I can't help sometimes getting a little impatient with this whole witnessing to the world thing.
I've long been of the opinion that witnessing is about more than just paying someone else to produce a magazine and television broadcast. Not that I'm into standing on a milk crate somewhere with a megaphone either, but I do believe Jesus expects me to be ready, even desiring, even praying for, the opportunity to give an answer to the hope that lies within me.
Statistics on church growth confirm the fact that most new converts to the faith are the result of personal contact with a believer anyway. God uses His people. He always has. Magazines, television broadcasts, websites are great tools but, in my opinion, they are resources to supplement, not substitute for, our personal witness. We are lights in a dark world, conduits through which God works to bring those He is calling into relationship with Him.
So why am I impatient? It's not that I don't feel prepared. There's always more to learn. After all, it's a big Book, and my mind, well...not so big. But after a lifetime of being immersed in the truth of God's Word, I feel I have acquired a decent arsenal of clear, scripturally supported, rock solid, Theology. When it comes to sharing the hope that lies within me, I'm pretty much loaded for bear. I suspect the same is true for most of you reading this. My problem isn't with the what to say, it's with my expectations of what the saying of it will produce. I want results now. I want to see the fruits of my effort now. I guess, in a nutshell, I'm looking for the Acts 2 moment. Unfortunately, it doesn't ever seem to happen that way. Hence the frustration.
I remember a few years ago being excited when a co-worker asked me, "So where do you go for eight days every Fall anyway?" Seeing an opening that only God could have inspired, I launched into a treatise on everything from the plan of salvation revealed in the Spring and Fall Harvest festivals, the empty counterfeits that are Christmas and Easter, to the significance of understanding the digestive tracts of pigs vs. cows. I was on a roll man! More excited still was I, when, rather than returning a blank, glazed over stare, he actually exclaimed "Wow, that makes a lot of sense! I need to look into that!" I left that conversation pretty confident that this co-worker would be attending church with me the next week, and, more than likely, be counseling for baptism within a month. My expectation took a fall of Babylonish proportions when the very next week this same co-worker, on whom I had unloaded all of this precious, life altering truth, casually asked if I'd be at the happy hour after work that Friday night. Sigh... Once again, my Acts 2 moment fell flat on its face.
I should have known better. The truth is, we live in a different world today. Most of the world knows about Christianity. They have heard about Jesus Christ, almost ad nauseam. They've heard the hype. They've heard the promises. They've seen the bad examples and the million or so competing interpretations of Christian "truth (small "t"). Frankly, many if not most are just a little jaded about the whole thing. So, can we really be surprised when eyes glaze over when we launch into an explanation of what really happened under Constantine in 325!
Even those God may be calling, whose eyes He is opening to understand, have a lot of garbage to wade through to get to the real deal. So, it's not surprising that our revelations of truth don't immediately land on fertile ground.
In Hebrews 12:1 - 2 Paul encourages us to "...lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."
Hmm...so if He's the Author and Finisher of my faith...it probably follows that He's the Author and Finisher of everyone else's faith as well. He's the Author and Finisher of the faith of everyone I might have the opportunity to witness to in the short life He's given me, including my neighbor down the street, my uncle Joe, and that co-worker who just invited me to the happy hour on Friday night. If I'm to lay aside every weight and trust in Him to bring this process He has started in me to completion, I should probably lay aside my impatience and trust in Him to complete that process in their lives as well.
1 Corinthians 3:7 - 8 tells us "So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor."
Basically, when it comes to witnessing, you and I are seed planters and waterer's. We may never see the end result of the little bit of truth we plant over here, the small bit of water we sprinkle over there, and, if I'm reading it right, we aren't always meant to. He is the Master Gardener. He is the one who shepherds the growth of His people.
That doesn't make our role unimportant. We are tools He has chosen to use in that process. My labor of planting and watering, combined with the planting and watering of other laborers in His harvest may ultimately, over time, bring uncle Joe, my neighbor down the street, or that co-worker in the office to repentance and faith.
If you think about it, it's a whole lot less stressful letting God worry about how it all turns out, isn't it? Not that I won't still get impatient with the whole process sometimes. I'd love to see that Acts 2 moment unfold before my eyes just once. And maybe someday I'll be so blessed. But until then, I'll keep my seed packet and water pail at the ready.
