Where do you find the sweet spot between saving souls and saving feelings?

[JohnR7]

In Bible school, I asked what is the most important to teach people from the Bible. I was told to teach any truth from the Bible, nothing is more important. So if we can teach people one passage, any passage from the Bible we have accomplished our objective. 

[Starise]

53 minutes ago, JohnR7 said:

In Bible school, I asked what is the most important to teach people from the Bible. I was told to teach any truth from the Bible, nothing is more important. So if we can teach people one passage, any passage from the Bible we have accomplished our objective. 

Amos 4:4: “Go into Bethel and Gilgal and sin all you want”

[Sower]

8 hours ago, Starise said:

How would you approach an unsaved person? What would be the first words you would use?

How do you know who to speak to? 

I am not asking to be critical in any way. Just curious.

Thanks for asking, Starise. Been waiting/hoping for this interest.

(I ain't no Billy Graham-I ain't no Ray Comfort) I do not like to get in front of a crowd to talk, unless a crew of ugly carpenters. Most here probably know their bibles better than me. I am not a theologian for sure.
But I know the good news....

I will and do speak to almost anybody, whenever, wherever. It only takes a tiny effort to speak, and for God to give direction. Any opportunity. Getting gas at the gas station-clerk at store ck out-delivery man/woman-my son's friends(I like to embarrass him:) doctors appointment, biker on his scooter in a parking lot, carpenters at a construction job site or cabinet shop etc. I like to brag on God, how He blesses, and now is my daddy.  I let them know I am a worse sinner than they are because I am more knowledgeable about God's word, His standard, what He requires, and to whom much is given, much is required. I do not start out with the gospel, nor they need to go to church, nor say I want to talk about God. Don't carry a bible. I allow it to unfold. Or not, if the timing is not good.  I believe God directs me. 

As a very young believer I went with my pastor on my first church visitation and in three hours of sharing the gospel by my pastor I witnessed my first birth of a child of God that I was a tiny part of. That's all it took. I wanted more, and that desire has never left me. I went on Monday night church visitation, two by two,  for decades.

When I sense opportunity, I sometimes forget but try to remember to tell God I'll need His direction/words again. I prefer someone alone instead of a group, where they will talk/listen more freely away from peers.  Depending if a man vs woman, young vs old, rough or genteel, I will steer my direction of conversation for each (hoping my spirit is being led by God.  (like this post)  For some reason I can strike up a conversation easily, like the gas pumps (anyplace) and I'll start complaining about the gas price, so we'll get set to talking, and I will try to steer it about maybe having to still work at my  age to pay taxes for my family plus the taxes for those who won't work. Agreement! 

This will eventually start something about these crazy times, more agreement, crazy president, much agreement,  and the rising cost of living and  I'll say something like "yea, but since my wife and I got saved God has always taken care of us to meet everything we need. The balancing point. Did they pick up on it? It may be ignored, but usually/amazingly  some say something along the similar lines. Many have that head knowledge of Jesus Christ, but know nothing of the gospel. Then I'll bring up how my wife and I had never heard that to actually 'get to heaven' we needed to be saved, or born again, until we heard it at a funeral from an old preacher. (Depends on the situation, how much time I anticipate to be able to talk etc) I will tell them how I looked in my bible and saw it where Jesus said   "you must be born again"  Then I'll show/say some anger that 'nobody ever told me' I needed to be saved-born again, and that really p--sed me off why no one cared to tell me the truth all these years. I was mad.

I'll say I knew about God and Jesus but didn't know any of that stuff about getting saved from all the junk I did in my hell raising days. Didn't really know I had to (be saved from my sins).  I talk plain. I don't embellish. I try to let them know I'm on their side. We can relate. We are fellow neighbors struggling to make a living. Similar concerns. One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread!

About a month ago getting ready to leave the exam room, after my new Doctors appointment for exam, I ask him straight out, are you a Christian? His words; "I'm catholic, if that counts"   I wished I had ask when we started the exam. All I said was I was also a catholic for thirty years before I got saved, and was born again.  I left that for him to think about till the next appt.

