“Who is Jesus?” This is a question that you would expect to hear in a different country where the name of Jesus has never been spoke. I never thought I would be asked it here in America. That assumption was wrong. This was a question I was asked by a teenager who lives in Missouri. A question that when he first asked if I thought he was joking, but when I saw his face he was completely serious. Him asking me this question has been on my mind so much. How could someone that has lived in the Bible Belt all of his life never even heard the name of Jesus? And this was a question I asked a friend because I just could not understand it. His answer: “If a generation becomes disconnected from the church and then the next generation and the next generation follows how are they to hear about Jesus if we as Christians aren’t doing anything to share His name.”
The question is how are followers of Christ reaching those who don’t have a relationship with Him? If in America we continue to do nothing in our own backyards I am scared this is going to become more and more common. If you can’t even share about Jesus to your next door neighbors what makes it okay to go across an ocean and share about Jesus to complete strangers whom you have absolutely no relationships with?
We have so much freedom in America. Many of us have multiple Bibles. A lot of these are probably sitting on our shelves just collecting dust. We can talk about Jesus with our friends and family and public and not be afraid of getting arrested. We can go to church without worrying about police barging in and escorting us to prison. So why aren’t we taking advantage of this? Why are we not out there sharing about God’s love for us? Is it because we are to scared or is because we think we are going to say the wrong words? Fear is always a factor, but we can’t let that get in the way of us doing what we are called to do as Followers of Christ. I encourage you, if you know someone who is not a Christian and I ‘m sure you do. Talk to them about Jesus! A good way to start out “Hey can I tell you something that happened and it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.” Almost a guarantee the person will not say no. Then start sharing your testimony. Your testimony is one of the strongest tools you have to sharing about Christ.
I will end with this quote by Oswald Chambers, “We talk of the second coming, while half of the world has not even heard about the first.” Let’s start sharing Christ with those who are around us and start making a difference in our own neighborhoods.
