On fire in Texas since Saturday. Winning souls seemed for so long far away but am taking every opportunity to give a track and tell someone that Jesus really cares! How about you are you letting God use you? He made a change on my whole outlook on life. Please tell someone, in Christ we can do all things! Gary
Hie Gary! I commend you for what you're doing for the kingdom of God. So many people think that telling people about Jesus is the pastor's duty but its not, we are all called to be witnesses for Christ. Mark 16vs15 says to go "into the whole world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation". That not only means the pastors but everyone who calls themself a born again Christian. But everything we do requires wisdom (Proverbs 3 vs13) including aproaching people in order to tell them about Jesus.I always stress the point of prayer especially praying the word of God because I know that when you pray, the word of God goes out and does what its been sent out to do and does not come back empty handed (Isiah 55 10-11). I know that the Holy Spirit is our convictor (John 16 vs8) and that prayer goes before hand, and creates a ways for the Holy Spirit to prepare people's hearts to recieve the word of God. So its always best to pray for guidance and wisdom for ourselves and the conviction of the Holy Spirit to begin to work in that person's life before we try and approach them. My pastor always asks us how many people we've led to Christ in the last couple of weeks or months. He's always incouraging us to tell everyone we know about Jesus and to lead people to Christ. I think another great way to tell people about God without necessarily having to say anything is through living righteous lives (Romans 2 vs 14). This speaks volumes and sooner or later you'll find people asking you what it is that makes you the way you are and how they can get what you have. Its always best to also know the sinners prayer so that you can pray it through with them and be able to explain to them what the significance of what they are about to say is and you should be able to back that up with scriptures.
You don't need to stand at the street corner shouting out "Jesus, Jesus!!!!!" to people, you just need to live for Him, coz your life doesn't belong to you but to Him. Remember you gave it to Him when you asked Him to give you His in exchange for yours. Live for Him, live like Him, as best you can and you'll see people swarming to find out what it is about you that makes you so different and so full of life. That on its own can speak volumes. Don't get me wrong, its not as easy as it sounds but Romans 8 vs 1 says there is no more condemnation for those who are in Jesus. If you make mistakes, you're not condemed, you just need to get up and keep trying to live right and it'll still speak volumes.
I'm working on the whole "telling my friends about Jesus" thing. I'm in grade nine at a high school, and I'm kind of afriad of what everyone's gonna think. Like, they know I'm a Christian, and they're cool with it, but I've tried to tell some of them about God and what He has in store for them, and they just roll their eyes. So, I'm pretty much hoping that I'm "planting the seed." Any advice?
Live the life... They'll soon see the difference in you. Your life will speak volumes, and when the time comes to say something you go ahead and say it! Always pray for someone to see the Jesus in you and to be touched by that.
I try, I'm sure some of you have read my thread about Caitlin (I just updated it), and I also know a guy online who's from Istanbul that I've been trying to evangelize (can you believe it all started with one of my songs? God makes all our dreams come true!!!), but he hasn't been on in weeks. It's hard though, especially when the person you're witnessing too says the dreaded 'no', or in Hakan's case, 'The writings (meaning the Bible) don't satisfy me'. Sometimes I want to go kick Satan and make him leave these people alone, but then I just have to keep reminding myself that God'll take care of him for me.
Don't worry! God's already taken care of the devil, we just need to realise that he is defeated in every part of our lives! Jesus took care of him ages ago! You know one thing I know is that the Holy Spirit is our convictor. He shows us where we are going wrong and how bad our sin is. He will show your friend the truth and your friend will be satisfied with it because God satisfies(Psalm 17vs15). As you continue to pray for God to move in his life, he will begin to see that there is something different about our God. He will see the distinction between our truth and others. God is capable of changing people but we are not, so leave it up to Him, you will be shocked what He will do. Prayer is key. Don't loose hope. Your friend might be saying no now but he will say yes later. Everything takes time.
I became a real Christian in 2004. I say real because before I didn't have a relationship with Jesus like I do now. Getting to know him makes all the difference. Life starts to mean something and everything makes sense. It's amazing!
I was curious because you seem so muture in Christ, whenever you give someone advice you always include a bunch of verses, and i think that's really cool. like you're a walking talking Bible reference book :P but seriously I think that's awesome. i can identify with the whole 'real' thing. i prayed the prayer when i was 4, but it wasn't 'real' until last fall (i turned 13 in march, so it took almost a decade for me to really hear God. how pathetic is that? :P i'm jsut glad i finally heard Him). Since then it's been SO amazing to watch God work in my life! it all started with helping out this chick on a homeschool message board. she was cutting, hated her dad (he's a trip) and church, her favorite song was Last Resort by Papa Roach, I mean she was really messed up. I could identify with her in some areas so i helped her out, and through that kind of figured out that God wants me to minister through rock music. it was just really cool to watch Him change her life like that. and when i thought about how much music affected her life, it popped. i just knew it. i've been involved in music since i was 4 (ironic, that was the year i was born-again) so it's not lik eit's something new to me, an di'd been teaching myself guitar over the summer, so i was kind of like, 'Okay God, i think I'm done being a drama queen. My life is a whole lot better than Caitlin's (also ironic that the first two girls ive helping/am helping are both named Caitlin, haha), and I'd like to re-dedicate my life to you. I'm pretty sure you want me in music, and I think that's totally awesome, but I want You to be the absolute center of it.' Since then my music has come light years compared to say, the last 5 years.
wow, sorry for teh novel. but yeah i totally get the whole 'real' thing ;) it is amazing!
It is amaizing! I'm excited that God is using young people like you for His Glory! I urge you to keep up the faith, don't give up nomatter what happens. I like to read my bible. That's where I get wisdom and knowledge. The word of God says we shouldn't have zeal without knowledge (Romans 10 vs 2). It's great and all to be excited about God but I need to know Him too. Psalm 23 says my cup overflows and it is through that overflow that we are able to bless others. That's why I spend time in the word, reading and filling myself up with the word of God so that others can be blessed by the overflow in me. I was taught to always test everything with the word of God, and I believe that everything that concerns life has a scripture you can refer to. It helps me to know when someone is lying to me about the word of God. I always put scriptures references so that people can refer to it and see for themselves what God says. I think it also encourages people to read the word for themselves and find out what God has to say about them without necessarily having to rely on what other people tell them coz what God says is more important than what I say at the end of the day.
so true!! i read the word every evening, but outside of that it's hard to turn off my stereo and get out my Bible. it's yet another thing i need to work on. it's great that you put scripture references in your posts though. it's very inspiring and helpful :)
Thanx hey! Its a great thing to be able to inspire other people. I dont wanna say much coz I know I'd write a whole novel. But I'm glad that God is using you for His Glory at such a young age. I hope you continue to let Him move in your life and that the fire in you only burns brighter and brighter as you grow in Him.
There's a guy I met who said He wanted to commit suicide and he needed someone to talk. I asked him if he was saved and he said no. So I began to tell him about Jesus and he recieved Christ into His life, then we began to deal with the problem he had. I can't really talk about it now coz it's such a long story but in the end He seemed to loose hope nomatter how much encouragement I tried to give him. He left and I never saw him again. But I committed his life to God I put it all in God's hands coz at the end of the day He is the one who can fix this guy's situation and not me. I won't loose hope.