One thing that God has really laid on my heart is missions. No, I'm not talking about international missions, though that certainly is important. I'm talking about a local mission field. The one all Christians have. Your mission field is everyone you come into contact with: your neighbors, the cashier at the grocery store, your family, etc. We are all called to take the gospel into all the world. It's sad that we often forget about our local mission field.
Why is my mission field everyone I come into contact with? So glad you asked. We are to shine Christ everywhere we go. The Bible tells us to be the light that shines to all the world. That doesn't leave ANYONE out! If we walk around with a bad attitude and a frown, then how does that show people that we have joy? I really wouldn't want Christianity if that means being as unhappy as some who claim to be Christians walk around! We may not share the gospel with every interaction, but we need to show others we are different.
We need to be prepared to give the gospel when the time comes! There are so many different "tools" one can use to share the gospel with someone. There's the Roman's Road and countless others. We need to remember that the goal is not to get someone to just say a prayer, the goal is true repentance. A few weeks ago our pastor told about a preacher friend of his who said they'd led countless souls to Christ (it was like 30 or more) over the course of the year. How great! until he said "3 of them even got baptized." Now, baptism certainly isn't a requirement for salvation, but in my mind, if you truly are repentant of your sins, you'll want to be baptized to show everyone your commitment in Christ.
Don't rely on your church to be the key to win souls. I've heard several people say something like "I wish they'd just come to church, then they'd see God." The reality is that people have aversions to church. I can't remember the exact statistics but something like 90% of the US population believe in a God, but only 20% of the population go to church, and that doesn't mean it's a good Bible believing church! Jesus did not sit at the temple and wait for people to come to see the priests so they would believe, he went to where the people were! He went into the streets and their homes. We need to be helping the homeless and looking for opportunities to serve others so that we might have to opportunity to share the gospel. Jesus was always serving others.
We need to humble ourselves. There's this attitude in the church in general that we are better than everyone else. I've got news for you people! We are no better than anyone else, we just happened to have had an encounter with the Holy Spirit! If it wasn't for that, we could just as easily be as mixed up in sin as they are! Being judgmental is perhaps one of the biggest turn offs to Christianity today. We need to be ready to admit that we are wrong. No, we don't need to go around showing off our sins, but we do need to be ready to seek forgiveness of those we have wronged, and admit that we are not perfect. The lost are always looking for us to slip up, but if we are ready to admit when we have, we will be able to show God's grace and mercy to them.
Lastly, we need to be on our knees. Prayer is perhaps the most powerful thing we can do as Christians. We need to pray for God to provide instances for us to share the gospel. Pray for hearts to be softened to the Gospel, and for the Holy Spirit to move in the lives of the lost around the world. We also need to pray for revival in the church. We need to also pray that God keeps our hearts burdened with a heart for missions.
Celesa
