The Lived Out Gospel by Judy Douglass

The young woman who would be my seatmate on a flight from Ghana had a very heavy carry-on bag. The overhead bin seemed full, but the coat of the man in front of us was taking up half of it. He told her that her bag was too big and that was his space. He was rude. She was bewildered. I spoke up, reminding him calmly but firmly that the bin was shared space and his coat could go on top of the suitcase. He grumbled as he lifted his coat out. I helped her lift her bag.

Later the young woman turned to me and said, “Why are you so different? Why did you do that for me?” We had a wonderful conversation about our Lord. This is evidence of the lived out gospel. (I wish I always lived it out well.)

When we share Christ with someone who doesn’t know us, God can use the combined power of the truth of the gospel and His grace to open a heart to repentance and salvation even using imperfect vessels like us to communicate His message. But often winning takes time and relationship, especially in a generation where relationship is supreme. We must live out the gospel before them even as we tell them the truth.

What does the lived out gospel look like? God gives us many characteristics of the Spirit-filled life as evidence of this. Three stand out to me as key.

Without question, the first is love. The Lord Jesus Himself said the first commandment is to love God, then others. He even said we are to love as He loved, which was to lay down his life. Are we to lay down our lives for others? Some of us may be asked to make that sacrifice. But most of us give our lives to people in love by giving of our time, our abilities, our finances. Sometimes love is just being there. Other times we love by listening, encouraging, praying. Sometimes we give the shirts off our backs, or buy a meal or provide shelter.

This lived out love that gives is a powerful witness.

A second witness is grace. Grace is often an unclear or vague concept for us, so here are a few synonyms to help us grasp the meaning of this essential truth: mercy, forgiveness, benevolence, charity, clemency, compassion, favor, forbearance, generosity, good will, goodness, indulgence, kindliness, kindness, leniency, pardon, reprieve, responsiveness, tenderness.

Grace doesn’t hold a grudge, or refuse to forgive, or demand what’s due or insist on its own way. Grace does overlook an offense, extend time or help, speak kindly when verbally attacked, believe the best about another.

Lived out grace is also a powerful witness.

A third evidence of walking with God is authenticity. How many times have you heard someone say something about “hypocrites in the church”? Authenticity means we speak truth in a generation with no absolutes, we live what we say as much as possible, we wear no masks. We consider the impact our words and actions have on those watching. We are even willing to be vulnerable. Those are risky actions. We could be misunderstood, disapproved of, even shunned—or taken advantage of. But we wouldn’t be hypocrites. We would be true, real—authentic.

And lived out authenticity is a powerful witness.

My prayer for you and for myself is that we will live out the gospel so that people actually see Jesus in us.

Used by permission from Judy Douglass

Meeting Needs

Maybe handing a tract to someone is not your idea of loving the nonbeliever, but handing them a box of groceries would be your best expression of God’s love to them.

I ran across a number of different Christian websites today letting you know how you can volunteer your time and reach people for Christ. I am listing them specifically on the Sower’s Tools and Tips blog and will add to them when I find more.

REMINDER: I also highly recommend a very good article by Tim Chester in The Sower’s online newspaper. Tim encourages us to reach out to nonbelievers instead of expecting them to come to us.

The Verbal Bombshell

Two VERY young boys, maybe ten and twelve-years old, walked up to me.

“Is it okay if we give you this literature?”

“No, it isn’t,” I replied. I stood up from my weeding project. “Jesus is fully God, guys. Seek the truth.”

They turned and left right away. I looked across the street to see two young girls also strolling up to our neighbor’s house. The girls were in their teens.

I know I did not handle that well. I probably missed a chance to have more of an impact in their lives, even briefly.

So, I pondered how I should have reflected a loving Christ to them. I could have given them a bit of my time and sympathized with how hard going door to door is in June. Being considerate and loving would have communicated more than dropping a verbal bombshell on them!

More help for reaching Jehovah’s Witnesses.

A Shot in the Dark

I was already awake at 3 AM, but this was not that unusual. It was only the second night and the hotel bed and I were still getting acquainted.

As I tried laying on one side and then the other, two muffled gunshots turned the night on like a key in an ignition. The once still night air was now filled with loud voices. I got up to peer through the curtains.

