Johnny Depp to Speak at Atheists’ Convention

If you were invited to address the crowd that day, would you?

Last Friday we explored the priority of sharing Jesus with those who need salvation. How does this subject make you feel? If you’re like most of us, there’s a nagging fear in the back of your soul: What if you fail? What if you’re rejected? What if you hurt more than you help?

It’s better to leave ministry to the “ministers,” it seems.

What is behind our fear? We’re not afraid to tell people about our children (or grandchildren!) or the last movie we saw. But souls are eternal and we are fallen. We don’t want to make things worse. The medical oath, “First, do no harm,” seems to apply here. If another person’s eternity is up to us, they’re in trouble.

The bad news is, we’re right. The good news is, we’re right.

In The Insanity of God, Dr. Nik Ripken documents stories of non-Christians dreaming about the Bible or receiving it in otherwise miraculous ways. He reflected on the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch and asked himself, “How in the world did an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a man of color, and a foreigner get a copy of a scroll containing the book of Isaiah?”

He turned the question to God in prayer. In reply: “The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart: I have been doing this for a long time. If you will take My Word out into the world, I will get it in the right hands.”

The “son of peace” missionary strategy has been effective from Jesus’ day to ours. The Lord sent his disciples “into every town and place where he himself was about to go” (Luke 10:1). He told them to look for a “son of peace” in each town, someone who would receive their message and give them shelter and a base for ministry (v. 6). His disciples soon “returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!'” (v. 17).

Missionaries who follow this strategy today ask the Lord to lead them to the person the Spirit has already prepared to hear the gospel. Invariably he does, and a gospel movement begins in that community.

If you are afraid to share Christ, you can pray the same prayer today, with the same results. And remember, as my pastor in high school said: The will of God never leads where the grace of God cannot sustain.