Anybody remember Bible drills? Everyone lines up at the front of the Sunday school class. Everyone in ready position, one hand on the bottom of their faux leather bible, the other on top. No fingers allowed on any of the sides, for chance of those sneaky cheaters pre peeling those crisp ivory pages open a millisecond too early. Moments before the passage was blurted out by the leader you could hear a pin drop it would get so quiet. Then BAM, “Hosea 1:10” is called out and everyone is off to the races. Frantically flipping through every page. Each individual tries to remember how far past Psalms, (the mathematical center of the bible) Hosea truly is. One lucky soul opens directly to the page directly before Hosea and only has to turn over one sheet before yelling out “GOT IT.” Everyone else lets out a defeated gasp, shoulders fall, eyes roll, and heads are thrown upwards as they cry out to the Lord for help on the next one. The champion then proceeds to read the correct verse and receives the coveted first pick of the assortment of candy the teacher brought that morning. I myself was on the lucky end of a few of those -open directly to the right page- moments. They were truly glorious!
But, why did we do this? To familiarize ourselves with scripture right? We know the importance of reading scripture and hearing from God’s word and so it's a good way to have fun and familiarize ourselves with where passages are in the bible.
I’m convinced we need some sort of game or activity like this for sharing the gospel. I’ve been increasingly more convicted over the last six months to grow in my ability, and just obedience, to share the gospel with others. Admittedly I need to get better at this. But I have also noticed that there is a decreasing number of christians, that when asked to, even know how to articulate the Gospel or the faith that they have in Jesus. We seemingly need a game or at least some practice to help us in this area as well.
However, I feel as if we over complicate things and put too much pressure on ourselves. But that's just it, the success of our gospel conversations are not in how well we communicate it or how well practiced we are. But our success is truly just in the obedience of doing it. After all, who causes the life change? Who has the power to bring people from death to life? That is solely on God: We do not possess the power. The greatest gospel presentation is the one that happens.
Are you sharing the good news, the gospel, with others? If so, Amen, keep going. If not, how do we start? Is it practice so you’re ready when the moment arises, or has the Lord laid someone on your mind right now that you just need to go tell?
I’m grateful we attend a church that highly values sharing the Gospel. I pray you are too. We are the Church, Now let's go be the Church!
Peace and Blessings Church!
Bryant hart