The Need To Evangelize

It was a hot summer's mid-day.  The scene was set.  On one end of the dusty street stood The Lost Gang. On the other, The Lone Gunman; a hired gun.  While the entire town watched, they saw the draws of each. Two of The Lost Gang were winged, but survived the encounter.  The Lone Gunman lay dying face-down on the street. He'd done his duty.  He'd taken on The Lost Gang on behalf of the entire town.  As he lay in that dusty street, his body not yet cold, the townspeople had already began to discuss amongst themselves who they might be able to get as their next hired gun to fight their battle for them. The Lost Gang turned and went back into the saloon to continue their carousing.  And even though the townspeople wanted them to change their ways, they did nothing but stay away from The Lost Gang because they made them feel nervous and uncomfortable; hence the reason for the hired gun.

Most of us have seen western movies where the townspeople were too afraid to take on the "bad guys" themselves so they hire someone to do the job for them.  John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, even Jimmy Stewart had roles like this.  And this is just a short list of possibilities.  But no matter who the "hero" was, it was normally the same circumstance: they were hired to do a job that those they represented weren't willing to do themselves.

It's sad, but I find this same situation in the Church, today.  We hire a preacher not to do his scriptural duties of preaching the good news of Christ and for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4: 12-13), but to be our "hired gun"; not just to do the work of an evangelist, but the work of the congregation as well.

We, as those who claim discipleship of Christ, have a responsibility which we cannot pass off to someone else!  We, each one of us, have been commissioned by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you".  But for some reason, we delegate this to the preacher because "that's what he gets paid to do".

If that's what you've been doing, you need to repent! Stop personally denying Christ by making someone else confess Him for you.  We can't delegate our obedience to someone else because he who has much will be given more, and he who has nothing, even what he has will be taken away.

Matthew 10: 31-32 reads,  "Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven."

Are you confessing Christ?  Or are you relying on your "hired gun"?

What Must We Do?

In our world today, we've all been convinced of the illusion that we, humankind, control our own destiny.  And while that is true to a certain extent, our outcome will not come from our own goodness, but from the judgement of God.

Now, while it is true that we are saved by grace through faith, it does not lead to the conclusion that that grace is unconditional (which we will get more into later) because, if we truly desire to be saved, then we absolutely must know what God has told us about our salvation. And while God didn't give us a "list" to check off, we can, if we want, find the conditions which He has set down for us to receive and continue to receive His grace.

Firstly, we must understand that the only way to The Father (Heaven) is by accepting Jesus as the promised Messiah, The One sent by The Father; His Son. There is absolutely no other way. ABSOLUTELY!!!

Secondly, we have to do our very best to stop the sinning (living contrary to God's will) that we've been doing all of our lives and start living in the way that's pleasing to God. We can't be perfect; God is fully aware of that. We do our VERY BEST.

Thirdly, we must confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus truly is the Son of God. For us to be acknowledge by the Father, we must acknowledge His Son. To deny Him is to be denied.

Fourthly, we must be immersed in water to have our past sins forgiven and to receive within us The Holy Spirit, which is our seal with God. Through immersion, we also bury the old sinful self and are raised, transformed, into a newness of life. Through immersion, we are covered with the blood of Christ. It is at this point and ONLY at this point we receive God's grace.

And finally, we strive to live our lives in God's will. We live by faith, to the point of death. We live this way because all of the previous steps are continual. We continue to believe. We continue to repent. We continue to confess Christ. God continues to claim us as His children and give us His grace...IF WE LIVE FOR HIM.