week 5 db2 450 words

Evan 525—Db Forum 2

Getting Hands Dirty

Doing yard work is manual labor that requires a person to sweat and become physically and mentally tired. This is getting your hands dirty, because you are the one who is doing the work. This is time consuming because you can only be in one place at a time, and other things in your life will have to wait. On the other hand, if you do not want to get your hands dirty, planting flowers, pulling out weeds, or whatever, you can hire someone to do it for you. Then you are free to do as you please, just spend the money and let someone else get their hands dirty. This is the same with farming, you must plow the field before you can plant any seeds. The more seeds you plant, the bigger the harvest you will expect to reap. Spiritually this means that Christians are not to just go to church and put money in the offering plate and think they have fulfilled God’s service (Mal. 3:8-11). They must “do” (physically) the “Great Commission” as well. Go out into all the world and make disciples (Matt. 28:19-20). In other words, they must get their hands dirty. Per David Wheeler, money will never take the place of a hug or a word of encouragement (Db Forum 2 post, 1st paragraph). Getting your hands dirty or doing the service of the Lord, requires the believers to spread the gospel, because the more people you can reach with the “Good News,” the more the kingdom of God will increase. “Once the soil has been plowed, the seed needs to be sown. To have a large harvest, many seeds must be planted. The more seeds we sow, the larger the harvest we expect to receive.”[footnoteRef:1] [1: Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Evangelism is: How to Share Jesus with Passion and. Confidence, Nashville, Tennessee, B & H Publishing Group, 2010, 87. ]

The Dirty Work of Evangelism in My Conversion

The dirty work of evangelism was demonstrated in my conversion by my grandparent and my parents. All my entire life, I was raised in the church. My grandfather was my first pastor. He got his hands dirty by showing me physically that what he preached on Sundays, were physically lived out by him all during the week or daily. He told me that he prayed for my salvation three times a day, on his knees before God. The same was true with my parents, they were in constant prayer for my deliverance. Our home was the reflection of God’s word that my dad preached on Sundays. My dad was my second pastor, he took over when my granddad died. They planted a firm seed in my life with the Word of God, I say it was firmly planted because they did not just preach it, they lived it out daily. I remember how they took sweet potatoes, string beans, white potatoes, corn and all kinds of vegetables to our poor neighbors, meeting their physical needs. I did not understand it when I was growing up, but now I see how they were getting their hands dirty and spreading the “Good News” at the same time. Their prayers played a significant role in my conversion, and I thank God that they prayed for me. I knew when I was twelve years old that I wanted to be saved and live a Christian life, not just say it, but live it out as a life-style so that everyone who knew me could see that I had been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the prayers of the saints. I did not want to be the cause of any misconceptions to the unsaved people in my life, therefore my faith in God had to be walked out daily. “Christ’s message certainly contains hope that leads to celebration. However, the message also includes personal responsibility to walk the way of life with Jesus as He alone is the forgiver and leader of our lives.”[footnoteRef:2] [2: Will McRaney, The Art of Personal Evangelism, Nashville, Tennessee, B & H Publishing Group, 2003, 98. ]

The Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, He is God and He is a person. “The Holy Spirit is both divine and personal. The Holy Spirit is fully God and fully engaged in the works of God. He is not an abstraction or a thing. We should refer to the person of the Holy Spirit.”[footnoteRef:3] The role of the Holy Spirit is to do everything through the children of God, especially to lead and guide the believer, keep them from the power of sin, and lead them to the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. About the harvest, the Holy Spirit works to convict the one that is being witness to and it is he (Holy Spirit) that must draw them to the Father (John 6:44), which is the theology of evangelism. The Holy Spirit is so significant in evangelism because evangelism consist of spiritual warfare. The evangelist’s duty is to spread the gospel to all the world, and the enemy (the devil and his demons) are trying to stop the Word of God from being delivered. “We must understand that spiritual warfare is about more than experiencing personal freedom and liberation - although that is a wonderful result. Spiritual warfare must be fought so we can most effectively proclaim the gospel.”[footnoteRef:4] All believers are like soldiers in the army of God, who are called and equipped by the power of the Holy Spirit to go into all the world and boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.. Once the seed of the word is planted, by the evangelist, they must remember to leave the results to God. “The eternal payoff comes when the new Christian “bear fruit and produces; some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” As Paul said, if we plow, plant, and water, God will give an increase (1 Cor 3:6).”[footnoteRef:5] [3: Ibid. 27.] [4: Dave Earley, Class Article, This is War! ] [5: Dave Earley and David Wheeler, Evangelism is: How to Share Jesus with Passion and. Confidence, Nashville, Tennessee, B & H Publishing Group, 2010, 88. ]

Bibliography

Earley, Dave. Class Article. This is War!

Earley, Dave and David Wheeler. Evangelism is: How to Share Jesus with Passion and.

Confidence. Nashville, Tennessee. B & H Publishing Group. 2010.

McRaney, Will. The Art of Personal Evangelism. Nashville, Tennessee. B & H Publishing

Group. 2003.