Green Pastures and Still Waters
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Popular songs of our generation encourage and reflect the pursuit of one’s own way. “Go ahead with your own life but leave me alone.” “I take my chances every chance I get.” “I did it my way.” There are hundreds of ways this idea has been expressed in modern prose, poetry and art. A prophet named Isaiah also wrote about this idea. 2700 years ago he wrote, “All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned, every one, to his own way…” Of course “our own way” is portrayed today as bold, brave and novel. As if no one has ever “gone their own way” before. The truth is, the mess we are in as human beings started when Adam and Eve went their own way. Because they are our parents and we are under the curse, our default setting is “to go our own way.” There’s nothing cool, surprising or brave about that—it’s what we do. Isaiah went on to write something else in that verse, “And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” It is because we went our own way that the Son of God suffered and died. He took the penalty for our own way upon Himself and has made a way to get back on the path to life. If you want to swim upstream, don’t go your own way. If you want to live radical and contrary to the mainstream, join Jesus! His way is narrow but it leads to life. Most of the world is on the broad road that leads to destruction…I see nothing cool about that. Isaiah 53 was the central text in the explanation of life to the Ethiopian eunuch. We hope to consider it more fully on Sunday
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Started in 1962, it may be one of the world’s most recognized and used models for personal evangelism. There are many others but the simplicity of EE makes it user friendly for those without a lot of formal training. The foundational questions in EE are, “If you died today would you be in Heaven” and “Why would God let you in?” Those are good questions and everyone needs to wrestle with them at some point. Maybe you have another set of questions or an approach that works for you. Over the past 35 years I have received training in at least three evangelism models and attempted to equip others in some of these approaches as well. I’m not sure one is necessarily better than another because we are, at best, planting seeds and providing water. It is God who makes things grow and who brings life to the dead. Maybe we should be thinking more about “evangelism germination.” We don’t really need an explosion as much as we need people who will be obedient to the Holy Spirit and not be ashamed of the gospel. The Holy Spirit is at work in the world and we have good news. We’re not selling something. This is not a pyramid scheme. We should have a prayer list but let’s not refer to it as a “hit-list,” leave that one to the Baptist mafia. Jesus taught us that souls are like soils and frankly, there are some soils that are not that receptive. On the other hand, when we find good soil, it’s amazing how the seeds will grow. Let’s be looking for good soil and willing to prayerfully plant wherever we find it. Philip’s story on Sunday will provide a good illustration of how this may work.