people you impress”
~ Dr. Alvin Reid ~
There are passages I have read over and over, but all of a sudden they hit my like a two-by-four. As I was reading the passages Dr. Reid is referring to (John 3 & 4), it hit me how tender Jesus was with the Samaritan woman. Dr. Reid really explained it well in his article ‘Being Like Jesus ~ Part 2‘…
Jesus first talked to her about her physical need of water that will not make her thirsty again, and than pointed to the everlasting life through Him…
I think that I need to approach my witnessing the same way. Meet the physical needs of an unbeliever before I can point to Him. One thing I have always missed — I can’t share the Gospel with unbelievers and expect them to believe what I am saying. I need to bring it to the Lord. He is the One who can soften a hardened heart to receive the message, not me…
As I was listening to a sermon on 1 Corinthians 5 today, I was reminded that there is a difference between pointing out sin within the church and outside the church. Although Paul is talking about sexual sin in this passage, I think that I can apply it to other sins as well (please correct me if I am wrong). Paul says:
“I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people– not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” ~ 1 Corinthians 5:9-11 (ESV – emphasis mine)
I guess I have to learn how to apply that in my daily life and to my ‘witnessing strategy’…Meet the physical need first, pray that God will soften the hardened heart of an unbeliever (or even the heart of a prodigal) and than share the Gospel…
Lord of Heaven and Earth. I long to be Your hands and feet. I pray that You give me the wisdom to be a believable witness in this darkened world. It might not be me You have in mind to witness. Let me be quiet and listen to Your leading. Lord, I ask for discernment regarding matters within the church — that I first look at my own shortcomings before I point out the shortcomings of my bothers and sisters. I am trusting in Your mercy and grace. I pray in the precious name of my Lord and Savior, I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Will you join me in praying for unbelievers first? Every time you encounter someone, lift him/her up and ask Him to soften their hearts?
Please visit out hostess, Laurel at “Laurel Wreath” to read her and other Christian women’s take on this week’s IOW quote.
Blessings on your day and as always…
I too love the analogy of having to meet the physical needs before the spiritual needs can be approached. “He is the One who can soften a hardened heart to receive the message, not me…” AMEN. So many times we try to rely on our efforts, when in reality Christ just wants us to show them love. Sometimes we are responsible for planting, sometimes we water, and sometimes we help them grow, but in all times it is through Christ’s power that these occur.
Blessings.
Oh yes, Iris, you have it. There are two sets of rules of conduct, one for our treatment of fellow Christians, and one for our treatment of non-Christians. Non-Christians cannot have a complete morality as it is warped due to sin. Some are better than otehrs but if they do not know Him they are slaves to sin and must first come to Him. We can show them Him by meeting their physical needs, whether it be for companionship or for food. Then we can bring them into His prescence.
With fellow believers we need to make sure we do not have sin in an area (and it helps if it is one we have overcome y His grace) then we need to gently restore them (by holding them up in prayer and following His plan of bringing them back into the fold.)
What a lovely blog you have 🙂 I liked reading your thoughts on this IOW as well. Thank’s for stopping by my blog, Ill be happy to add your link to my blogroll 😀 God bless!
I too enjoyed reading how Jesus was so gentle with the Woman at the Well…..it’s an example of how patient he really has to be with me……..
Thanks for stopping my my site.
Blessings
Such a good reminder, Iris, to remember to pray for those lost around us. It’s the sinners Jesus went to reach out to first. Thanks for beautifully sharing.
Good thoughts. Prayer is SO vital when we witness. I’m continually impressed by how compassionate Jesus was with sinners (and how comfortable they were in his presence), as compared to his attitude toward the self-righteous Pharisees. Gives me hope that I can be “real” with God. The longer I’m a Christian, the more I understand my sin. Ouch! Praise God for his patience.
Prayer is the key. I was recently reminded of a quote I heard years ago, “You cannot talk to men about God until you have talked to God about men.” Witnessing without prayer usually falls on deaf ears and hard hearts because I have not first asked God to prepare the heart and ears to hear the message. Thank you! And thank you for the link to Dr. Reid’s article. I really enjoyed reading his message.
Thanks again!
God bless you this day
Maria in the UK
http://www.inhishands.co.uk
I really enjoyed this post.
Great message, Iris. You have such a gift of comfort in your writing.
It’s sort of like the concepts of our inner city schools here.. feed them before educating them.. they can’t concentrate or learn if they are busy hearing their tummy’s growl.
Great post Iris!
I enjoyed this post. Great thoughts. I’m joining you in praying for the lost. I also have a book that I mentioned a while back on my older blog about a missionary who believed in doing both: verbal witnessing, and meeting physical needs of the lost. I’ll have to find that book. Thanks again for your thoughts. How true. Have a blessed day.
You wrote, “Will you join me in praying for unbelievers first? Every time you encounter someone, lift him/her up and ask Him to soften their hearts?” Yes! Yes! and Yes!
Meet the physical need first, pray that God will soften the hardened heart of an unbeliever (or even the heart of a prodigal) and than share the Gospel…
Yes! This is so accurate! Meet them where they are- show them Christs love in tangible ways and plant the seeds of eternity. Thank you for sharing Iris, I really enjoyed this!
Heather
“He is the One who can soften a hardened heart to receive the message, not me…”
Amen to that! I always enjoy coming here! Blessing to you!
One thing I have always missed — I can’t share the Gospel with unbelievers and expect them to believe what I am saying. I need to bring it to the Lord. He is the One who can soften a hardened heart to receive the message, not me… Amen Iris! I kind of touched on this in my post about holiness.
(If this comes up twice it’s because it looked like I’d lost the other, lol.)
You said: One thing I have always missed — I can’t share the Gospel with unbelievers and expect them to believe what I am saying. I need to bring it to the Lord. He is the One who can soften a hardened heart to receive the message, not me…
Amen Iris! I kind of touched on this in my post about holiness.
Great post! I totally agree. Like Paul said, we must become all things to all people. We need to get down on the level of the hurting. We need to understand their pain before we can offer a solution for it!
You know, you’re absolutely right, Iris; what you’ve said is full of God’s wisdom.
I believe that sometimes the Lord releases us to actually speak the words of the Gospel, and sometimes He doesn’t. Sometimes we are seed planters, and sometimes we are harvest reapers. I think that most of us do a lot more “planting” than “harvesting,” and while some might lament about that, I believe that planting seeds and NURTURING them — by loving others, by living Christ-like lives, by, like you said, meeting the physical needs of unbelievers — is very, very important.
Years and years ago, I worked as an administrative secretary in a Christian men’s ministry. My sister came for a visit, and spent a day at the office with me. One of the guys I worked with invited her up to his office to “chat” with her. He had learned from me, before her arrival, that she was an unbeliever. Well, he shared the message of salvation with her with the best of intentions, but my sister was NOT receptive. She RESENTED him for it and was fairly put out (not to mention downright uncomfortable sitting in an office alone with a man she had just met!). I was very angry at this guy, I can tell you!
My sister has since given her life to the Lord, but I think I can safely say that it has nothing to do with the unfortunate incident with this well-meaning but misguided man.
(((hugs)))
Great post, and I enjoyed my vist. Thank you for shining God’s light on the Net!
I need to bring it to the Lord first. So often I try to take care of things myself without going to the Lord first. Thanks for the reminder.
I love it when we get those eye openers. 🙂 Did you know that I totally missed IOW this week. I was hoping to write my post this morning, but realized that night that the day was far to jam packed. I got up at 5 just to get going on it. And besides that, around 10 am I realized that it was Wednesday. 🙁