Go and make disciples...

These were some of Jesus' last words on the earth. Of all the things he could have shared with his disciples, he chose to save his most important instructions to them for last. Our instructions today, as God followers and disciples of Jesus Christ, haven't changed. Sharing our faith, or witnessing, as some like to call it, is something that has always confused me.

I have found that great problems can arise when you share your faith with somebody and try to get them to believe what you do, because usually you find that they are not half as excited about having a faith as you are. If you think about this, it really is quite silly to expect a complete stranger or even a casual acquaintance to throw themselves headlong in a lifelong commitment to a God they just heard about for the first time. Yet this is exactly what we expect to happen.

I always get very stressed wondering if I am witnessing and sharing my faith enough. I have tried having those conversations on the airplane with that person you know God put next to you for a reason. The whole flight you drop hints about Christianity and try to squeeze it into the conversation only to have them change the subject, get uncomfortable, and never ask you to pray with them to receive Christ. So what are we supposed to do? Do we continue to dutifully go around like this as Christians constantly making people uneasy with our religious talk all the while not getting much accomplished? I don't think so. Maybe my strategy, and our strategy needs to change. What did God mean when he appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and said, "I have appeared to you to appoint you as a minister and a witness to the things you have seen and the things I will show you?" What does it mean for you and I to be a minister and witness? As in virtually all things in life, I think we can find a great example of what this means by looking at the life of Jesus.

I have been thinking a lot about Jesus' life lately and reading about his interactions with people that have been recorded in the gospels and something very surprising has struck me. Jesus, in most instances, did not go around teaching and speaking miraculous words to people he ran into on the street, he usually spoke and taught only after being asked a question. Jesus used the curious questions from those around him as a open door to begin a dialogue about who he was. In the same way, we should use the curious questions that might come from those who observe the way we live to talk about who He is and why we live the way we do. 2 Timothy 4:2 says we are to "be prepared in season and out of season to preach the word" of what God has done in our life. 1 Peter 3:15 says we should, "be prepared to give an answer for the reason for the hope that we have." In either case we need to be prepared.

What if our job as believers is not to try and convert every person we encounter, but to be prepared to testify as a witness to what God is done in our life.