God has brought me so far in my faith since I began college. Instead of writing a detailed synopsis of God’s work in my life over four years, which would be a 20 part blog series that only my mother would read, I am going to pick up where God has me now and address something that should be on every Christian’s mind.
I have gone through many struggles, doubts and convictions concerning the importance of spreading the Gospel in my life. Different methods all the way from stopping someone in their tracks with tracts to silently praying in hopes that someone would just stop and ask “Hey, why are you doing this, is it because of the Gospel or something? Please tell me!” have been the focus. While neither were very fruitful (for me at least) God had to show me the spectrum in order to reveal what his plan for the Gospel in my life is. For some reason the idea of spreading the Gospel, especially in conversation, has always scared the daylights out of me. Over the last year God has been revealing to me how important it is to understand the fact that the Gospel is not just words, but an exemplary lifestyle. Hearing this from God has been easy, but understanding it has proved to be difficult because I can honestly say I have never seen anyone live it out in this way.
I knew evangelism was more than a Gospel presentation, I knew that thy kingdom coming on earth was more than people just professing the title “Christian”, and I knew that Jesus never commisioned us to make Christians but disciples, I just didn’t know how they all fit together. I thought these were questions I needed answers to before I left the states, but since I have been in Honduras with Tony’s ministry I am starting to understand that God’s plan was to send me in order to show me.
Some advice that a friend, who was experienced in working with street kids, gave Tony when he got here was to not spread the Gospel for the first three months he was working in their community (please continue reading because if you don’t you will think I am a heretic). My first reaction was to think that his friend was crazy and had no idea what Jesus calls us to do in scripture. But as I took a step out of my bubble it made sense. Here it’s not anything special for white people to come and preach the Gospel, the problem is they expect the people to listen and believe in a message of God’s love when they haven’t even eaten in 3 days, or had clean clothes for a month. Their response: sure Gods loves the missionary, he is fed and clothed and well off, but what about the people listening? Needless to say Tony took this with a grain and what became of it was a ministry focused on quality disciplship to a people who saw God’s kingdom on earth through the meeting of physical and spiritual needs never expecting to receive hand-outs but expecting to work for the glory of God.
Now what I just explained is a work in progress, and, as anyone who has tried this knows, it is impossible without God. So, when do I get to spread the Gospel? The answer is it’s not a choice. If I’m living a Christian life I not only have to spread the Gospel, but I can’t stop spreading it. To get up everyday, crave intimacy with the Father, follow the practical example of the Son, and be sensitive to the voice of the Spirit is to live a life of the Gospel. Just as any good relationship works, one does not worry if he is doing things right or often enough, but is comforted in knowing that the love (especially God’s perfect love) overcomes imperfection and drives one to desire and enjoy acts of obedience.
