When it comes time to share the gospel, what’s your “go-to”?
Do you use a tract like Knowing God
Personally, or The Four Spiritual
Laws? Or do you use a verse of Scripture, like Romans 6:23? Whatever your “go-to”
may happen to be, it is vitally important that we learn to share the gospel in
ways that are relevant to the people we are talking to.
Let me give you an example from the Scriptures. In John
4, Jesus encounters a woman who is coming out of the town of Sychar in Samaria to
the town well at noon to draw water all by herself. This, in and of itself,
tells us a number of things about the woman, even before Jesus starts talking
to her. First, she’s coming out at noon…the hottest part of the day…to do a
labor intensive task that would be better suited to be done either early in the
day or later at night.
Secondly, we find that she is alone. Normally they town
well was a local meeting place to catch up and find out what was going on in the
lives of all of your friends (think of it as Facebook before Facebook)…kind of
like the watercooler at work. But this woman is coming alone. No interaction
with anyone, or perhaps she’s trying to avoid
interaction. Either way, she comes alone. This tells us that she most likely
isn’t accepted by the rest of the town.
The third thing we see is that she is coming to the well
to draw water. This is the main thing. She has a need. She is thirsty. The
water from this well would be used to drink, to wash, to clean, and possibly
even to use in religious ceremony. So when Jesus sees this woman, He processes
all of this in a split second (not a supernatural thing, by the way) and
decides that He’s going to interact with this woman.
When He does it shocks her, because typically Jews don’t
associate with Samaritans. Also, she’s a woman and He’s a man…also a cultural
no-no. But Jesus asks her for a drink of water. She immediately tries to shut
Him down by saying, “You’re a Jewish rabbi, and I’m a Samaritan woman. Why are
you even talking to me?”
But then Jesus says to her, “If you knew who I am, then
you’d ask me and I’d give you living water so that you will never thirst again.”
As you read the rest of the conversation, Jesus broached
the subject of her sin in kind of a supernatural way, but the truth of the
matter is that we don’t need the supernatural to be able to tell where people are
in their lives. We can look at them and the Holy Spirit tells us that they need
Jesus. And as we look for opportunities to share Christ in their present circumstances, we will find even more
opportunities to share.
So the challenge for us today is to look for ways in
which we can share the good news of Jesus Christ to those around us as we see
where they are in life. We then tailor the message (not the content, but the
delivery) in such a way as to maximize effect in their lives.
How do we do this? Practice, practice, practice. We need
to do it more and more. Look at people, see where they’re at. We live in a
society that is more disconnected from each other even though we have all these
ways of staying connected. We need to learn the art of connecting with our
neighbors. So practice it today, and see what happens!
Think about that today! And God bless you!
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