Just fifty yards from the hotel, a Waffle House parking lot was swarming with people, talking loudly. Most were in two large groups and more were inside the restaurant. I couldn’t help but think of a nest of agitated hornets. No one screamed and very few left in the next hour, instead, more cars kept coming. By the time the police arrived, every inch of the parking lot overflowed with cars and people. With binoculars, I could see the waitresses still working behind the counter. The crowd seemed unconcerned about the gunfire.

Although disruptive and disturbing the peace, the crowd spent many hours together. They probably started their night out several hours before midnight. Their need to belong and spend time together was out in the open for anyone to see. They were still buzzing loudly at 4 AM when I finally fell asleep.

In just a few hours, I was joining 3,000 people as we gathered in a very large auditorium for Sunday morning worship. I could not help but think about the contrast. Since we were visiting that day, we went in and out of a building in one hour’s time. The group we joined that morning was larger than the Waffle House crowd, but probably very few people outside the building were aware of us or what we were doing.

In John 13: 34 – 35, Jesus gives us a command and a promise: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this ALL MEN WILL KNOW that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If we want people to know we are followers of Christ, then we must think of ways to show love to fellow believers out in the public eye where others will see US and want to know HIM.

Unresponsive?

I placed ten packages on the counter.

Mike, the postal clerk, would be helping me for a while to get all my gifts weighed, stamped, and on their way. I tried a little friendly chatter, but he pretty much focused on his job.

After seven packages and just as many dead-end comments, Mike started handling the last three packages. I wanted these gifts insured.

As I watched Mike slap a UPC sticker on the first package, I commented, “Where would we be without bar codes?”

For some reason, this statement clicked with him and we got into a brief conversation about how dependant we can be on technology.

As we finished the last package, I handed Mike The Passage booklet.

“Thanks!” he exclaimed. “I will read it later. I need something to inspire me today.”

I am so glad I persisted in looking for an opportunity to be pleasant to Mike. I thought he had a distant personality, but in reality he had apparently had a bad day.

Mike’s whole mood changed and he joined the other clerk, another customer, and myself in a little friendly banter as I left the post office that day.

The Watch

I stopped at a jewelry counter and asked for a watch battery. Sarah’s store did not carry batteries. I pulled out The Passage tract to give to her.

“I’m a Christian,” she said and did something I have never had happen to me before. She asked for my name and my daughter’s name and shook our hands.

I also gave Sarah the Satisfied tract on the Spirit-filled life and suggested she share The Passage tract with someone.

Next, we moved down to the watch kiosk where we found Mirez; Rez for short.

I had given Mirez a tract more than two months before. When I asked if he had read it, he suddenly recognized who I was and enthusiastically explained that he still had it. I tried unsuccessfully to find out what he thought about it. Perhaps he had not read it yet.

Rez found the right watch battery while we chatted.

“How can we pray for you?” I asked Rez as we got ready to leave.

He didn’t know what to say, but mentioned that we were nice to him, so I told him that was because Jesus lived inside of us.

How many people were rude or just ignored Rez that he should remember our even briefer encounter from two months before?!

People are watching and aware of how we treat them. When they clock out at the end of the day, do they remember meeting you?

Do I See a Person or a Function?

From Max Lucado’s Facing Your Giants, pages137 -138

“She couldn’t do anything right…

“And I started to grumble. Not out loud, but in my thoughts. What’s the matter with service these days? … I boarded the plane feeling cocky… I took my seat knowing the flight was safe, since heaven knows, I’m essential to the work of God.

“Then I asked for the soda, the pillow… She blew the assignments, and I growled. Do you see what I was doing? Placing myself higher than the airline attendant. … Her job was to serve, and my job was to be served.

“Don’t look at me like that. Haven’t you felt a bit superior to someone? A parking lot attendant. The clerk at the grocery store. The peanut-seller at the game. The employee at the coat check. You’ve done what I did. . .

‘When I looked at the airline attendant, I didn’t see a human being; I saw a necessary commodity…”

[Then the stewardess approached Max Lucado and asked if he was the Christian author. Tears began to form in her eyes. She explained that she had received divorce papers that morning. She asked if he would pray for her.]

“I did. But both God and I knew she was not the only one needing prayer…

“Perhaps you could use a prayer too?

“…Do you still see people? Or do you see only their functions? Do you see people who need you, or do you see people beneath you?

“… Pursue humility. Humility doesn’t mean you think less of yourself but that you think of yourself less.”

