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Crossroads Community Church Sunday morning greeted us peacefully, Pastor Don welcomed everyone, shared prayer requests and announcements one being the planned “Evening Praise in the Park” this very day at Jack Downing Park from 4:30 until 6 p.m.; a Celebration of God with music, dance and a free BBQ. Pastor Don read 1 Corinthians 9:22,23; Bob and the team worshipped in Spirit and truth with songs of adoration. Pastor Don humbly offered the service in prayer and said that today He would be teaching on 3 important attributes needed for “evangelism”. He began, “When you hear evangelism what do you think of?” Do you think of a crazed person shouting “Repent, Repent or Fire and Brimstone will come upon you” or do you think of Billy Graham and Mother Theresa? What differentiates their desire to reach the lost are these attributes; #1. Compassion, #2. Effort and Action, # 3. Persistence. When a person goes missing especially a child “Amber Alerts” are issued, search parties are formed and a sense of urgency is felt and when the person is found there is great joy. That sense of urgency for the lost in hopelessness and despair without Jesus should also compel us to seek them because the same joy erupts amongst God's angels when a lost soul comes to God through Jesus. This is what Jesus was referring to in the parable of the lost sheep or the lost coin in Luke 15:1-10. The Great commission Jesus left us in Matthew 28:19 is not easy, it takes us out of our comfort zone therefore to enable us we need God's compassion. His compassion will empower us to feel for the broken hearted, those who are suffering despair, loneliness and illness; with His compassion we will genuinely want to help them and as believers we have the answer, Jesus is everything they need. If you had the cure to cancer would you not want to share it with those who need it? Evangelism is planting seeds of love and encouragement, giving people hope and acceptance in Jesus Christ, (Luke 15:1, 2). The lost were always attracted to Jesus for His compassionate attitude towards them not a condemning one, as believers we should aim to do the same because people don't care until they know we care, we are to seize and pursue every opportunity to evangelize in Jesus' loving way. Those opportunities extend to family and neighbors, co-workers, people you meet every day. The Apostle Paul lived that way, he tried to find common ground with everyone, (1 Corinthians 9:22, 23). We are to seek every occasion to share the love of Jesus. Many of us can agree that anything we want needs action, it requires time and effort. Jesus portrayed this in the two parables in Luke 15:3-5, 8. In the same way a shepherd takes action to find his lost sheep or a woman makes the effort to sweep and search for a precious coin, we should take action and put some effort in reaching out to the lost. It requires more than good intentions, action is necessary, it is a choice to help and spend time with those who need Jesus, (Luke 5:31-32, 15:8,). The First Century Church exuded great effort in seeking the spiritually lost and their coming to faith came quickly because of their persistence in sharing the gospel and showing God's love in action. However overtime it didn't happen so quickly it took more effort. Today is no different; the churches that grow are the ones who persistently invest their time and effort in those who need the love of God. We can't expect people to just suddenly show up at church although it has been seen my God's divine calling, but normally people start coming because someone took the time to recognize their need took some action and persistently shared the unconditional love of God with them. Just like our 9 newly baptized friend's journeys, they didn't just decide to attend church; a believing friend loved them, took time to listen to them and shared the Gospel with them in word and action, they invited them to church and eventually they came, and the journey continued as God spiritually fulfilled them to the point when they surrendered their hearts to Him through Jesus and followed His example to be baptized. Beloved, we cannot force people into God's family; we love them into God's family. This is a challenge we gladly choose to take at Crossroads, we ask God to make us compassionate to those who don't know His love, we want to take action and genuinely reach out to them and invest in their lives so they too will be free and live for Jesus and we will persist in doing so until Jesus Christ comes again…. …Asherey Shalom! To learn more visit our website http://www.shelburnecrossroadschurch.ca |
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Post date: 2013-08-01 12:25:51 Post date GMT: 2013-08-01 16:25:51 Post modified date: 2013-08-08 11:03:34 Post modified date GMT: 2013-08-08 15:03:34 |
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