Evangelism

Today in class we talked about the decline of teenagers basically being active or doing something about their faith in Christ. This lead to the question of are we being active and not only attending sunday school and church but also living out what we say we are. Are we just talking the talk? or are we walking the walk? but the main question of all was have I shared my faith in the hope of getting someone to come to Christ in the last twelve months? and my answer is yes. For the majority of me sharing Christ its usually not for someone to come to Christ, but me trying to help them come back to Christ or to fall in love with Him more. I have four beautiful friends who in the past five months I have seen walk closer to God then I ever saw them do before. What a blessing that is for me. We have become accountability partners and encourage one another and they teach me so much and I hope I do the same for them. They are my angels and I pray I am theres. Its so crazy to think that if God hadn't had me reach out to them and they hadn't accepted me to come in and talk about God openly, we wouldn't be the five best friends that we are now. It was TOTALLY a God thing to let us come so close together and for Him to create such a bond as sisters of Christ. I'm also becoming closer with other people and desperately trying to help them. I have this one sweet friend who is so lost, and I know how much she wants God and wants to be with Him. But her parents who ignore her and a boy that repeatedly uses her are holding her back and it just breaks my heart. I think one of the best ways to spread the Word of God is through relationships. When you create that relationship with someone its so much easier for them to trust you and become vulnerable around you. But besides this, I think the question is mainly asking about if I reach out to people who don't know Jesus or don't want to know Jesus. Well in the last 12 months I have basically been working only on one person. I go to a Christian school, grew up in a Christian home, go to church, and go to camp. All together, all my friends are Christians. Do they all live like Christians? No, but they all believe in Jesus Christ. The one person that I know that is not a Christian is my aunt Mishta. Mishta married my mom's step-brother Steve. She is Hindu which has such a complex amount of beliefs that it just leaves me dumbfounded. I pray for her constantly and have tried to talk to her about Jesus, and she will listen, but she rejects it every single time and it breaks my heart. I talked to Greg Speck about it and he said that Hindus are very very "stuck" in their religion and don't like when people question or challenge it and he advised me that the best thing I can do is to pray. So I have been praying for God to soften Mishta's heart. She just had two beautiful babies Somya (which means gentle) and Saaya. They are beautiful little premies and I pray for them too. I pray that God will work his ways and some how show them Jesus. Even if its when they are older, I just pray that they have the chance to meet Jesus. In telling someone about Christ I think you definitely dont just want to be like "I believe in Jesus and he died for you" because hellooo, they are an atheist or have other beliefs so of corse they wouldn't believe that, that's like someone coming up to me and saying Courtney you should be buddhist because I believe in Buddah... which is really dumb because of course I wouldn't believe in Buddah. So I kind of really love this topic, and I may not be too good at what my tactic is and im about to share with you information and you may not like ANY of it :) which is totally cool. haha this would just be my approach :) 

okay my first thing to say is DONT rush. Always take your time talking to them and dont get discouraged or frustrated, God put this person in your life because He has a plan and He is going to work it through you :) dont give up, you may not see results for even years, but dont worry!

Alright so if they said "I dont believe in God" then honestly I would ask them a question right back! I would say "What god or gods don't you believe in?" Now this is most likely going to throw them of BIG time, and they will probably answer with a "You know! God!" or "The only God..?" now id say "Actually I don't know, because there are alot of gods I don't believe in either, so you and I might have something in common by not believing in god." then they will probably say "I dont believe in the God (notice capital g) that created the universe." questions are some of the best things to ask! it will keep it going and make them really think.. you can then ask them "Who is this God in your mind that created the universe?" the response will probably be "the God of the Bible" Now you can explain to them how you dont believe in the god of Hindu's, Mormon's, and several other false religions. You can also tell them You do believe in the God of the universe, not only because of what the Bible says about Him, but that the world that surrounds you supports His work in every way. Now I'm obviously not promising in ANY way that that would convert them from atheism or another religion but I guarantee it grabbed their attention, You asked questions, instead of choking what you believe down their throats.

Heres another thing you can do. Take a watch. ask him/her (im going to call them a him to make it easier on me :) lol) so ask him who made the watch, which the answer is a watchmaker, so you can then ask him that if he sat down at a table with each separate part of a watch, the battery and all, if he could put together the watch, the answer should be no, and you can conclude with agreeing that the watch had an intelligent watchmaker that put together this design. Now ask him if it is possible, if you take every single piece of the watch, and put it in a box, and shake it (or not shake it at all) , that over millions of years the watch would come together, hopefully their answer should be no. or else they are just stupid, haha just kidding :) but then you can tie it together with creation and how the universe needs an intelligent designer aka God. and it didnt just come together.

Here is another way to show someone through the Bible:

LEADING A NON BELIEVER TO CHRIST!!
Step 1:
The Bridge
God is HOLY

Share with them (also let them know that even if they dont believe in the Bible, have them look at it how a christian would) Revelation 4:8(b)- Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the almighty who was and who is and who is to come. 
Then ask them if you repeat something if it is emphasis? tell them an example like "Okay if i told you (thier name) listen listen listen! i obviously want you to do what?" they will answer listen... so tell them how God is SOO holy!
and for that one draw number one (you can draw this on anything! a napkin a paper a board! whatever! :) 

Step 2:
man is SINFUL
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." pretty self explanatory

Step 3:
THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH
"For the wages of sin is death" Romans 6:23(a)
easy to explain again

Step 4:
Christ is the bridge
"But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" Romans 5:8
WOOOHHHH CHRIST IS THE BRIDGEE!!! hahahah :) 

Step 5:
We are saved by GRACE ALONE.
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so than no one can boast" Ephesians 2:8-9
Ask them what grace is: the answer is Something we dont deserve... (good things we do, no matter how hard we try by our good works, can never get us over to the other side.)

6. To receive Jesus is to become a child of God.
"Yet to all who recieved Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God" John 1:12
you can reword this to fit thier name (OH A GOOD THING TO DO IS TO GIVE THEM YOUR BIBLE AND HAVE THEM READ THE VERSES OUT OF THE BIBLE TO YOU!) anyways if his name was say jake,, you could say "to Jake, who recieves Jesus, Jake, who believes in God, gets the right to become a child of God."

After you do that, I don't thin you can push them any harder. but what I would do is just tell that person "Its okay if you don't believe, its okay, but if you ever have a question, or decide to make the decision to accept the King of kings into your heart, will you just give me a call?" 

I cant promise you, but most of the time, through time, at some point youll get a call :)

now i didnt proofread this message so its probably all giberish :) but I think overall this answered the question of whether or not I have told someone else about Christ in the last 12 months! :)

Baby Somya and Saaya

In my prayers forever <3

"And now, Lord, listen to their threats. Lord, help us, your servants, to speak your word without fear

Acts 4:29