This Little Light of Mine, Pt. 2

I’m a problem-leads-to-solution kind of guy. I guess that comes from being an engineer—or it’s what led to me being an engineer. I like to focus first on the problem; determine what’s wrong. From there, I like to try to derive the root causes. Then from there I work backwards or forwards (depending on how you look at it) to arrive at the solution to the problem.

The problem is pretty obvious here. We don’t talk to others about Christ as much as we probably should—that I don’t talk to others about Christ as much as I probably should. Why? I think there are a variety of factors. Most come from a warped, extremist view on our faith in the context of the world. Think politics for a second: we have extreme right and extreme left, but no middle? I think in evangelism it’s similar in that there are two warped extremes that individuals fall into. And sometimes it’s a little bit of both. But these extremities are generally opposites. And they lead to ineffective laborers for Christ and His kingdom.

1. We either think our opinion in irrelevant, or that we have it all figured out and everyone else doesn’t have a clue. We think others don’t want to hear about what we have to say, or that we have the perfect thing to say, not Christ.
2. We think God loves us and that he wants to be our buddy, or that God is going to destroy us and we must live in fear of Him.
3. We fear losing friendships over the subject of the gospel, or we don’t build genuine relationships with people in the first place.
4. We water down the gospel, or we make it harder than it has to be.
5. We think the gospel is all about us, or all about them.
6. We fear that we will misrepresent the gospel or Christ, or we think and act like we know everything about Christ.
7. We focus completely on conversions or number without raising up disciples, or we focus on the journey without first establishing the idea of the grace of God and our faith in Christ.

I’m not going to go through and individually refute each of these fears. Chances are, each of us identifies with one (or most) of these. For me personally numbers 2, 4, and 7 are areas where I struggle. I think all of these can be boiled down into a single root cause: disbelief. However cliché it may seem so blame it on that, isn’t there an ounce of truth in there? If I really believe in this—that I am a sinner (Romans 3:23), that God is holy (Isaiah 43:10-13), that He sent Christ to die for my sins (1 Peter 2:24), and that He rose again and that we have the Holy Spirit as a vehicle through which God works in and through us—and I’m doing my best in my life to ‘smoke what I sell’ then wouldn’t I want to sell what I’m smoking? If I really believe it’s working for me, why do I think it won’t work for others?

Why am I so afraid to tell other people about something that I know and believe and trust and live my life for?

Or is the problem in a lack of belief on my part? Wouldn’t I want to sell what I am proverbially smoking?

As I try to rationalize this I’m convicted in the hypocrisy of my life. It’s almost as if I’m declaring that Jesus is for me. But just me. As that one verse of that song says, I’m not supposed to hide it under a bushel. I’m gonna let it shine.

And if I really believe in the gospel, and that it’s about what God did and not what I did, then why do I fear misrepresentation? God is ultimately doing the work. All I need to do is make myself available for the purposes of His kingdom. I need to build relationships, intentionally. I need to have conversations, intentionally. I need to act, intentionally. In short, I need to live, intentionally.

Some of this stuff is no fun to wrestle with. I think this might be what Paul was talking about what he talked about working out our salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12-13).

This Little Light of Mine

A heavy issue with many is the idea of evangelism. Many cringe at the idea. Some people shy away from it. People say it is the job of the church–for the record, what’s the difference between an “evangelical” Christian and a regular, anyway? Some decry its evils and how insensitive it is. But with this many opinions it doesn’t seem like there is clearly one camp that has it all right. It’s also something I’ve been convicted on lately.

Clearly our need to do this should be two-fold. Jesus has commanded us to do this in the Great Commission:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20 (ESV)

Jesus also talks about the urgency involved in the sharing of our faith. He encourages it, commands it, and at times necessitates it:

Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.
Matthew 10:32-33 (NIV)

I bring that verse up not to say that sharing our faith is a condition for salvation. It is not. We are saved by our belief in Christ (John 5:24) in who He said He was (John 14:6) through God’s infinite grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). But why is it that sharing our faith–what we believe and dedicate our lives to, ideally–has become to disconnected from our growth towards Christ. If we are to become more like Him, we will want to tell others about Him just as He did, right? Not in a ‘hell and brimstone’ way but in a way that emphasizes our depravity, God’s goodness, and His grace to us through His Son.

I want to explore what this means to me, what this looks like as I make it a part of my life. We are called to go and make disciples. Not just followers. Disciples are those who follow and take what they have learned and lead. I want to find out what it means to make followers–to see how God can use me there–and how to invest in others in a way that glorifies God and not self while pushing them towards Christ with everything in me. This is gonna be tough.