Sharing the Good News

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  Mark 16:15 (NIV 1984)

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled on an incredible business opportunity. A week later, I found out a good friend had started working with this same business a couple of months prior. Imagine my surprise? My first thought was gladness. Yay, my friend found this great opportunity too! Maybe we can work together. But later, it occurred to me, that my friend had not shared this good news with me. It wasn’t my friend who told me about this amazing opportunity, but a total stranger. 

Gladness turned into sadness. Was I not worthy of my friend sharing this good news?

Then it hit me. Is this how I treat the good news of Jesus? If so, why?

Does everyone I know, know of my faith in our Creator? If not, why not?

How about total strangers? When they meet me, do they see Jesus in me? If not, why not?

Don’t worry; this is not about spreading guilt to anyone. Just something I thought we should talk about.

I remember being a young Christian and asked to shout “Jesus loves you!” from the car as a friend and I passed some people on a street corner. I was terrified! For my friend, this was his evangelism style, but me? Did I mention, TERRIFIED?

Since I was the first and only Christian in my family, again, I was terrified to tell anyone about my new found faith in Jesus. Condemnation was the name of the game in my family, so I could already hear the whispers before saying one word. Oh Toni, what have you gotten yourself into? Can you believe it, she will fall for anything? And so on…

What if I don’t say the right thing? What if I can’t answer their questions after I tell them Jesus loves them? What if I sound foolish? What if they make fun of me? What if they say something mean? What if they want to know more?

God, I am not equipped for this. I don’t know my way around the bible. I don’t know enough to tell anyone anything.

Have you been there too? Most of us have.

What I’ve learned over the years of stumbling my way through sharing the Gospel is this. It’s my job to pray for holy boldness and be obedient to the Holy Spirit and my job to share the good news just as someone else shared it with me. It’s God’s job to open the hearts of those whom I come in contact with and God’s job to tell me what to say.

It’s my job to be a loving person so others will see Jesus in me and God’s job to lead me to those He wants me to share this incredible news of salvation with.

The most effective evangelism is simply sharing what the love of Jesus means to us. There is nothing quite like personal experience. Whether finding joy in our Salvation, or telling of how Jesus helped us through a difficult time, sharing our journey paints a picture like none other.    

The last thing I want is for someone, someday, to say: “Toni, why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?” Or worse, “I didn’t know you were a Christian.

Someone once told me that Jesus loves me. Why would I not want to return the favor?

Father God, thank You for those incredible people who once took a chance and shared the love of Your Son with me. Thank You for allowing me the opportunity to share that same great love with others. Please help me share the gospel in a way that draws others unto You. In the matchless name of Jesus, amen.

In His embrace,

Toni

PS. Though it’s inappropriate to discuss the business opportunity here, feel free to email me privately for more information. toni@inHisembrace.com. I’ll be happy to share that good news too. ☺

 Find more about Toni at www.inHisembrace.com

2 comments to Sharing the Good News

  • Ann  says:

    Hey, Toni. Great post! And yes, I’ve felt “terrified” before. One occasion I’ll never forget was when I was in college and the young adult Bible study group I was in were having a street evangelism downtown. (This is a totally true story). They had group race games that anyone who wanted to play could join in. I got matched up with this group of 3 tough teenage boys that I thought would crunch me in a moment’s time, if they had the chance. Very intimidating!. I tried to share the love of Christ and the Gospel with them. I thought none of them wanted to hear me go on about God, but I did anyways. I told them about the Bible study and invited them. I thought “they’ll never come.” But one of those boys, the small scrawny member of the group, actually showed up the following week. I remember, several months later we were sharing in the Bible study how/when we each got saved and that same young man said it was the night of the street games and he thanked me for sharing the gospel with him. WOW! Never under-estimate the power of what God can do!

    • Toni  says:

      Wow Ann! That’s wonderful! We never know how or when the Lord is going to use us to bring someone else into the family. Yay God!!

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