I've posted before about all the delivery people being so fearful during the covid that they may catch it and bring to their family. With just a few words of God's promises, that Jesus loves them, and my wife and I and maybe my daughter will pray for them holding hands in a circle with them, asking God's blessings and protection. Several were crying. One day one skinny little 85lb girl, an Amazon driver, full of tats and nose lip ear piercings, shade glasses and a mask, in a typical rush, gave me the package and I said wait! I'll get you some cold bottled water. That gave her pause. I told her to drink up, she did,  and I ask how are things going for her as a delivery driver, and oh,  Jesus loves you, right out of the blue. I could tell she was very distraught, and within 5min she was in my arms sobbing. I was telling her how much Jesus loved her, over and over,  how He has blessed my wife and family, and how much He wanted her to receive Him for herself. Simple plain language, mixed with some compassion. My wife came out telling me we have to leave in 5 min to leave and go across town and I needed to take a shower. I said, Chelse, this is my wife, wife this is Chelse. Take over, she wants to know about Jesus.

I never push for a decision. My wife and daughters do, but usually just with children, though I remember my daughter led one post man to the Lord at our shop, and seeing him much later I believe it was sincere. If/when they begin to ask questions I answer plainly. I have some who have never heard about being saved/born again, or how their sins results in death/eternal punishment. I try to get ph#'s or give mine. I tell them the importance of what they have heard and to get at their kitchen table, open the bible,  and alone simply talk to God and ask the holy spirit to hear his/her prayers.  On my way to church years back I pulled over and helped a young man get some gas. He had no money so I said follow me to my house, I have some 5gal cans full. We talked for hours about scripture. He admitted several times he really needed to talk about God in his present situations. Hmm.  Gave him a bible and promise books, my ph#, but never heard from him again. But the seed was planted. I was obedient. Who knows.

I once went to my son's home/business where in his shop he has fitted a full size gym, where many of his young friends can use any time. Often when I come over he will introduce me to a 'new guy'. Most of them are members of his church and my son will give them summer work when the semester is over. This new guy said Hi, I said Hi, and I turned to my son and ask him if this guy was saved or a heathen.  Total silence. (I do this to my son for fun) But it breaks the ice. I ask this guy if he was saved in front of a few of his friends. He said he thought so. I said follow me. We went to my truck, gave him a men's bible promise book, talked a good while and I left. Few months later, he joined the Navy and shipped out. About two years later, my son sent me a text. It showed a picture of that bible promise book, and a note from that guy saying, "be sure and tell your dad that I really appreciate and study this book, and I take it every where I go"   The seed grows, and returns. That was for me such a huge reward for a tiny bit of obedience.  God's will.

I usually have a few  nice men's or women's Bible Promise Book, to give out in my truck, or in my shop I have stacks, and stuff the smiley face tract with the scriptural plan of salvation in them. I get them on E bay like new or never taken out of the wrapper, sold as used, very cheap. Delivery people, USPS-UPS-FedEx-Prime Amazon-lumber truck deliveries etc, are the mission field God brought right to my back door!! Ain't God awesome!

I am privileged to sow seed. God gave me the seed to sow, along with the burden. We all have seed we can sow, in many ways. We reap what we sow. Sow much, reap much. Doesn't matter the harvest, as God does takes care of that. But being obedient does matter. For us saved believers that knows what we have been saved from, should give us a dose of courage to share good news to those perishing.
It is a tremendous privilege to be an ambassador for Jesus the Christ, our creator. And it's gets very exciting.
 

"But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him?

And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him?

And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?"    Romans 10:14

 

 

 

 

 

         

 

[Starise]

I think we might have similar ways of doing this only for me, I tend to talk to those more I am around every day and seldom get into those kinds of talks with passers by. Sometimes I do.  I tell the story of a few months ago I was out walking in a business park close to my job for exercise and as I'm walking through a parking lot I notice a very muscular black man with a back pack on walking close to a road by the parking lot not too far off. I don't think much of it. Even when I see him working his way over to my location I don't give it much thought. I figure he is cutting across here to go somewhere else. Next thing I know this guy is alongside me and he wants to ask me for information. Thinking he wants to ask me a question about directions I said, sure, go ahead. So he asks me deeper questions about life and happiness. I pointed up and I said Jesus is the answer, and I began a brief explanation. He stayed just long enough to ask me and then he veered back onto his course. He seemed reluctantly receptive.Like maybe he was thinking about it or like maybe I caught him off guard with my answer.

Now I didn't go out of my way to look for someone like this. It seemed to me God just sent him there right at that time.

