exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of
corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and crawling creatures.” (Romans 1:18-22 NASB)
For my birthday me and Jill went over to Squirrel Hill for lunch. We decided to witness before hand. I had not witnessed in this neighborhood in years. The first time, I witnessed in Squirrel Hill years ago is how I ended up in Campus Ministry. I will tell that story another time. After we left I saw a group setting up and decided we would have to come out again and stay later so we could stop and talk to they guys and see what they were up to.
Two weeks later we went to Squirrel Hill again. There were two guys, each from a different group that go every Tuesday to share the gospel with Jewish people. Squirrel Hill is a very large Jewish neighborhood in Pittsburgh. They had several people with them that they were training up to share the gospel. I got to watch them talk to passerby’s and share the gospel. It is always interesting to see others share the gospel with different starting points.
The message should always be the same. The gospel does not change. It was cool to see them get there from a different starting point. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ” (Romans 1:16 NASB) It is the gospel that will save. There are many introductions you can use but it is the gospel that saves. It is the gospel we need to get to. We need to show people their need for the gospel and then explain the gospel.
One guy started by asking people if he could pray for them. He would ask them about their life. He had grown up Jewish. Through out the conversation he would explain that Jesus is the Messiah. The one older gentlemen he talked to and prayed for was from Romania. He thanked him for being out and being so kind to help people and pray with them.
The second guy used a board and asked people what would bring Shalom? What would bring peace? What would make the world better? Then he would explain that the only way for everything to be perfect and better is through Jesus. In the new heaven and the new earth everything will be perfect. We can only have peace with God through Jesus the Messiah. All the answers on the board were written by the people that he witnessed too.
I love Squirrel Hill so I will go up there more often so I can witness and learn a thing or two from these guys.
There are many ways to start conversations about spiritual things. There are many ways to get to the gospel. We are called to proclaim truth. We do need to make sure that we share the correct gospel.
Jesus lived a perfect life. He never broke any of God’ laws. He is truly God and truly man. Jesus is perfect. Jesus never sinned. He allowed himself to suffer and die on the cross. He was buried and rose from the grave 3 days later. You must repent and trust that Jesus paid your fine on the cross. Jesus applied the perfect life that he lived to you, if you repent and trust Jesus then you will be seen as innocent. God will see the perfect life that Jesus lived instead of the life that you lived.
If you share your testimony or use some other method you must show them that God is perfect and that they have sinned. They need to see that God will judge them and explain Christ and Him crucified along with the needed response of repentance and faith.
Teaching how to share the gospel
I taught 10 women how to share the gospel with others this month. Teaching on sharing the gospel is one of my favorite things to do. I taught for about 2 hours. I showed them how to share the gospel and then how to answer the basic questions that most people ask. I was told by a couple of people that they did in fact share the gospel after I taught them. Pray that they all start and continue to share the Gospel. Pray for the salvation of all the people they share the gospel with.
