This year's theme at our Josiah Venture Spring Conference was Evangelistic Search and Rescue.
I went through several mini-seminars and learned different skills for evangelizing such as:
- Understanding the Religious and Secular "Lost,"
- Sharing the Gospel (essential!),
- Sharing our own personal story,
- Being bold about having spiritual conversations,
- Relying on the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in different conversations,
- Different and creative ways to pray and encourage others to pray,
- Answers to the top questions youth are asking in this part of the world today,
- Understand how we are loved by God, so that we can share that love with others,
- Immediate Care for new believers: Read, Pray, and Confess WITH THEM.
It was an incredible week, and it fueled my fire to more BOLDLY and FREQUENTLY share the gospel!
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| (Our team is in 12 countries. I'm on the bottom row with a backpack at my feet) |
In the middle of the week we hit the streets, train stations, McDonald's, etc., and we shared the Gospel! It was extremely challenging, partially because I couldn't speak ANY Czech. But that made it a lot easier to share when back at home in Slovenia :)
Then later that night as I was praying, God gave me a very clear, detailed, and personal picture of the "Gospel Bridge Diagram," and told me to share it with a specific person. I was nervous about this, but there is nothing to fear when God is leading and in control!
It went AWESOME! God helped me to share the gospel for the first time in Slovene! I drew the picture for him that God gave me, fully explained the gospel and had him read the verses in Slovene. When I was done he thanked me and said he has a lot to think about now. No one had ever told him all this before! He can't deny God exists and is mentally processing what he now believes. Also his wife and son joined us part way through so he had me start over and share the gospel with them too :)
God's story is GOOD NEWS! And there are so many people that have never heard it, but will gratefully receive it if we are faithful to share it.
If we know the cure for eternal death and separation from God, what's stopping us from healing our dying friends, co-workers, neighbors...? It gets easier the more we do it :) And it is an adrenaline rush like no other... every time!
"Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.
How then can they call on the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are sent?
As it is written,
"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"...
... Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message,
and the message is heard through the word of Christ."
- Romans 10:13-15,17
