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All she wanted was a clear presentation of the gospel!

22 February 2012 3 Comments

I am a Presbtyterian minister in New Zealand who has learnt to go door to door giving the gospel like the Apostles in Acts 5:40-43.

Last week it was a real buzz going with Colin, one of my parishioners.
Colin recently attended the DNA change conference in our town, so he was all fired up and keen to put into action his new love for Jesus and the Great Commission.
It was his first time going out with me. We would have knocked on 12 doors before we met Glenda who is in her 60s.
We introduced ourselves, telling who we were and asked if she minded answering some questions for us and she willingly agreed.

When she found out we belonged to the Presbyterian church she shared how she has been involved in numerous churches over the years: Anglican, Presbyterian, Mormon, Jehovah Witness , Methodist and now associates with the Catholic church.

Needless to say our ears pricked up at this stage.
Glenda went on to tell us her experiences of these churches and how they all push their different religion.  I shared how there is a lot of confusion out there and asked if she would like to a clear presentation of a summary of the Bible.
She agreed, and I showed her the gospel which is now on my smart phone.

When it came to the part that talked about where she would go if she died tonight, Glenda pointed down.

I said to her, “it sounds like you wouldn’t get to heaven. Would you like assurance?” She said yes.
I had a sense she had been searching for the truth for years, but know one had taken the time to tell her what the gospel was and what she must do to be saved.
I asked if she was willing to turn away from her sin and surrender her life to Christ. Again she said yes, and I led her in the sinners prayer, and broke of the confusion over her life.

She looked radiant and said she felt like a weight lifted off her.

We have agreed to meet next week and I will begin discipling her. God is so good!!

IMPORTANT LESSONS FROM THIS TESTIMONY:

1) Iain didn’t say what the response was like in the other 12 houses they visited.  Doubtless, there might have been a variety of experiences: no one home, a rejection or two, someone disinterested, someone too busy etc etc.

This didn’t stop Iain and Colin. They persevered until they found the lost sheep, the lost penny.  This is the whole point of those parables. Lost people have to be searched for.   And often it’s an inconvenience looking for them.

The shepherd had to fight his way through bushes and shrubs,  stumble over fallen trees, climb awkward rock faces etc – these are the 12 houses before finding the lady who is the subject of this story.

2) It’s good to go in pairs.  I think this is why Jesus send them out in two’s.  We need each other’s encouragement!

3) People want to know what the Church is on about! They want to know our message! And what drives us! What motivates us!

The gospel answers their cry. We just need to get it to them. This dear lady had been searching all her life, looking for someone to tell her what it’s all about.  The Holy Spirit works through clarity.  Jesus said in Matthew 13:23 that UNDERSTANDING is critical in conversion.  How long are we going to expect non-Christians to ‘get it’ when we throw out one liners and tit bits, bill boards, and news paper ads, hoping the’ll be able to piece together the disarray and make sense of it?

How tragic she had to wait until her twilight years before finding the truth.   Whose to blame here?

The truth is, we all are.
The denomination or church which does the best job of going into the world with a clear, accurate, and understandable gospel message will, without doubt, reap the greatest harvest.  The clear, faithful, gospel message is, and will always be, the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16).
When was the last time you heard a clear gospel message articulated in your church? When did you last articulate it?
Don’t criticize your minister or church.
Make haste to be part of the solution.
Food for thought.
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  • john cromarty says:

    2 days ago I found a similiar women who hasa been involved in Presbyterian, a maori house church ( which are usually very good and recently the mormans, i showed her and her partner the gospel presentation, she was still confused but said that she had been baptised by the maori house church – (I dont think they wud do that unless she had made a commitment – who knows – there is al ot of ocnfusion out there.
    Yesterday I found a young lady who was deeply grieving overthe death of her mother. She had turned her back on God because her mother who was a spiritualist had not made contact after she died – I dont quite folloow the reasoning there but I prayed for and her grief, gave her a track and she promosed to look at the Bible in 11 site ( she is a media student and I told her it was a fine example of modern communication – which it is)
    the other 33 houses had varing responses from indifference to friendly indifference, we are fishing and when we fish we get all sorts of stuff in the net.
    Moving to arrowtown on Sunday. most of Invercargill not door knocked as yet, but I have ploenty of time. My girls are still hard at it door knocking and doing a good job.
    Shalom
    John

    # 23 February 2012 at 11:02 am
  • john cromarty says:

    what languages do u have material in JuliaN, i AM GOING TO NEED JAPANESE, CHINESE, korean, german, french, isralie to name a few – i am going international.
    shalom
    john

    # 23 February 2012 at 11:16 am
  • Jono Millar says:

    I get my foreign language tracts from fellowshiptractleague.org and they are usually very good and you can get them for free though they appreciate donations.

    Jono

    # 24 February 2012 at 10:10 am

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