Therefore the world hates you     

From He Gets Us has an agenda web site.
How did the story of Jesus, the world’s greatest love story, get twisted into a tool to judge, harm, and divide? 
We’ve done a lot of homework on our culture. We researched how people feel about each other and what they think about Jesus and Christianity. We’ve connected with thousands of people of various faith traditions and those who claim no religion. We spoke to all kinds of people — different backgrounds, beliefs, and, yes, political affiliations. And this is what we’ve learned: From politics to sexuality and religion, so many of us feel like our values, beliefs, and identities are under attack by the ideological “others” around us. Many perceive those who differ with them on issues of justice, dignity, and humanity as not just wrong or misguided but also as evil. As enemies. We often see these “others” as close-minded, selfish, hypocritical — and if we’re honest, many of us respond in kind. 

You know I would not have to have done a lot of homework to know why the world hates us.

John 15:18-19
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

(ESV)

 Pre-Evangelism

"What is Pre-Evangelism?

This is not a dig at the 'He Gets Us' campaign; I have already done that.

But the 'He Gets Us' campaign thinks it is going out and trying to be everything to all people. It is most definitely Pre-Evangelism because there is no Evangelism. Just a bunch of feel-good gobbledygook. There are a lot of other groups out there talking about pre-evangelism, and many of them align with the He Gets Us approach. However, there are a few out there that see pre-evangelism as I do."

For me Pre-Evangelism is getting a firm foundation on the Word of God and understanding how to engage with others. Then going out to spread the Good News. Now this is not easy to do. This is one reason that you need to associate with a Bible believing church or a group of Bible believers. I believe this is one of the main jobs of the church, to give believers a firm foundation of the Word of God. Unfortunately, many churches today have forgotten this, and give feel good sermons, and have Sunday school classes that do not help in giving deep roots to the believer.

Build Your House on the Rock

Matthew 7:24-27

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.”

(ESV)

You Can’t Infect People with A Disease You Don’t Have!

When I first read this, I thought how true this is. And I prayed God let your Holy Spirit infect me so that I might infect others for you. Yes, I did say let the Holy Spirit infect me. Now you might say the Holy Spirit is for speaking in tongues, well that is only one very small part of what the Holy Spirit can do. The main purpose of the Holy Spirit is to give us boldness to spread the word of God.

Acts 4:7-8

And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, “By what power or by what name did you do this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them,

(ESV)

Acts 4:31

And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

(ESV)

So, as a believer you need to pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit. So that you too can have the boldness to speak the word of God. And after you've studied the word of God and have it written in your heart, then when you are out in the world the Holy Spirit will help bring back the Word of God to you and will let you know what to say. This does not mean that you need to be a Bible scholar, but you need a foundation.

How to engage with others!

I'm the last person to tell people how to engage others. Maybe when I was younger and more outgoing, but in my old age I've become somewhat of a hermit preferring to be out on my 15 acres with my goats and dogs. But I do remember what it was like to be a little more outgoing.

First have a smile and not a fake smile.

The joy of the Lord

Psalms 35:27-28

Let those who delight in my righteousness

shout for joy and be glad

and say evermore,

“Great is the LORD,

who delights in the welfare of his servant!”

Then my tongue shall tell of your righteousness

and of your praise all the day long.

(ESV)

Proverbs 15:13

A glad heart makes a cheerful face,

but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

(ESV)

Small Talk:

Be pleasant and grateful showing God's love. You may not have anything in common, but you can still show interest in that person you're witnessing too. More than just small talk when you see someone struggling with something help them. If you're at Home Depot or Lowe's and you see someone trying to load something in their pickup or car, go and offer to help. If you see someone in grocery store struggling to reach something or to lift something help them show Christ love in your actions. And then when they say thank you, you might think about saying something like, “I just thank God that I was able to help you”. And how great and good our Lord is. You might even ask if they go to church somewhere and if they do not, invite them to your church. Not that we're trying to get them to come to our church, we're trying to introduce them to Christ. Just let the Holy Spirit guide you in what to say.

