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

The Amazing Ministry of an “Ordinary Man”

I hope you will take a few minutes to watch this encouraging video.

Frank Jenner may have seemed ordinary on the outside, but spiritually, he was extraordinary!

Frank Jenner spoke just a two-sentence witness to ten people daily on George Street in Sydney, Australia. He may have spoken to over 100,000 people in the twenty-eight years of his ministry. For sixteen of those years he never knew if these brief conversations with strangers ever bore any fruit.

God arranged for him to learn that countless people from all over the world had not only responded to the Gospel, but went on to lead many others to Christ as well.

Whatever God calls you to do, even if it seems simple and even if you may never know the impact of your message, remain faithful and know that God is making an eternal harvest come from the seed you planted in someone’s life.

Music and Jovies

“Should I be spending so much time on this?” I wondered. I was putting together a new Sower Playlist for The Sower, with different artists and genres, to encourage believers to share their faith.

Within an hour of that doubt, I had an answer . . . from Yorkshire, England! Mike, from Yorkshire, found my playlist. I wrote back and told him about The Sower. He immediately visited and read last week’s post about Jehovah’s Witnesses. Mike wrote a comment about his concerns on what they teach, so I am putting together some resources about JW’s, or Jovies, as Mike calls them.

Music can be a common language for us to communicate with others. The “theme” for most of the music I selected for the Sower Playlist is encouragement or exhortation to share our faith. Some of the tracks also have a more general salvation theme. I hope I have included an artist or genre that you enjoy.

For more ideas for using music in evangelism, click here.

More help for reaching Jehovah’s Witnesses.

God Makes the Connections

“Hello. Who’s there? Who is this?” No one spoke when one of our Eastern European staff members answered his phone, but he heard breathing. Since the other person did not say anything, he hung up.

Later, the phone rang two more times. On the third time, a timid voice said, “This is Helena. I’m seventeen years old. I’ve been asking God to help me. I want to know more about God. I decided to call the number that was in my mind and see if God will answer me and help me.”

Then Helena invited Christ into her life over the phone with our staff member, . . . but that is not the end of the story!

Over the next few weeks, Helena’s friend, Alex, called. Then Andrey, Alex’s friend, and also Helena’s father! As God was changing the lives of Helena and her family and friends, others could see the changes and wanted to know more about Jesus.

God also made sure those who were searching found someone who could lead them to Christ.

Read the original real-life story from Eastern Europe.

Used by permission from my friends, Keith and Kay.

Tuned in to God’s Plan (excerpt)

“Craig Lawrence… started and ran two TV stations and owned an advertising agency in his home state of South Dakota. Yet he felt a growing sense of discontentment. One day he traveled to a retreat center to talk to God. He told his wife, Marcia, ‘I’m not coming back until God speaks.’ At the retreat center he dropped to his knees and cried tears over his seemingly wasted thirty-four years. He told God, ‘I’ll do anything and give You everything.’ Craig gave Christ control of his life that day, and the Holy Spirit stepped in to give him the power to live a meaningful life for God.

“[Dr. Bill Bright] met Craig shortly after his decision to live under the control of the Holy Spirit, when he agreed to serve as [Bill’s] communications director. His life completely changed and became an adventure in a way that his business success had never provided. In the 1990s Craig and Marcia felt God leading them to Mongolia, a country that had just been opened up to the gospel. The couple and their team were the largest delegation of Americans ever to visit the Communist nation at that time.

“While they were in their hotel room, a detail of Mongolian soldiers came to take Craig and the team members to a government office building. When a group of Mongolian politicians asked the group who they were, Craig replied, ‘We are men whose hearts have been changed by Jesus Christ. When we asked Him where we should go to tell of His love, He sent us here.’

“At that moment, a Mongolian committee was drafting a new constitution for the Mongolian people. The committee was stuck on the topic of religious freedom – they didn’t know how to write it into law. The leader asked the Christian team from the United States to help them write their constitution.