The Jam Session

“I’m ready,” I said, as I stood in Jane’s doorway with a bag of jars.

A few weeks earlier, I had given jars of homemade strawberry freezer jam to several neighbors. Jane loved the jam so much that I offered to come over to her house and show her how easy it is to make. I brought empty jars and she had the ingredients ready.

“Mmmm! This is delicious!” Jane tasted the jam on her finger and gave some to her son.

We had a great time together.

This year I invited her over and we made gel candles together and shared some good laughs at our mistakes.

Jane had received Christ with me years ago, but got out of the habit of going to church and never seemed to have time to do a follow-up Bible study.

I thought of some other ideas for spending time getting to know your neighbors and just “being neighborly:”

• Have a Pampered Chef party
• Host a game or movie night
• Do crafts together
• Visit them regularly and learn their language or customs
• Clean trash from their yard
• Pick them up at the airport
• Walk with them when they take their little ones trick-or-treating
• Help with yard or house work
• Pass along your kids’ clothes or toys to their younger kids
• Have a “block party”
• Share food or plants from your garden
• Exercise together
• Meet other members of their family
• Go shopping together
• Go to events together (I went with Jane when she became a US citizen. She came with me to an Andre Kole presentation.)

The New Friend

“This is for you,” I said as I handed Elizabeth a Spanish Four Laws.

I was researching a deposit with our bank’s head teller and had noticed her cross necklace and the large fish symbol on her key chain.

“Thank you,” she said, as she glanced into the booklet

“What would you say if you were at the gates of Heaven and God asked you why He should let you in?” I queried.

I can’t remember her answer exactly, but as with most Catholics, I then explained about the thief on the cross who could not do any good works before he died.

After a few minutes’ conversation, I was pretty confident Elizabeth was a believer. She was looking at the tract again.

“You can share that with someone else if you like,” I offered.

“No, this is for me,” she quickly replied. “I had a bad week.” She stepped away from the front desk and began reading the booklet in the foyer.

That was last week. Yesterday, I had to go back to the bank. Elizabeth was at her usual place in the front, greeting customers. When I stepped in the door, she greeted me warmly.

“Hello!” She beamed and introduced me to a young man she was talking to. “This is Guillermo,” she said to me and then she introduced me to Guillermo, “This is my friend.”

“How are you, today?” I asked Elizabeth. She knew I was referring to our last conversation. “Can I pray for you?”

She was doing well and was glad for my prayers. In that setting, she was unwilling to share what her needs were. She indicated, though, that God knew her needs and she would tell me “next time.”

I was quite honored to be labeled a friend for the small amount of concern I had shown. (I think, also, she probably did not know my name at that moment.)

Just showing an interest in others, even if it is just enough to talk with them, can show them the love of Christ

Are you chatting with tellers, waitresses, sales clerks, and others? Add a comment here on the site or drop me an e-mail. I’d love to know how it is going for you as a sower in God’s harvest.

Goodies and the Good News

“I lost two pounds.”

Jose is a big man and he was looking right at me when he said this. I was mulling over what to do with this information and later was VERY glad I did not congratulate him. As a plumbing supervisor, he was not talking to me at all, but to his two assistants who were testing our house’s water pressure!

We were expecting a team of plumbers to come and replace all our pipes, so I made some brownies the day before and had them on the kitchen table with some tracts. Those brownies were a good way to share some tracts and start some spiritual conversations. All three men on the plumbing crew took brownies and tracts. I’ll have brownies on hand when another crew comes on Saturday to plaster all the holes in our walls!

One of the plumbing crew, Juan, was very polite and turned out to be a believer.

Later, as they were leaving, I handed a tract to Troy. “I’m a Mormon,” he stated, “but I have not been going since I was young.”
“Well, I believe Jesus is God,” I started to explain.

“So do we,” he said.

I did not know where to go with that statement, especially since they were getting ready to leave.

The next day, Roland from the plumbing company took brownies and a tract, but when I offered the brownies to the county inspector who came to check the plumbing, he said, “No, thanks,” patting his tummy. “Look at me; I just got back from a cruise.”

“Can I give you a little booklet about God?” I asked.

Again, Will refused. “It won’t do any good.” He started walking away as I tried to talk further, so I really have no idea what he meant by that.

Will was aware of the little harm a brownie could do, but knew nothing about the very real jeopardy he was in by living a life without God!