Immediate Obedience

I was reading through the Gospel of Mark today and a verse jumped out at me. Mark chapter 5 verses 18-20 read, 'As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.' This man was saved from so much and he showed how much he appreciated his salvation from demon possession by being immediately obedient to the Lord. Are we saved from any less? Is being saved from the flames of Hell and the weeping and gnashing of teeth any less worthy of our faithful gratitude towards Jesus? Amazingly only about 2% of people saved from a terrible eternity in Hell go and tell people what Jesus has done for them. That's an amazingly low number of people who actually care enough about the lost to share the gospel with them. What's more amazing is the the 98% of "believers" who refuse to obey the 2000+ year old standing order of the Lord to go out and make disciples (Mark 16:15). It reminds me of the Songs of the Lukewarm Church listed on wayofthemaster.com and that modern gospel hit, "It's my Secret What God Can Do." Do you fear sharing because you don't know enough? Did this man in Mark 5 have time to read the Bible or take an online course before sharing? Did the woman at the well go through some extensive evangelism academy? Absolutely not! They were just so grateful to God that they just had to let people know what He had done for them. What's keeping you from doing the same? Stephen went to the grave to share the gospel in the book of Acts yet 98% of the modern day supposed Church won't even go next door to give their neighbor the Good News. I was in the lifeboat praising the Captain(Jesus) but not obeying His command to reach down and save the people drowning in the water just last year guys. It's a stagnant existence for a believer. Don't be like the pre-crucifixion Peter who followed Jesus at a distance. Be like the Peter in the book of Acts who preached the gospel and was on the front lines for the Lord. Don't be cold in this aspect of your faith. Be on fire with a passion for the unsaved. Be like our Lord and Savior who came to seek and save that which was lost. Let Him be your example. Don't wait for anything and let nothing get the way of sharing your faith with someone today. Obey Him immediately.

Revelation 3:16 (New International Version)

¹⁶So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Always an Audience of One

Above is a picture of a public park near my house. I will start by saying, "where were the parks like this when I was a kid!?!" Now that we have that out of the way, the reason we went here was for a homeschooling curriculum sale. As we pulled up, I noticed 2 guys in their 20's playing some hoops. I had it in my mind to witness to them even if it meant playing a game of basketball in slippers. So I took my girls to play for a bit then I made my way over to the court. I asked the guys if they were with the home school group and they said they were not. I introduced myself and gave each of them a million dollar bill tract. Bishop, the bigger of the two, was open to the good person test so I took him through it. So mission accomplished, Gospel shared. We played ball with a couple kids from our group who were also there as I talked with Bishop. I know you must be thinking what the point of this story is. I'm not reporting any miraculous conversion after I shared the Gospel or anything so what's the point? Here it is. God's grace showed it's face when Weldon, one of the boys from our group that played with us, came up to me near the end of the book sale. He says, "hey was the the 'What Did Jesus Do' thing you did with that guy back there?" I was floored. Apparently Weldon had taken a Way of the Master class at Sunday school and he recognized it in action.

For those that don't know, WDJD is W-would you consider yourself to be a good person? D-do you feel you've kept the 10 Commandments? J-on Judgment Day will you be innocent or guilty? D-destiny, will you go to Heaven or Hell?

He said he'd never actually seen it used before and that seeing me do it really encouraged him to try it on his own now! To be honest, I was kinda discouraged after sharing with Bishop. I kept thinking of the academy and how we sometimes are preaching to an audience of one, Jesus. Turns out that my audience of One did have plans for that witnessing experience. They might not have been for Bishop. Of course there is the chance that maybe he went home, read the tract and talked to someone else and gave his life to Christ. I'll probably never know in this life. I'm just thankful that God showed me some fruit of obedience in Weldon and in being an encouragement to him. Share your faith guys. You never know who's listening, just know that He is and will use your service for His good works.

1 Corinthians 3:6 (New International Version)

⁶I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.