by Jim Putman: Sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with others can be difficult—even daunting. Sharing the gospel means revealing the most personal aspect of our lives. It’s the core of who we are! And sharing that with someone can be just plain ol’ scary.
But if we’re going to be like Jesus, we need to share like Jesus shared. The most important thing about how Jesus shared is that He spent so much time with His disciples. They got to know just who Jesus was. Not only did they eat and travel and talk and study and serve and go to church together, but Jesus also shared even the most intimate, heart-wrenching part of His life with His disciples. When Jesus prayed the evening before His crucifixion, He wasn’t alone.
That’s how Jesus shared. Everything. The good. The bad. The ugly..
If we are going to share like Jesus shared, we have to be totally honest and transparent with ourselves and with others. We have to let people into our lives, and we have to enter theirs. When you are living with integrity, letting others see the real you, Jesus should to be what people see. Of course, no one is going to be a perfect representation of Jesus. But if we squint real close, and smudge some of the grime, we should be able to see Christ working in the midst of all our muck.
That’s the point of doing Real Life with people. We are empowered and driven by the Holy Spirit to reach out to others, to show them the love of Christ (John 13:35), and then to tell them about what makes us so different. Even if your different is only a little different, it’ll become a lot of difference as you continue to let God change you.
But Jesus didn’t limit his sharing to actions alone. He also spoke. That means we’re probably going to have to say something about our faith, too—if we want to share like Jesus shared. We have to invite our unsaved friends to church, to serve, to a small group, or even just out to coffee if they’re wary of Christianity. We have to tell them the truth: we’re all messed up and fall short of reaching heaven, but Jesus provided the way for us to be in a relationship with Him again through His death.
When it comes to sharing the gospel, there’s our part, their part, and God’s part. God’s part is to soften our friend’s heart and prepare him to hear about the gospel. Our part is to actually share that gospel with him! And then his part is to decide what he’s going to do with that. (Matthew 13:1-43) We may have to share the same gospel several times with the same person over the years. The point is that we do share. We do share who we are, how God is working in our lives, and how God wants to work in his life, too.
Written by Jim Putman
This was originally posted on Jim Putman’s blog here. Used with permission.