“. . . Eventually the team not only helped write the constitution but also helped start a TV station in Mongolia, a task that fit Craig’s past business experience so well. The new TV station carries many Christian programs, including testimonies from Mongolian Christians. Craig will tell you that he is an ordinary man but that God has turned his life into an extraordinary journey through the power of the Spirit.

“God calls each of us to serve Him in a unique way. Whatever He has designed for your life will fit your personality and will give you more joy and pleasure than any worldly attainment.”

–[Excerpt from Discover the Real Jesus by Bill Bright, pages 84-85]

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. ~ Ephesians 2: 10 NAS

Your Stories

Today’s post is for you.

I started the Sower on xanga.com on November 3, 2005. My first post was not even written by me, but was from a friend’s email. This post, The Harvest, is still very popular even two years later. In fact, I used an email from Janey again in my most recent post.

Almost all my relatives are Christians. I am not overseas. I am not on a campus. I have never served in the military. I do not go to work 9 to 5, but YOU do. If you have a story about sharing your faith, please comment here on this post. Your comment may encourage someone or spark an idea for someone else who has a similar situation as yours. Your comment may give someone a new perspective about a co-worker or new hope for a loved one, as this post from another friend’s email.

I have a few overseas stories from books and other sources, but this post about Bonnie Witherall came from a subscriber to the Sower

You can help expand the ministry of The Sower by sharing your stories. Your comment may even become a Sower post! I am specifically looking for stories outside of my experience, but ALL stories about sharing your faith are welcome. I don’t have very many stories about sharing with people of other faiths and would like some more of these.

We all look forward to reading your stories here in the comments of this post. Hopefully, this post will become a popular post, too, as we encourage and learn from each other.

A Walk By Faith

Strange noises from who knows what came out of the jungle. Every time Janey heard the strange sounds, she looked in the direction of the noise and fell into the underbrush . . . probably disturbing the “who-knows-whats” of the African bush.

Earlier, Janey and a group of others had traveled for hours and arrived at “who-knows-where” and decided to have a picnic. They had been showing the “Jesus” film near Illoran, Nigeria, and decided to take a little break from the showings at a beautiful waterfall. Afterwards, they discovered the van was stuck. The group found several young boys (ages 11-14) but even with their help they were unable to pull out the van.

Eventually, Janey was elected to follow this group of young boys back to their village to seek help from the chief, asking him to send strong men to move the van. So, Janey was trying to walk in pitch darkness in a Nigerian wilderness.

The walk was life changing.

Janey trekked for an hour in pitch darkness through rough terrain. When she turned toward a startling sound, she fell off the path and into the bushes. The eleven boys pulled her out and, although getting very dirty, she did not get hurt. However, after several falls, Janey was highly motivated to stay out of the underbrush. Providentially, she remembered principles from teaching middle school girls how to play basketball defensively.

The principle was for the girls to keep their eyes on the stomach of the opponents who had the ball, then they could anticipate where the opponent was really going. So, Janey determined to keep her eyes on the bright white shirt of one of the chief’s young sons in front of her. Where he moved, she moved….with each step. By keeping her eyes trained on him, and refusing to be distracted and look in the direction of the jungle noises, Janey was able to keep her balance and stop falling into the underbrush. The path seemed much smoother! Eventually she arrived safely at the village and help was sent.

Afterward, Janey pondered how true these principles of keeping our focus apply to our walk with God. We often find ourselves in various dark circumstances with plenty of unknowns screaming in our ears. Often this darkness and the noises distract us from following Christ, our hope, our rock, and our salvation.

When we determine to set our minds on Him, walking where He walks and following His lead, refusing to listen to the unknown noises, we are not shaken by the circumstances that surround us. Often, these very circumstances bring Him glory, when we choose to follow Him. God often puts us in uncomfortable circumstances to bring Him glory. The trek in the jungle didn’t just teach Janey a life principle to help her keep her focus on Christ, the village also experienced a life change.

The boys were from a Muslim village. The villagers fed Janey and her friends and gave them water to wash with. The group made friends with the villagers and promised to return with good news. Later, the film team returned with the “Jesus” film in the villagers’ language. After watching the film, the chief became a believer, and then the whole village did, too!

