[URL=http://www.corkfpc.com/hypercalvinism.html]]]The Proper Way to Witness and Preach the Gospel[/URL]
Nathan wrote:I speak they think I am a genius which is really ******rediculous***** .
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Nathan wrote:..people just can't hold a conversation anymore.People I find are terribly uneducated to the point that when I speak they think I am a genius which is really rediculous.They don't even see when odd things happen around them.It concerns me that the words of Christ, "when I return will I find the faith upon the earth" may be meant to be a terrible warning.
Interesting post. You got my attention this morning - actually made me laugh out loud - the part about people thinking you a genius - not that you aren't, but just the way you expressed it.
In order for conversation to take place a few things have to occur - minds that are aware - which seem in short supply, and an interest in exchange - which is also in short supply. It's all about "me" doesn't allow for interest in another person which makes conversation uninteresting and unwanted.
The verse that you mentioned about Jesus saying "Will there be faith when I return?" seems to imply that there will not be. It is certainly true of the world today. There is religion, but is there faith?
Nathan wrote:People I find are terribly uneducated
'He told his friend John Wesley of his plan to begin "field-preaching." Wesley thought the scheme insane..
Before long, however, a scheduled execution brought it about. Whitefield’s heart had been broken by the coalminers at Kingswood, Bristol – men as violent as they were vulgar. Once the date for the hanging had been set the miners began anticipating the celebrations surrounding the entertainment. When the murder "cheated" them of their amusement by committing suicide, the miners dug up the corpse and partied around it.
They and their families were 100 percent illiterate, stuck in a degradation that defies description. Whitefield walked among them, in full clerical attire, and began speaking to them from Matthew 5: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Thoroughly despised and contemptuously shunned, these people found in Whitefield someone who loved them and therefore did not fear them. Grimy with caked-on dirt and coated in coal dust as they were, Whitefield wrote of them in his diary that as he preached he saw "the white gutters made by their tears down their black cheeks."
Cabbage wrote:You know we on the board are as thick as two short planks, so try to reach our level, please. ps Do I have to remove my speakers from my banger now?
Of course I will. Let's see, two short planks, if they are 1.5" thick makes 3" high.
Ah, no I can't reach down to that level. Well I could, but I'd never get up again.
Noooooooooo, don't remove the speakers, but do remember to give them breakfast every morning.
John UK wrote:"What is required to be a witness or testimony for Jesus Christ?"there are but two things required to be a witness for Jesus, and if you have those two things you can be assured you will have an effect.
there are but two things required to be a witness for Jesus, and if you have those two things you can be assured you will have an effect.
A couple of posts ago you told us that all we required was a car and a couple of loud speakers.
Now you are getting all profound and philosophical and confounding the troops. You know we on the board are as thick as two short planks, so try to reach our level, please.
ps Do I have to remove my speakers from my banger now?
Good question. But a better question is "What is required to be a witness or testimony for Jesus Christ?"After all, one could reach thousands a week with a message, yet have no effect whatever.
As I read scripture, there are but two things required to be a witness for Jesus, and if you have those two things you can be assured you will have an effect. You may have heard tell about the angler returning home who was asked, "Did you catch any?", to which he replied, "No....but I influenced quite a few." Ha. You know, friends, we are not in the business of 'influencing' sinners. We want to see people born anew, transformed, forgiven, saved from the eternal hell to which they're headed. We want to see trophies of God's grace, that God would vindicate his word in the preaching of the gospel.
The first thing needful is a genuine conversion. "He that hath the Son hath Life." Get Jesus, get Life; for HE IS LIFE.....and the way.....and the truth.
The second thing needful is fulness of the Spirit. Acts 1:8
What? Only two things?
Yes, only two things. With these two things, and a Gospel of John in your pocket (well read) you can be an effective witness for Christ.
God's word and God's Spirit.
"Preach the gospel at all times -- If necessary, use words."
-- Saint Francis of Assisi [URL=http://www.worldviewtube.com/video.php/1818]]]Ray Comfort[/URL]
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Actually I am of an open mind in reading Matthew McMahon's articles. He does bring out a good point that much of today's evangelism is watered down, resulting in false or very shallow conversions. This has led many to just give up on bringing the gospel to the unconverted. I am one of them, but the Lord has been pricking my heart to be faithful in the area of evangelism. It is a matter of methodology and the Lord leading me in the right presentation.
I was not witnessed to with the modern method. A co worker simply shared with me a few verses that the Lord used to sho me where I was at religiously and in my earthly desires (money). I was convicted. The seed was planted many years earlier before I took an interest in reading the bible and learning what it ad to say. One who is totally depraved has no such interest. I was not seeking after God prior to this point and had no desire prior to a particular time in high school when I came into contact with a group of Christian students who gave me a gospel booklet. At that time the seed was planted and the Lord began to bring it to fruition several years later. I didn't know about a sinner's prayer, I just bowd my head and surrendered my heart and life to Christ. I was a convicted sinner, lost, but God's grace saved me.
I know that some feel that Packer has "reneged" on his evangelicalism, but he makes a relevant point here.
"The Puritan type of evangelism, on the other hand, was the consistent expression in practice of the Puritans’ conviction that the conversion of a sinner is a gracious sovereign work of Divine power. We shall spend a little time elaborating this.
The Puritans did not use “conversion” and “regeneration” as technical terms, and so there are slight variations in usage. Perhaps the majority treated the words as synonyms, each denoting the whole process whereby God brings the sinner to his first act of faith. Their technical term for the process was effectual calling; calling being the Scriptural word used to describe the process in Rom. 8:30, 2 Th. 2:14, 2 Tim. 1:9, etc., and the adjective effectual being added to distinguish it from the ineffectual, external calling mentioned in Mt. 20:16, 22:14."
Also I would be interested in your comment upon this statement at ...
http://www.apuritansmind.com/Puritan%20Evangelism/MainPagePuritanEvangelism.htm
Perhaps not entirely up your street, but he raises a very interesting set of questions for todays evangelism.
Have you read "An Alarm to the Unconverted" by Joseph Alleine or "Call to the Unconverted" by Richard Baxter?
What are your thoughts?
I am trying to reestablish the way I witness too. I was taught the basic Roman's Road then repeat after me. I saw very little of the Holy Spirit drawing the sinner to Christ, but the power of my persuasion. I need to be more faithful and active in presenting the gospel to the unsaved, however I lean towards the old puritan preaching evangelism.
I know you and I differ in certain areas of theology, but I am trying to learn more from the puritans like Jonathan Edwards.
"It may be said that results justify their use; but the truth is that the majority of Finney’s “converts” backslid and fell away, and so, it seems, have the majority of those since Finney’s day whose “decision” has been secured by the use of such methods. Most modern evangelists seem to have given up expecting more than a small percentage of their “converts” to survive. It is not at all obvious that results justify such methods. We shall suggest later that they have a natural tendency to produce such a crop of false converts as has in fact resulted from their use."(JIP)
How did the Puritans do it.......
http://www.apuritansmind.com/Puritan%20Evangelism/JIPackerPuritanEvangelism.htm
Bro, did you survive the weekend? Not a whisper from you today. You all right, y'ol' beetroot?
I am happy to be among the living!
You are appreciated my pal.
Good to see you up and at em.