Yesterday I was walking again around my area.  I live in a very rural area, think horses, fields and farms, which might lead you to think nothing ever happens here, but not 5 miles down the road is where the Amish school shootings occurred. Last week a man was out walking and a Greek man wearing gold chains with a young girl in the front seat crying and a woman in the back seat stopped by the man walking, asked for gas money. When the man was going to give them 5 dollars, the woman in the back seat brandished a pistol and demanded all of his money, so as you can see my area isn't always squeaky clean even though almost everyone living here with a few exceptions is up and up and are very good people. About two miles away a house burned down. This has been maybe 5 years or more ago. One of my neighbors is a volunteer fire fighter and he told me it was a meth lab and some of the chemicals in the production of the meth started the fire....I'm finally getting to my point. There is one house down the road from me and the cops have been called there. One neighbor who lives close by had a chainsaw and some other things stolen. In short, drugs are involved at the residence. One person in the home over dosed on something and now he has some health issues as a result of it. Imagine a bunch of God fearing Amish onlooking at a dispute in the front yard of these crazy "english".  

I walked by that house yesterday and I told myself if I seen one of them I would start a conversation since they are often sitting out front. Many would say this is really dangerous and frankly I am concerned about my house being robbed by them knowing what they are into. It's one of those shaky areas for me. When a person is into those substances they often aren't thinking correctly to even reason about anything, and it must not have been in the plan because none of them were outside when I walked by. I feel the Lord generally brings the people to me He wants me to speak with.

I'll give one more example, Yesterday I was in a grocery store in a college town not close to where I live and it was just nuts there. As I was going into the store 4 young men came running out with 6 packs of beer they were stealing with the store manager yelling at them. Then some minutes later as I was at the far end of the store I seen more store management approaching a man about an apparent altercation he had with someone else. He was spouting off about them going after him when it was all the other person's fault using lots of profanity and name calling in the process. As I was checking out I observed a person bagging with gay pride badges all over her work wear. She approached my area and I asked her how she was doing. You could tell she was all emotionally unstable making statements like, " If one more thing happens today I'm going to go out and punch something or someone". Not enough time to really talk with her in detail, but I felt maybe I should have at least said something about Jesus being the way to her.

The world is one really messed up place with lots of really messed up people in it.

Edited September 1, 2022 by Starise

[Ray12614]

On 8/29/2022 at 4:01 PM, Starise said:

My personality tends to lean toward being a people pleaser.I like to make people comfortable if I can, so the gospel message takes a lot of effort to present to a person I know won't be receptive to it or to someone even strongly opposed to it.

I think we have to remember not to take the rejection of the gospel personally. It isn't us they are upset with. It's the message.

And what does sincere caring look like? It doesn't sugar coat the truth. The devil is the one who does that.

Agreed completely. Your post could have been my post exactly.

Thanks for reminding me that the message is what people are upset with. I tend to take things way to personal.

I will refocus on the truth, and the message of the gospel.

Grace and Peace . . . Ray . . . 

[Sower]

On 8/29/2022 at 3:01 PM, Starise said:

My personality tends to lean toward being a people pleaser.I like to make people comfortable if I can, so the gospel message takes a lot of effort to present to a person I know won't be receptive to it or to someone even strongly opposed to it.

I think we have to remember not to take the rejection of the gospel personally. It isn't us they are upset with. It's the message.

And what does sincere caring look like? It doesn't sugar coat the truth. The devil is the one who does that.

You may  have presumed upon God.   "a person I know won't be receptive to it"  (I was that man once)

“What is impossible with man is possible with God.”  Luke 18:27

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBEoI2u6kI       Copy/paste

If I ever feel a need for motivation,  I watch a warrior for Christ, a Man of Valor..(In the army of Christ)

 

 

From "The Patriot Post"

Faith / Ron Helle / September 2, 2022

Gate Crashers

Have any of you been attacked by a gate lately? Inquiring minds want to know.

Print Listen

The night sound of insects and the crackle of a small fire were suddenly shattered by the sound of the explosion. Operating in the lowland rice paddies of the An Hoa Valley, we had determined that the safest entry into the Viet Cong (VC) village was to blow up the bamboo barricade on the main path into the village. The VC used extensive booby traps in and around their villages to achieve maximum casualties against American units operating in the area. We had spent several days observing their activities, so we knew the best time to attack was just before dawn. The element of surprise was on our side, and we were able to capture many VC without a major gun battle. Crashing the gate was necessary if we were to engage the enemy on the other side.

