Be Passionate Enough About Sharing Your Faith to Crawl Across Broken Glass to Save a Soul
Do you have a sense of urgency to share your faith with everyone around you?
Do you feel desperate to convey the gospel to anyone who will listen….. or are you keeping the hope of salvation quietly tucked away where very few people ever catch a glimpse of it. I heard the following story a few weeks ago and I simply cannot get it out of my head so I wanted to share it with you and encourage you to share Jesus with those around you. Even on your worst day, you have a hope and a purpose that those without faith just don’t have. If ever there was a time to share more hope it would be 2020. I don’t think that even needs to be said. In this world where so much is uncertain, God is our hope.
Romans 15:13
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Leonard Ravenhill wrote in Why Revival Tarries (p.32):
Charlie Peace was a criminal. Laws of God or man curbed him not. Finally the law caught up with him, and he was condemned to death. On the fatal morning in Armley Jail, Leeds, England, he was taken on the death-walk. Before him went the prison chaplain, routinely and sleepily reading some Bible verses. The criminal touched the preacher and asked what he was reading. “The Consolations of Religion,” was the reply. Charlie Peace was shocked at the way he professionally read about hell. Could a man be so unmoved under the very shadow of the scaffold as to lead a fellow-human there and yet, dry-eyed, read of a pit that has no bottom into which this fellow must fall? Could this preacher believe the words that there is an eternal fire that never consumes its victims, and yet slide over the phrase with a tremor? Is a man human at all who can say with no tears, “You will be eternally dying and yet never know the relief that death brings”? All this was too much for Charlie Peace. So he preached. Listen to his on-the-eve-of-hell sermon:
“Sir,” addressing the preacher, “if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!
An unbeliever sentenced to death had more passion for the gospel than the preacher!
This man whose life had been consumed by deceit, crime and ultimately prison for murder knew he was going to be put to death and that there was a real likelihood if this Christian fella was right he was definitely going straight to the pits of hell. We don’t know if Charlie Peace repented and received salvation before his execution. However, we do know that he had heard the gospel and was keenly aware that the preacher sharing it with him for the last time was severely lacking in his passionate plea for this man’s soul to receive redemption of his soul through the blood of Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:54-58
54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
What if God put YOU in the perfect place to reach those that nobody else will reach? What if? What if he is using YOU to share the love of Jesus with that person who may not hear it from anyone else. What if tomorrow was too late for that person? I myself am convicted as I write this, I could do better to share my faith. This isn’t about condemnation, it is about conviction to do better…and if I light a bit of a fire under your hiney and mine that is okay too. This is important. This is someone’s eternal salvation we are talking about right here.
What would YOU do to spare someone from eternal damnation?
What would YOU do to spare someone from eternal damnation? A criminal would have crawled across an entire country on broken glass because he saw the significance of this claim of redemption…even if he didn’t believe it to be true. With people running around in every direction looking for hope, we need to share the truth of God’s hope.
Ephesians 1:18-19
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
People will rarely turn down an offer to be prayed over
You may be left feeling convicted, but completely unclear how to do this. I have a few easy tips for you. First off, if you get the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with someone DO IT. I have found the easiest way to do this is if they are sharing a challenge with you to tell them that Jesus truly cares and ask if you can pray for them. This might be terrifying to you, but I want to reassure you that most people will not turn down the offer of praying over them even if they don’t believe. Prayer is powerful. Take the pressure off of yourself and trust that the Holy Spirit will guide your words.
You aren't big enough to screw up God's plans!
If this doesn’t bring you comfort, let me interject a short story here…Many times I have prayed for someone and I was distracted from where my focus should have been. I have even apologized to people later for not being mentally present. EVERY time people have told me how blessed they were by the prayer or come up to me later and told me how much the prayer meant to them that day….many times I don’t even remember what I said. My point is this….God has this prayer thing handled as long as you are a willing vessel. God will move on that person how he deems appropriate regardless of what happens to fall out of your mouth. You aren’t big enough to screw up God’s plans!
Share what God has done in your life
Next tip…sharing what God has done in your life is a testimony that nobody can argue with. (I recommend the five minute version, not the 1 hour version.) This makes you relatable and shows that you know what it is to trust God through trials and they can too. Bottom line, don’t preach, show compassion for the lost, develop caring relationships, offer prayer and share how much Jesus loves each one of us. You may not feel equipped to be used by God, by he has put you in this exact moment with this specific unsaved soul. Prepare to submit to God’s will and bless someone’s life.
God desires that not one soul would be lost.
NOT ONE!
1 Peter 1:3-9
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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