The scary circumstances enabled the group to go through an open door to bring the gospel to an entire village! God was glorified.

When we keep our focus, we don’t miss the opportunities, rewards, and adventures God has in store for us! We all need to keep our focus on Christ, regardless of the circumstances.

“For we walk by faith, not by sight” – 2 Corinthians 5:7 NASB

(This true story and faith lesson come from Janey N. and took place about twenty years ago.)

Ramadan

I could not keep my eyes off his name tag. The check-out clerk did not look Middle Eastern, but his name tag read, “Ramadan.” I knew Muslims fast during daylight hours for thirty days during the month of Ramadan.

“I have never seen anyone with that name,” I observed. “Is that your faith?”

“Yes,” Ramadan replied. “I was born during Ramadan.”

Since I knew Muslims have a great respect for Isa (Jesus), I offered him the Who is He mini-CD. Also, because I wondered whether Ramadan would be interested in printed material, I felt confident he would check out this small powerhouse tool. The minis-CD has an entire Bible, apologetics, the Gospel in 27 languages and more!)

You can also have a part in reaching Muslims for Christ through praying for them. TODAY begins the month-long observance of Ramadan. Since 1992, various groups have encouraged Christians to pray each day for the lost Muslims of the world during Ramadan. You can receive daily prayer requests through e-mail from this site or, if you prefer, go to this other site and click on a calendar for the prayer requests of that day.

Muslims are open and hungry for the Gospel and many are coming to Christ. According to Joel Rosenberg, more Muslims are coming to faith in Jesus today than in any other time in history. He also reported on a radio broadcast with Focus on the Family that the believers coming from Muslim backgrounds numbered 500 in Iran in 1979, the year the Ayatollah Khomeini took over. Because of his radicalism, many Muslims were disillusioned so that today, more than 1 million Iranians from a Shiite background have come to faith!

When the doors seemed to close to missionaries, the doors never closed for God!

According to 30-days.net, “80% of new Christians in South Asia come to Christ as a direct result of supernatural encounters. More than half of new believers in Iran have had a dream or vision of Jesus and at least 35% of all recent Turkish conversions were in response to a dream and/or vision.”

God promised people would see visions as we draw close to the Day of the Lord. (See Joel 2: 28 – 29. I just read today about an entire village that had a vision of Christ in the clouds which prepared their hearts for a “Jesus” film showing.)

Your love and prayers can change our world!

“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. . . For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?” ~ Matthew 4:44, 46a

The Seed of the Church

The details were grisly and shocking. The brutal murder of three Christians has the attention of many people in Turkey and around the world.

Susanne, the wife of the German missionary, told reporters, “Oh, God forgive them, for they know not what they do,” quoting Jesus’ words on the Cross.

Her words are powerful in a world where revenge is the norm.

We do not know at this time what the impact of the murders and of her forgiveness will have on Turkey. Throughout the centuries, wherever martyrdom occurs, the church grows. As Tertullian, the historian, wrote, “in the blood of the martyrs lies the seed of the Church”.

I am impressed today that I need to be praying. I am going to start a page in my prayer notebook to write the names of martyrs in order to pray for the good that God will bring.

The first ones I am adding are: Tilman Geske, Pastor Necati Aydin, and Ugur Yuksel.

Will you join with me in praying that the seed sown in Turkey will grow to bring many Turks into God’s kingdom? God will make sure their deaths were not in vain.

Operation Christmas Child

For many years, our family has been making shoe box gifts for Operation Christmas Child of Samaritan’s Purse International Relief. I knew Christian literature was included with our boxes, but did not think too much about the impact of these gifts until this year.

I read in Samaritan’s Purse’s literature about last year’s follow-up program. “More than 1.2 million children from 57 nations enrolled in the 10-lesson Bible study course… and over 430,000 have accepted Jesus into their hearts.”

I also read about an entire village in the Ukraine coming to Christ and starting a church because of the boxes their children received one year.