As a Christian, and a pastor, this theme is frequently on my mind. I believe what Jesus accomplished on the cross is absolutely critical to the eternal life of everyone. Without Jesus, people will go to their deaths and then to their judgment as sinners who will not qualify for life in Heaven. I want people to have a passage through death in a glorious eternity. It really depresses me to think that so many people won’t have this.
What can I do? What can you do? I can’t force anyone to have faith. Faith is a gift from God, not from me. Still, the Bible teaches us that disciples of Jesus do have a critical role in getting people connected to Jesus. We are witnesses.
What does it mean to be a witness? It means that people can see my life and hear my words and working through these, the Holy Spirit can create a critical link between a person and Jesus’ sacrifice on their behalf. The link isn’t exactly an intellectual thing. It is not merely understanding the story of Jesus and the promises of God connected with that story. The link is something deeper, something spiritual for lack of better words. My witness is intellectual. I can explain, argue, reason or whatever. That is all I can do. God does the rest.
Having the chance to speak about Jesus with those who do not know or believe is very difficult. People are not necessarily curious about it. In fact, they might be terribly resistant to it. Their resistance makes us reticent to even try to speak to them, and sometimes we don’t. But if we don’t speak, we will never know. And if we never invite a person to hear, they may not have the opportunity.
I would invite you to invite someone to attend something we are doing at Our Redeemer. You can do it on the internet if you are far away. We are calling it “Connect”. It is modeled after something done by many churches called “Alpha Course”. Connect is a series of discussions over dinner. If you can physically join us then email nicole@redeemerchurch.org. Otherwise, check out our YouTube page a couple of days after the actual event and you can see the main presentations. You will miss dinner, but some conversation can go on in the comment section. You can reach our YouTube page through our church website page for the event:http://www.redeemerchurch.org/connectseries.html
Here is the schedule:
Tuesday, January 16 “Is There More to Life than This?”
Tuesday, January 23 “Who is Jesus?”
Tuesday, January 30 “Why Did He Die?”
\Tuesday, February 6 “How Can I Be Saved?”
Saturday, February 10 “Who Is the Holy Spirit?”
“What is Baptism?”
“How Can I Make the Most of the Rest of My Life?” Tuesday, February 20 “How Do I Pray?”
Tuesday, February 27 “How Do I Resist Evil?”
Tuesday, March 6 “Why Should I Tell Others?”
Tuesday, March 13 “What About Church?”
I can also send you a participant book in pdf format if you would like. Just contact me at pastor@redeemerchurch.org
Giving Christ 