Passion for the lost? Or for Yourself…
OK. As of late I have been facing a very stressful situation. As many of you know my step-dad is approaching death. He has been my step-dad for about 15 years and I can count on one hand how many times I have shared the gospel with him. Why? At times I would say he will come to church soon, or it will be more effective if I just pray. ***Side-note – I hear people all the time saying Amen and Preach it! when different speakers talk about sharing the gospel. They get excited and say they agree that more people should. So if all those people ( myself included) are agreeing and making it look as though they are out witnessing, then why haven’t we seen significant growth?? So back to the Lost. In the past week the Lord has been burning a passion in my heart for my family and for the lost in general. I have also been convicted for my lack of passion for them and my immense passion for myself. We need to get serious and ask God to instill a passion in us that can be pushed down. A passion that burns so strong it almost hurts. A passion that can not be drowned out by our feelings, out emotions, or our laziness. We should not look at it as a chore but as an honor. We have all heard this preached. And maybe I already lost have my readers on this one because they figure this isnt for them… Funny thing is it probably is for them. Think about it though, your friends and your family can burn in hell for ever…. Or they can have Eternal Life with Christ Jesus Hell? That bad?Definitions:
- the place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits (dicionary.com)
- The place of eternal punishment, of extreme torment, etc.; the abode of evil spirits ( www.innvista.com/culture/religion/diction.htm)
- In the New Testament, hell is the place of judgment where God sends all evildoers to face fiery torture and everlasting punishment. ( www.bibleresourcecenter.forministry.com/vsItemDisplay.dsp&objectID=1C9C620D-4336-4B79-A93034AF9269A5C7&method=display)
So yeah those definition’s definitely break it down. The second one is the one that turned my head… Eternal punishment…EXTREME TORMENT… This is where people are going because of our selfish ways. Becasue of a mindset that says I cant or I wont or I dont have to. We never know when someone is going to die, but even if we did would be get off our lazy butts and witness to them? I knew my step father was dying, yet I did not share the gospel with him until very late in life. How many times as Christians have we done this? I don’t think I am the only one. How may times do we wait till the last minute? How many times have we seen friends or families self-destruct and only if they have had someone introduce them to Jesus it could have been avoided. We have a job as Christians. I think we are blessed with influence. God gives us our arena of people we can touch. This may include work friends, family, school buds; people you always hang out with. God has so strategically put this people in out lives because he knows we can influence them and share the gospel with them.What are you doing with your influence? Are you reaching the people in your circle? I think its great to go on missions trips, and travel the world to help people, but what the heck is the point of doign that if your life cant even effect the people who see you every day.
We has Christians need to get desperate and cry out to God. As you have heard preached we are only on this earth for a short time. What kind of impact are you going to make? Are more people goig to heaven because of you or are more people going to hell? Which train are you driving?
Karl, your deep thinking astounds me. How true it is that we often wait till the last second. one would think in a matter such as someone’s salvation we would not dawdle, but that is never the case. It is very often that i personally think “did i do enough?” was my witness sufficient to not just change people around me but to change the very “climate” I live in. who did I miss? I’m still learning this whole witnessing thing, but it seems as though i cant afford to be ill prepared… almost as though i had better learn fast or everything ive worked for will be blown away… I’m not gonna lie this makes me feel small, and helpless… in a good way
Not to get too technical here or anything, but I think most Christians, especially in the western world have very little concept of eternal punishment. It’s an uncomfortable doctrine and so we do our best to make ways around it, to not think about it, to not recognize the “lostness” of our friends and family and neighbors. There are many times when I wish I could just throw the whole idea of eternal damnation out…but ultimately I can’t and it forces me to recognize that I have a very real and important role to play on a daily basis. As you said – mission trips, etc. are great…but our first step into missions needs to be wherever we find ourselves right now – that has been one of the biggest motivations in the big decision I made to involve myself with an inner city ministry in Utica. How can I claim to be passionate about missions when I only do missions when I go to foreign countries? It has to be lived everyday!