By Craig Etheredge: Be ready to give an answer for the hope that you have.

Questions

The restaurant was packed and busy, but we didn’t notice. We were deeply engaged in conversation. “But how can I believe that the Bible is true?” he asked. “I think it is just a bunch of good sayings and thoughts, but not without error, and I’m sure it has been changed over the years.” I had been inviting this person to church for months, and we had struck up a solid friendship. He knew where I stood with Jesus, and I knew where he stood. Often he would say things for the shock effect, but I never reacted. He liked that. On this day, we were tackling the questions he had about God, the Bible and eternity.

Many people have questions. The days when people just accept the fact of God’s existence or the reliability of the Scriptures are all but gone. Due to our pluralistic culture and the ability to travel and access information, the world is filled with many and various thoughts about God. Therefore, most people you share the Gospel with will have questions.

Now for many Christians, this scares them to death. Most of us feel woefully unprepared to lay out detailed arguments and intellectual support for the simple Gospel message. That kind of stuff is left to the scholars and experts. But you don’t need to be afraid of questions. In fact, questions are our friends. The more questions asked, the more we are talking about Jesus. The more we talk about Jesus, the more opportunity there is for God to work on people’s hearts.

In my experience, most questions that spiritually exploring people ask are either smokescreens or roadblocks. Just as a magician may throw smoke to cover up what he is doing on the stage, some people ask questions just to divert the conversation to something other than the simple Gospel message. These are stall tactics. Other people pose questions simply because they love to debate. They love the back-and-forth dialogue. They love to hear and make arguments. Some have a desire for learning, but they have no intention of actually placing their faith in Jesus. In each case, the person is using his or her questions as a smokescreen, but internally, there is no real desire to find truth.

There are also people who ask questions that are roadblocks keeping them from taking their next step toward Christ. They just can’t get past these questions, and therefore, they are stuck in their pursuit of Jesus. I truly believe my friend was hitting roadblocks the day we had lunch. He really had some issues he had to work through before he could legitimately pursue Jesus.

As you talk to your lost friends, it is important to pray God will give you discernment to know if their questions are smokescreens or roadblocks. For those who are throwing up smoke but have no real interest in investigating Jesus, you may not want to spend much time with them (Matthew 10:14 ESV). There are many people out there who are eager to hear the Gospel. Jesus said the field is “ripe for harvest,” (John 4.35 NIV). When those who are truly seeking get stuck on an issue, you want to help them explore the claims of Christ and find answers to their spiritual questions.

The Apostle Peter gives us some good counsel on this subject. “But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” (1 Peter 3.15 NIV). Peter was encouraging a church that was in the middle of intense persecution. They lived in a hostile environment. Peter’s message was, “Be sure you are putting Christ first in your life.”

The strongest evidence for Jesus is your changed life. As people see how you live and how you love Jesus, it will help them deal with the questions they are facing. Peter goes on to say, “Be ready to give an answer.” Other versions say, “Be ready to explain it;” “Make a defense;” “Give the reason for the hope that you have.” We need to be ready and prepared to answer key questions of the faith.

Remember, if you are asked a question to which you don’t know the answer, it is perfectly appropriate to simply say, “I don’t know. That’s a good question. Let’s look into this together.” Then you can do some research, find sources and unearth answers that address this particular problem. You do not have to have every answer ready all the time. You just need to be prepared to share the Gospel clearly and be available to help your friend work through these vexing questions.

Don’t ever forget that you have the truth, and you have the Holy Spirit. You don’t need more than that.

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By Craig Etheredge. Used with permission.

The post Roadblocks or Smokescreens? appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: Roadblocks or Smokescreens?

The post Roadblocks or Smokescreens? appeared first on Passion for Planting.

The Path

By Craig Etheredge: The path you choose determines your destination.

This is a simple way to share the Gospel. The Gospel begins, “in the beginning.” In our day and age, we cannot assume someone has a Biblical worldview, or even believes in a personal God. It’s best to start with the idea that God exists, that He created the world, and that He has a plan for your life.

As you sit down to share the Gospel, you want to start with the reason God created each one of us in the first place. When God created the world, He created people with the desire and capacity to know Him in a deep and personal way. All of us were created like this. We all desire to know God and discover His purpose for our lives.

As you share the Gospel, start out by drawing a line with an arrow on the end.

You may say something like this: “The path you choose in life determines your destination. If you are living in Dallas and you want to go to California, you won’t get on a highway headed east. You might end up in Georgia, but you will never get to California that way because the path you choose determines your destination. And in the same way, the path you choose in life determines what kind of life you will have and where you will end up. This line represents God’s path for your life. God created every person to know Him in a deep and personal way.”

Psalm 16:11 says, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Write “Path of Life” along the line.

Then continue: “Along this path you can know God. You can experience His peace and discover His purpose for your life, and you can have assurance that you will be with Him for eternity when you die.”

As you say those words, you can write them at the end of the path line — peace, purpose, assurance.

The Detour

We have traded God’s way for our way.

After you have drawn out God’s path of life and written the words “peace, purpose and assurance” at the end of the line, you are ready to describe the problem.

You may say, “While God has a path that is good for us, not everyone is on that path. All you have to do is look around to see that there is a lot of evil and hurt in this world. Something has gone terribly wrong.”

At this point, you can draw a line coming off God’s path that turns and goes in the opposite direction.

Say, “The problem is that we have lost our way and veered off course from God’s path. Isaiah 53:6 says, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way.” The Bible calls this straying away from God’s path sin. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In a very real way, we all have fallen short of God’s path. We have taken our own path, exchanging God’s way for our way. Although we may not realize it, we are going the opposite direction from God.

Now draw a vertical line in front of “my path” on the diagram, showing a dead end.

Say, “Ultimately, if we continue down this road, we will hit a wall. Usually this comes in the form of a crisis or difficulty. It is then that we realize we are missing something. We don’t have a relationship with God. We don’t have His peace. We don’t know His purpose. We don’t have assurance of what will happen to us when we die. Oftentimes, this wall is God’s way of getting our attention.”

You may want to pause here and see if that resonates with them. However, if we continue to go down this road, then ultimately we will hit the wall of God’s judgment.

Romans 14:12 says, So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Each one of us will have to stand before God and be judged for our sin. Because God is holy and perfect, He must judge the wrong in the world and the wrong in us.

Romans 6:23 says, For the wages of sin is death. We have sinned against God, and our sin is leading us down a road that is far from God and will end in not just physical death, but spiritual death and separation from God forever.

This is the bad news of the Bible. We’ve lost our own way, and we are powerless to get back on our own.

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By Craig Etheredge. Used by permission.

The post How to Share the Gospel appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: How to Share the Gospel

The post How to Share the Gospel appeared first on Passion for Planting.