I've long been of the opinion that witnessing is about more than just paying someone else to produce a magazine and television broadcast. Not that I'm into standing on a milk crate somewhere with a megaphone either, but I do believe Jesus expects me to be ready, even desiring, even praying for, the opportunity to give an answer to the hope that lies within me.
Statistics on church growth confirm the fact that most new converts to the faith are the result of personal contact with a believer anyway. God uses His people. He always has. Magazines, television broadcasts, websites are great tools but, in my opinion, they are resources to supplement, not substitute for, our personal witness. We are lights in a dark world, conduits through which God works to bring those He is calling into relationship with Him.
So why am I impatient? It's not that I don't feel prepared. There's always more to learn. After all, it's a big Book, and my mind, well...not so big. But after a lifetime of being immersed in the truth of God's Word, I feel I have acquired a decent arsenal of clear, scripturally supported, rock solid, Theology. When it comes to sharing the hope that lies within me, I'm pretty much loaded for bear. I suspect the same is true for most of you reading this. My problem isn't with the what to say, it's with my expectations of what the saying of it will produce. I want results now. I want to see the fruits of my effort now. I guess, in a nutshell, I'm looking for the Acts 2 moment. Unfortunately, it doesn't ever seem to happen that way. Hence the frustration.
I remember a few years ago being excited when a co-worker asked me, "So where do you go for eight days every Fall anyway?" Seeing an opening that only God could have inspired, I launched into a treatise on everything from the plan of salvation revealed in the Spring and Fall Harvest festivals, the empty counterfeits that are Christmas and Easter, to the significance of understanding the digestive tracts of pigs vs. cows. I was on a roll man! More excited still was I, when, rather than returning a blank, glazed over stare, he actually exclaimed "Wow, that makes a lot of sense! I need to look into that!" I left that conversation pretty confident that this co-worker would be attending church with me the next week, and, more than likely, be counseling for baptism within a month. My expectation took a fall of Babylonish proportions when the very next week this same co-worker, on whom I had unloaded all of this precious, life altering truth, casually asked if I'd be at the happy hour after work that Friday night. Sigh... Once again, my Acts 2 moment fell flat on its face.
I should have known better. The truth is, we live in a different world today. Most of the world knows about Christianity. They have heard about Jesus Christ, almost ad nauseam. They've heard the hype. They've heard the promises. They've seen the bad examples and the million or so competing interpretations of Christian "truth (small "t"). Frankly, many if not most are just a little jaded about the whole thing. So, can we really be surprised when eyes glaze over when we launch into an explanation of what really happened under Constantine in 325!
Even those God may be calling, whose eyes He is opening to understand, have a lot of garbage to wade through to get to the real deal. So, it's not surprising that our revelations of truth don't immediately land on fertile ground.
In Hebrews 12:1 - 2 Paul encourages us to "
Hmm...so if He's the Author and Finisher of my faith...it probably follows that He's the Author and Finisher of everyone else's faith as well. He's the Author and Finisher of the faith of everyone I might have the opportunity to witness to in the short life He's given me, including my neighbor down the street, my uncle Joe, and that co-worker who just invited me to the happy hour on Friday night. If I'm to lay aside every weight and trust in Him to bring this process He has started in me to completion, I should probably lay aside my impatience and trust in Him to complete that process in their lives as well.
1 Corinthians 3:7 - 8 tells us "
Basically, when it comes to witnessing, you and I are seed planters and waterer's. We may never see the end result of the little bit of truth we plant over here, the small bit of water we sprinkle over there, and, if I'm reading it right, we aren't always meant to. He is the Master Gardener. He is the one who shepherds the growth of His people.
That doesn't make our role unimportant. We are tools He has chosen to use in that process. My labor of planting and watering, combined with the planting and watering of other laborers in His harvest may ultimately, over time, bring uncle Joe, my neighbor down the street, or that co-worker in the office to repentance and faith.
If you think about it, it's a whole lot less stressful letting God worry about how it all turns out, isn't it? Not that I won't still get impatient with the whole process sometimes. I'd love to see that Acts 2 moment unfold before my eyes just once. And maybe someday I'll be so blessed. But until then, I'll keep my seed packet and water pail at the ready.
------