Gate crashers — that should be one of the major job descriptions of the Christian warrior. In Matthew 16, Jesus and His disciples are in Caesarea Philippi in the northern part of Israel. If you visit there today, you’ll see the ruins of the many Roman pagan temples that were present in Jesus’s day. They were referred to as “the gates of hell.” It was here that Jesus asked His disciples a penetrating question: “Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’” (Matthew 16:13, ESV). After giving their various answers, He asked them who they thought He was. Peter answered, “You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the living God,” for which Jesus commended him. “And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it’” (Matthew 16:17-18, emphasis mine).

Let me ask you this: Have any of you been attacked by a gate lately? Inquiring minds want to know. I ask because, for the most part, the Church in America is playing defense, and in spiritual warfare, defense is not a winning strategy. Gates are meant to keep some people in and other people out. The gates of hell are meant to keep lost people in and, the enemy is hoping, Christians out. Here is how it works with regard to the lost: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (II Corinthians 4:3-4). That blindness is what allows the gates of hell to keep them captive. They’re not coming out. We have to go in!

Let me ask you another question: Have you done any gate-crashing recently? Do you even know where the gates of hell are in your neighborhood and city? Those gates are wherever you find lost people, trapped in the bondage of their sin. You don’t have to go far to find them, and you find them the same way we found the Viet Cong in Vietnam — we went looking for them. We would talk to the Vietnamese people we met. It didn’t take long to figure out who was a bad guy and who wasn’t. That means that you and I need to patrol our neighborhoods. We meet our neighbors and get to know them. The better we know them, the easier it is to see the blindness the enemy is using in their lives. Then we use prayer as the weapon of choice to bring down those strongholds of sin and unbelief. “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (II Corinthians 10:4-5).

This is where we stand by faith in the promises of God. Jesus told us that the gates of hell will not prevail against us. Peter tells us that “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (II Peter 3:9). James tells us that “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16). You and I are “righteous” because we are in Christ, clothed with His righteousness. In Vietnam we conducted “search and destroy” missions: search for the enemy and destroy him, freeing the people from their oppression.

As Christian warriors, we need to conduct search-and-destroy missions in every area God has placed us to free the lost from the oppression of the devil. Let’s bring the weapons of our warfare to bear on the strongholds of the enemy. Remember, people are not the enemy. They’re prisoners of a cruel adversary, an adversary we’ve been called to engage. I’m speaking to myself here when I say it’s time to go on the offense. What say ye, Man of Valor?

 

***

PS.. Laid down for a nap, then remembered this thinking about above post. Had to get up

somewhere in the mid 80's I was building a home in the country and was topping out the electrical by myself and no one else around. I had just had a great conversation with another sub about some scriptures before he left, and was on a 'high'.  I heard a boom box stereo coming and then a van drove up and a long hair dude jumped out to do the poly treatment foam sealing doors/windows etc. Seeing the dude and the loud heavy metal music I felt defeated before I even started. No way.

Fifteen minutes later we were both sitting on the edge of the slab and he had tears streaming. He told me he was a born again believer for years and had 'fell by the wayside', caught up in the craziness all him and his friends were into. He knew he needed a wake up call. A great sharing to one another.

Point, I also knew I didn't have a chance to talk to that 'freak' as I saw him.
But it wasn't my weakness that prevailed, but God, who had a plan...

 

[Marathoner]

I haven't forgotten evangelizing attempts before the Lord claimed me from this world, and my reaction to the few who proved to be annoying. That left a big impression upon me later on, emphasizing our need to be guided by the Spirit of God in whatever we do. 

Not one of those attempts had any effect, and I believe @AnOrangeCat expresses the truth of this matter well. Most people we come across in the United States are familiar with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was true of myself by the time I was a soldier in the Army; words therefore possess little meaning to many. They meant nothing to me. I was neither impressed nor moved.

Actions in this case speak more loudly than words. Our conduct according to the fruit of the Spirit is the most powerful witness we evidence, because talk is cheap in this world of darkness. Anyone can talk the talk, but do they walk the walk? Gentleness, kindness, patience, and self-control is what it's all about.