You’ve put your faith in Christ, but now you want to tell others about Him. How do you go about sharing your faith?
Let’s start by discussing the essence of faith. What is it that people need to know?
People need to know:
- That God exists.
- That they can’t find God.
- That religion is man trying to find God— it’s illogical.
- That God must find man.
- That God wants to find man and establish relationship but he can’t because sin is in the way.
- That God made it possible to establish a relationship with man when he came and died on the cross to pay for man’s sin.
- That man must deal with sin, but he must deal with sin God’s way or it’s just religion.
- That when man confesses his sin to God and rests in the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God cleanses him of his sin.
- That through faith God establishes relationship.
- That a genuine relationship with God expresses itself through good works done in non-compulsory manner.
These truths represent pieces of a puzzle that people need to know in order to make a decision for God.
Your goal then is to assess where people are and share these truths appropriately.
Let’s go over them once again. I want to make sure you know what to say and feel comfortable sharing them.
God Doesn’t Exist
When people don’t believe that God exists, use this simple illustration to show them that He does!
Simply touch your watch and ask them, “If I took this watch apart and put all the pieces in a bag, what are the odds that the pieces would fall back together again— just by shaking the bag?”
Of course the answer is ZERO.
That because watches are the product of DESIGN not CHANCE. They happen on purpose, with a purpose. There is a MIND behind their creation. They don’t just fall together by chance.
The same is true for creation. The universe has design. It’s parts work together in unison with a purpose and on purpose. There had to be a mind behind it’s creation.
That’s how we know a Designer or God exists. Our world is just too complex to have happened through random events.
For a more in-depth look into this concept watch this video.
That a Designer exists, of course, naturally leads to the next question, “Can we know the designer?” Finding the answer to that question takes us to the next truth on our list of things people need to know:
Man Can’t Find God
Show people the logic of this statement. If man is FINITE, how could he ever wrap his mind around or understand an INFINITE God? How could he ever “find” God? He couldn’t. But he’ll try, and that’s what religion is all about.
Religion is Man Trying to Find God
Religion is man’s illogical attempt to find God. It doesn’t matter what the religion is. There are hundreds of different religions with thousands of different rules, all attempting to find God. Many Christian religions attempt to do this as well. The bottom line is that man cannot find God through self effort.
God Must Find Man
If it’s true that man can’t find God, it’s also true that God could find man— if He wanted to. The INFINITE could logically wrap His arms or mind around the FINITE. Right? So we can logically deduce that if man is ever going to make a connection with God, it’s got to be God’s ACTION not ours. God finding you doesn’t have anything to do with religion or church. It has to do with RELATIONSHIP.
God Wants to Find Man and Establish Relationship but He Can’t Because Sin Is In the Way
There was a time when God and man had relationship. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden. Their relationship was “theocentric” in nature— God centered. But then something happened. Man chose to go his own way. He became “egocentric” in nature. Without the resources of God, man became limited in nature. As a result, man can’t see the implication of his choices. Trying to produce love, he creates hate. Trying to bring peace, he brings war. A limited nature will always make mistakes and always fail.
But did God leave man to failure? No. He came to earth in the form of a man, Jesus Christ. Through his death, He paid for the consequences of sin so man doesn’t have to. Through His resurrection He created a sinless nature and offers it to man.
God Made it Possible to Establish a Relationship When He Came and Died on the Cross to Pay for Man’s Sin
Many think God is mad at them about the sin in their lives. But God isn’t mad. God is concerned about their fallen nature, the limited nature (ego) they acquired from Adam.
That’s why God entered the human stream. His goal was to create an alternate nature. You see, natures are the result of LIVES LIVED. God can’t just snap his fingers and produce a new nature. God had to enter the human stream and LIVE A LIFE so that He could offer a sinless nature (theocentric) to the world (this is discussed in my book Truth Based Thinking).
Man Must Deal with Sin, but He Must Deal with Sin God’s Way or It’s Just Religion
Remember, religion is man trying to find God. It’s man doing good works in an attempt to appease God. So now, if man, through self effort, attempts to “clean up his act” and deal with sin, isn’t he in violation of the laws of logic— that the infinite must find and HELP the finite?
So man in dealing with sin God’s way must do three things:
- He must acknowledge that his EGO separates him from God.
- He must acknowledge that he can’t fix his EGO problem on his own.
- He must come to God and ask God to fix his EGO problem.
When Man Confesses His Sin (Ego) to God and Rests in the Atoning Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, God Cleanses Him of His Sin and Gives Him a New Nature (Theocentric)
When man comes to God and confesses his sin (ego) problem to God, he is dealing with sin God’s way. God’s way of dealing with sin was to substitute His life (through Christ) for yours since you couldn’t deal with EGO on your own (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Man’s only work is to BELIEVE in the action of God— His death and resurrection (John 6:29). In this, God cleanses you of your sin. He gives you a new nature. The practical application of this can be understood by reading my article, How To Deal With Sin.
