.
I think evangelism works the same way. When we beat others over the head with
our faith (I call it, “Whacking them with our ‘Jesus Stick’”) we put them on the
defensive and close off the possibility for heart to heart discussion. The kind
of discussion that will lead them to embrace the God of love.
If we want to lead others to faith, we need to be willing to accept them as they
are and live in relationship with them. We need to view them as God views
them - as God’s children - and offer our lives to them as an example of living in
God’s love. And while all of us do get angry from time to time, I think we also
need to realize that people searching for faith almost instinctively see those
who are kind and patient as people close to God. People to seek out for advice
and comfort.
Most of all, we’ve got to let the Spirit do it’s work. Few Christians get the
kind of experience that would be awaiting young “Saul” in our story. For the
most part, the Spirit takes it’s time, builds a relationship - if you will, before
leading someone home. The Spirit, in other words, works in it’s own time, not
ours. And if we want to bring someone to faith, we have to trust in the spirit.
So do you want to bring others to faith? Then do this - don’t be preachy. Be a
friend. Show God’s love in your actions. And take the chance to tell others why
God’s love is in you. The result will be more effective than you imagine, even
though you might not see the proof for years.
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