If you do start up a conversation with a stranger, don't be judgmental! You can start off like Paul saying we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and I am the chief sinner of all. It's OK to show weakness and how Christ has saved us and through our weakness he can use us.

This is just a starting point. I am not an expert in this, but God has been dealing with me about being bolder and witnessing to others. I do not just want to criticize ‘He gets us’ campaign. I need to go out and be that light in the world showing the reflection of Christ, uncompromised by what our culture thinks and wants Christ to be.

Proverbs 11:23-24

The desire of the righteous ends only in good,

the expectation of the wicked in wrath.

One gives freely, yet grows all the richer;

another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want.

(ESV)

 The man that will have God's best becomes at once the object of the personal attention of the Holy Spirit. Such a man will not be required to wait for the rest of the church to come alive. He will not be penalized for the failures of his fellow Christians, nor be asked to forego the blessing till his sleepy brethren catch up. God deals with the individual heart as exclusively as if only one existed.

If this should seem to be an unduly individualistic approach to revival, let it be remembered that religion is personal before it can be social. Every prophet, every reformer, every revivalist had to meet God alone before he could help the multitudes. The great leaders who went on to turn thousands to Christ had to begin with God and their own soul. The plain Christian of today must experience personal revival before he can hope to bring renewed spiritual life to his church. 

A.W. Tozer.

 What is God trying to do with His believing people?-the Bible calls us a remnant according to grace, believers taken out of the great, teeming swarm of so-called religious people in today's world. I am inclined to join others in wondering if the Lord is postponing His coming because He is trying to get His Bride ready? For years it has been the popular idea in evangelical Christianity that the whole body of believers in Christ would rise like a flock of frightened birds when the Lord comes. But A.B. Simpson and William MacArthur and others in the past generation said, "Oh no! The Lord will take with Him those who are prepared and ready for His coming!" I do not presume to give an answer satisfying to everyone in our churches. But I know that many Christians are too smug about this, saying in effect: "I am converted to Christ through grace, so I can live as I please!" Of some things we cannot be dogmatic; but we know this for sure-God has no halfway house between heaven and hell where He takes us to fumigate us!

 A.W. Tozer

 

 Oh God, Let me die rather than to go on day by day living wrong. I do not want to become a careless, fleshly old man. I want to be right so that I can die right. Lord, I do not want my life to be extended if it would mean that I should cease to live right and fail in my mission to glorify You all of my days!...

Please, Father, help me to finish well. Amen

A.W. Tozer

 The Burning Bush experience!

In Discipleship class (Sunday school) a question was brought about the burning bush.

The first thing I thought about was 1 Kings 19:11-13

I believe that most Christians would love to have a Burning Bush experience like Moses Exodus 3:1-6. But we need to remember when the LORD Speaks to Elijah in 1 Kings 19:11-13. It was not in the strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks or an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake, a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire, BUT sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it.

The Burning Bush experience would be great. But we must humble ourselves and be still and just listen for The Lords Voice. We must take the time out of our day and read the Word of God Praying and meditate on it. Slow down and listen.

 Jonah 1:1-6

Jonah Flees the Presence of the LORD

1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” 3 But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD.

4 But the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship threatened to break up. 5 Then the mariners were afraid, and each cried out to his god. And they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them. But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep. 6 So the captain came and said to him, “What do you mean, you sleeper? Arise, call out to your god! Perhaps the god will give a thought to us, that we may not perish.”

(ESV)

Have we become like Jonah? Have we become afraid of calling out evil and running away?

The pagans are crying out, looking for something they cannot find.

But have we gone down to the inner part of the church building and fallen asleep?

Must the pagans come down and wake us up and throw us overboard to get us to do God's will?

Now, God is probably not telling us to go into a city and tell them that in 40 days they will be overthrown.

But we have been told to tell the world that the wages of sin is death and that they must repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Now, we don't need to go out with big signs and billboards causing massive disturbance.

We should be like Stephen in Acts 6:8

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.

We need to remember: 2 Timothy 2:24-26

And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

(ESV)

“What do you mean, you sleeper?

That finger is pointing is pointing at me.