week 4 servant report 2

Abstract

In His book, Share Jesus Without Fear, William Fay talks about the power of God’s Word. He said that God’s word penetrates and changes hearts towards sin according to Hebrews 4:12. The Holy Spirit through God’s word can change an unbeliever to a believer. The author encourages all of us to carry a pocket-sized Bible with us always so that we can be ready to share God’s word with unbelievers whenever we had the opportunity. This is our commitment to the word of God. The author also talks about objections to the bible. Whenever we share the word of God, we should be prepared for objections. Fay lists some common objections to the word of God and how to respond to them. We must never argue in response to objections, but through love, we must let the person we are sharing the word with read it for themselves and the Holy Spirit will work in their hearts.

The book also talks about “bring to decision”. The author said that whenever we get the opportunity to interact with others, we must find out if they have accepted Jesus as their savior. If not we must conduct a spiritual check by asking them a series of questions. If they respond yes to all of them, we must proceed to lead them to Christ. Once a person receives Christ, we must encourage them to go to church and ask them to begin reading the Bible starting from the gospel of John. We must follow up with them and disciple them. He also lists several scriptures that we can use for objections whenever an unbeliever chooses not to accept Christ. We must always remember to pray for nonbelievers. Before we go to share the gospel, we must pray. We must pray for the lost because it is God’s desire that the lost will accept Jesus and be saved. It is important to obey God and respond to the high calling of making disciples.

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1 Sherwood G. Lingenfelter, Leading Cross-Culturally (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009).

2 Lingenfelter, 10.

Concrete Response

Reading Share Jesus Without Fear triggered a personal life experience in my memory. In 2010, I was taken some classes Golden West College in Huntington Beach, California. In my English 100 class, I met a gentleman named Sangat. He eventually became my best friend and we did many things together. We introduced each other to our families and I had I had the opportunity to meet most of his family and friends. Sangat was a Hindu, and because of this, some of my family members were not happy that I was a Christian, while my best friend was a Hindu and an idol worshipper. They believed Christians should have nothing to do with idol worshippers. I knew that my best friend was lost because he did not know Jesus. I started sharing the word of God with him regularly and I always prayed for him. For many years he rejected the word of god because he was very rooted in Hinduism. I believed his parents particularly were a strong influence in his life.

Things began to change when Sangat moved away from his parents to live on his own. He became more open to talk about God, and to my surprise, he accepted my invitation to attend church about a year ago. I know that God is still working on his heart and he is in the process of converting from Hinduism to Christianity. I remember this story because the book talks about making friends who are nonbelievers so that we can share the gospel with them.

Reflection

In chapter five, the author lists several objections that nonbelievers have when we share the gospel with them, and he gives the response we should give for each of the objections. He said that if we share the word of God with another person and the person responds, “There are many errors in the Bible”. We should respond “would you show me one”. The author assumes that the next response from the nonbeliever will be “Well, I can’t”. The question I have is what if the other person opens the bible or quotes a scripture to show a bible verse that he or she perceives as an error? What should our response be? Of course, we Christians know that there are no errors in the bible, but to an unbeliever who lacks the proper understanding of scriptures or who may misinterpret the scripture may find errors. We must be prepared to defend the word of God by explaining the proper scripture to a confused unbeliever. For example, someone may say the Bible is inconsistent because it says in Exodus 20:12 that we must honor our father and mother, but the same bible says in Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be My disciple”. As Christians, if we are not able to reconcile these two verses to an unbeliever, it will be difficult to win them to Christ.

Action

After reading Share Jesus without fear, I will be making some changes in my life so that I can share God’s word in a more effective way. After reading the chapter on developing and keeping non-Christian friends, I was deeply inspired by the lessons I learned in the book. I have decided to apply these lessons to the way I share the Gospel. The first change I will make about my life is to make and keep new friends who are nonbelievers and who do not know Christ. Fay writes, “God calls us to go into his harvest. If you are living in isolation from the world and the only friends you have are in your comfortable Bible study, Wednesday night church get-togethers, Sunday school, Christian picnics, retreats, homeschool events, and concerts, you will never experience the joy of sharing your faith”. Jesus Christ demonstrated this when he mingled with Sinners. For example, in Luke 19:1-10, Jesus became friends with Zacchaeus, a tax collector, and visited him in his house. It was against Jewish tradition for Rabbis like Jesus to mingle with people like Zacchaeus. Because Jesus showed mercy and compassion to Zacchaeus, he eventually repented of his sins and became a follower of Jesus.

I realize that majority of my friends are Christians. I will purposefully start looking for Christians and build a relationship with them. I plan to make at least five new friends every month who are nonbelievers and begin building relationship with them. Some of my co-workers are nonbelievers, so it will be a good place to start building relationship with the ones I do not have a close relationship with. One thing I can do to build relationships is to invite them to lunch. This will create the opportunity to know them better and share my testimony with them.

After I build a relationship with them, I will share Christ with them and lead them to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and personal savior. After they become believers, I will continue to share the word of God with them, pray with them and help them to grow spiritually. I will also invite them to attend church and I will be a mentor to them. While doing all these, I will make sure that my life reflects what I am preaching. I would be a hypocrite if I preach Christ to them but do not live according to what I preach.

The second change I plan to make after reading this book is to carry the Bible with me everywhere I go. Fay explains why carrying the Bible with us always shows our commitment to God’s word. He writes, “When you carry it, you are saying you are living under the anticipation that God is going to move in your life”. There are two advantages when we carry the Bible. The first is that we can reference it anytime we get the opportunity to share the word of God. The second advantage is that we can read it whenever we are less busy. For example, I can read it whenever I go for a doctor’s appointment and I am waiting for my turn to be called. I will make sure that I read at least one verse on a daily basis while I am away from home.

The third change I will make to my life is to spend more time in prayers. The most important thing that will ever happen to anyone is for them to be saved. Therefore, it is important to pray fervently for nonbelievers to be saved. The author encourages us to always pray before we go to share the word of God. We cannot witness without God’s help, that is why it is important to pray and let the Holy Spirit lead the way. I plan to go and feed the homeless at a park near me. I will send some food to them and share the word of God with them while I am there. I have committed to pray at least thirty minutes each day that I visit the park. I will pray prior to going. Even though I have never done this in the past, I know God will help me to accomplish this.

Bibliography

Fay, William, and Ralph Hodge. Share Jesus without Fear. Nashville, TN: LifeWay, 2008.

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