I’ve always felt an appreciation towards the truth from the Bible. It’s the sense of awe and esoteric revelation that strikes me. Those simple words describe not only the foundation of our faith, but the substance of our common creed. Read more…
Often times, evangelism or outreach is exactly what this picture depicts - a crazy mix of uncertainty and fear. It’s crippling. Majority of us, Christians, don’t even think about outreach. And an even larger percentage of us have the wrong picture of what Jesus’ commission really means to our daily lives.
It has become increasingly harder to actively declare one’s faith in the modern day age of freedom and equality. And a lot of the times people (myself included) don’t even know where to start. I think a lot of Christians have become comfortable in ignoring this calling, or at least has not fully grasped the weight of evangelism. Read more…
Sacrifices move people. They melt people. They stop people in their tracks and make them ask, “Why? Why would you go out of your way for me? What would motivate you to put my interests before your own?”
What makes our faith so powerful is the sacrifice on the cross. Sacrifice
Can you imagine, a friend sacrificing themselves for you, and how profound that impact would be in your life. Luckily for us, sacrifices don’t always have to come in the form of crucifixion in order to make an impact. Little things go a long way. People talk and share about the things we do for each other, and the things that we take for granted. It’s a common story for me to hear a testimony where it was all triggered by someone’s sacrifice for them.
So know that when we sacrifice things in our lives to genuinely portray what Jesus did for us on the cross. We can move mountains and save lives; small investments with big dividends.
We all live crazy busy lives. We never have enough time to do the things we want to do. No matter what, we’re all busy epicenters; booming with our own activity. And when we live in a world where every moment counts - a small sacrifice of time is never gone wasted. We rub shoulders with seekers everyday, and sometimes all their looking for is someone who is willing to put in a little bit of time to come to a conclusion about spiritual truths. They may not tell you they’re seeking, but if you look for that chance to sacrifice your time - you will find them. But we’re so busy, with our own lives, we forget to give time to them to explain to them what our faith is about. It might only take a lunch for you to give the gift of life, but we’d much rather do our own thing.
We grossly underestimate what we gain by risking and sacrificing our time with others. When was the last time you gave the gift of time to someone else? Are you too busy to look around you and save lives?
Sometimes authenticity fails to grab people’s attention; compassion is occasionally written off as the opiate of do-gooders who may have some ulterior motive. But sacrifice, motivated by genuine love and concern, is extremely difficult to discount.
- Bill Hybels
The other thing that really grabs people by the horns is the sacrifice of material wealth. Sacrifice of our earthly resources. In a world where we define success by the income we make, and see people intoxicated by their desires for material goods - all we have to do is re-invest our resources to meet their needs before our own. Besides, we’re just stewards! And watch as we turns heads with our actions. Like I mentioned earlier, small investment with big dividends. And when you’re drawing your resources from a bank that really belongs to God, watch as you are rewarded with double of what you started. It may not come back as the form of money, but as the form of saved lives.
How much more exciting is it to see one person come to Christ, for the heavens will be rejoicing over every saved soul. How much longer will our rewards last in heaven than the things that will rot and decay in this world. For we know not when the thief in the night will come to steal away our treasures, but we know that the things we store in heaven are eternal.
So sacrifice a bit more in your life if you havn’t already. Whether it be time or personal resources. It might not be worth it in terms of secular views; but it’s definitely worth it from my point of view.
Are you compassionate? Are the little things in life holding you back?
Let’s just start off with a case-study that I read from ‘The Tipping Point” by Gladwell. It was suggested that the slightest change in context of the things around us can affect us in profound ways. And thus, this scenario was created to prove his point.
This scenario consisted of a large group of seminary students, split into different classes. In one class the professor would be lenient on people interupting his lectures while coming in late. And in the other, the professor would address the late comers publically, expressing his dislike for people wasting his time. Then at the end of the term, they were all given an assignment to preach on the story of the Good Samaritan.
For those who are unfamiliar with the story, a man was beaten up and left at the side of the road. Both a priest, and a levite passing by ignored the need to help him, but a Samaritan (who nobody favored and was unlikely to help) showed campassion and nursed him back to health.
So, on the day of their presentation, a guy posed as a hurt and beaten up man by the side of the road infront of their University.
You would assume that being seminary students that just finished studying this story would stop to help this man; this man who so vividly portrays what they were going to preach about. But suprisingly everybody from the second class, with the prof who valued puncutality, didn’t even stop to help. They were all worried about what their professor would say when they came late. Of course some helped, but the numbers were drastically different between classes. Because in the ‘control’ class, with no penalities for late-comers, almost every single one of them stopped to help.
Something as slight as the opinion of the professor could cause them to forget the lesson of the very topic they were going to preach on. I mean can you imagine not acting out what you just learned? Well thats life. And we are busy people, and even though we may have compassion. We have to show it in order for others to feel the love of Jesus Christ.
Are there small things that prevent us from showing that compassion that we’ve learned and experienced? Are we too busy for compassion?
Without compassion, it is considerably harder to reach those around us. You hear all these new believers tell their story about how some kind fellow stopped to give them a hand, or how someone spent an afternoon with them that ended up pushing them to come to Christ. How carpool service, or an unspoken act of service has impacted someone’s life.
You’d be suprised how far a small act of compassion goes. So dont down play compassion, nor let the small things in life chip away at the need to show that to others. (Like the case-study above) Because without compassion, we’re not living in the image of Jesus Christ. And we’re definately not being contagious containers of the faith we live.
Read more…
authenticity transitioning into being real
Part of being contagious (and or appealing) to those around us, is to be real. people don’t want to see a pile of lies, or a facade that says I’m the perfect Christian. ’cause the world already ‘knows’ what the perfect Christian should look like. when we pretend to be that cliche, then it just pushes them further away.
If Christianity was all about fitting all the ppl that believed in God into this ‘mold’, then ppl would have to think twice before believing. It’d be almost like renouncing their personality in order to believe. But luckily we see in the Bible that Jesus loves everybody - the rich, the poor, the failures, the successful, strong and the weak.
God designed us to be different, so lets just be us! Don’t deny your individuality.
I always fall in love with testimonies that have people expressing their true selves. Maybe thats why testimonies are so powerful. They bring out whats real on the inside, and share it to the world. They tell people that we’re not all high and mighty, and we definitely don’t sit on some pedestal raised to the ceiling. That we are just like the rest of this world, and that we also sin and make mistakes.
And part of being real, is to embrace our faults and flaws. To be unafraid to hide it in front of others. To give up the ‘perfect christian’ mold and just show others who we really are. To show that Christians don’t have to be perfect in order to be part of our Father’s family. To show that we’re also sinners, and that we’re more than what meets the eye. It’s hard to admit that infront of others, but if you want to go further than just scratching the surface - it’s something we should be unafraid to share. break out of the cliche and be real to what you feel!
learn to love the person God made you to be, and then live life to the fullest by standing up for what you believe in.
lets be real with people. so that people can start to know us, and the creator behind this wonderful mess.