Through Faith God Establishes Relationship
Some people think faith is a religious concept, but faith s actually a commodity used by all— even atheists.
Ask yourself, “why do people drop their mail in a mailbox, then walk away? Letters hold some of our most precious items, yet we “trust” they will get where they are going. Why? Because we have an OBJECTIVE understanding of the postal system. We know that the government has taken responsibility for getting the mail delivered on time. We see the postal trucks as they drive through our neighborhoods, we have even talked to the mailman on deliveries. So we put our FAITH in the system.
The same is true for airplanes. Why do you trust your life to a man you have never met— the PILOT? Again, it’s because of an OBJECTIVE understanding of flying. You see airplanes in the sky. You can talk to people who have flown. You may even have a general understanding of aerodynamics, the laws that govern flight. Therefore you put your FAITH in a man you have never met.
Again, the same is true for the Designer. You look around, you see the awesomeness of creation, you realize that it couldn’t have happened by chance, you begin to develop an OBJECTIVE understanding of the Designer.
Then you realize that Christianity, at least DIRECTIONALLY, is correct. It’s premise is that God finds man i.e.. “God so loved the world that he…. came” — John 3:16. All other religions talk about man finding God i.e.. reincarnation, self-help etc. Christianity, at least gives you an OBJECTIVE place to start looking for God.
Then you read the Bible and you realize that God has been trying to FIND you, but that your sin is in the way. You realize that God is not mad at you but that He died to pay for your sins and He rose to create a new nature so He can birth it in you.
But can you TRUST the Bible? Is it OBJECTIVE? If it is, you could take a step of FAITH in exactly the same way you do in all the others aspects of your life— like mailing a letter, or flying on an airplane.
In my article, Can We Trust the Bible?, I discuss the objectivity of the Bible and why we CAN trust it.
What we discover is that all of life operates on faith. Real faith is always based on an OBJECTIVE IDEA. When we take a step of faith based on an objective idea, it allows us to EXPERIENCE the reality of that idea. If we hung back, we would never know if it were true or not.
In Christ we discover that He is REAL. Our step of faith allows us to EXPERIENCE Him. He FINDS us. He births us into His Kingdom and we become the sons and daughters of God.
He gives us our spiritual eyes back that were lost in the Garden of Eden. We can walk and talk with God (1 Corinthians 2:10-16)
This is what we have to help people understand.
A Genuine Relationship with God Expresses Itself Through Good Works Done in Non-Compulsory Manner
As we fall deeper and deeper in love with God, we want to obey Him.
In Psalm 19:12-13, King David asks God to save him from his “secret faults and presumptuous sins”. Notice that David’s desire to serve God is expressed in a non-compulsory manner. No one has a gun to David’s head— he WANTS to serve God through righteous works.
That’s the difference between someone who has found the REAL God and someone who is just going through the motions.
Remember, “religion” expects you to do things for God because you “have too” in order to be justified by Him. They are compulsory.
In “relationships” we do thing because we are motivated by love. As you read the Bible, you will be blown away by the things God did for you “in love”. When that gets a hold of you, you’ll desire to obey Him and do things “in love” for Him too.
How To Share These Truths
Now when you understand and have absorbed all of the pieces of the “sharing puzzle”, you can move forward in confidence no matter what you encounter.
Just share with people whatever seems natural at the moment.
As many of you know I am a Flight Attendant for a major national carrier. Often times I get to share with other Flight Attendants as we sit on our jump-seats. In the course of conversation sometimes people find out that I write a blog called, “Bible Made Simple”. Sometimes they’ll ask me where I go to church?
Guess what I say— what YOU could say?
Aware of the information they need in order for God to FIND THEM, I tell them that I have become disenchanted with church. I say, a lot churches are just religious and religion is just man’s attempt to find God. I say, “When you think about it, religion just doesn’t make any sense.” I say, “How can a FINITE person ever find an INFINITE God, anyway?” I tell them that it makes more sense to me that an INFINITE God could find me, the FINITE.
Depending on how interested they are, I either continue the conversation or let it die. For a lot of people this line of thinking is refreshing and it makes sense. They are willing to let me tell them what REAL FAITH is and how it works. They will let me tell them that real Christianity is a relationship. They will let me tell them why we can trust the Bible.
Other times people just tell me up front that they don’t believe in God. Again— guess what I say? I just point at my watch and say, “If I took this watch apart and put all the pieces in a bag, what are the odds that the pieces would fall back together again— just by shaking the bag?”….
The point I’m trying to make is that it’s easy to use all of the truths above, if you taken the time to internalize them and understand how they fit together. You can weave them in and out of conversations helping people on their conscious or unconscious quest for God as seems appropriate.
Conclusion
Earlier in my life, I was quite aggressive in my witnessing. You could find me on street corners engaging people in conversation about the Lord. Maybe I just grew out of that or maybe it just makes me feel uncomfortable to force people. Based on your personality, you have to decide. Over time I developed the above natural method of sharing. It works for me.
There are two other witnessing methods I’d quickly like to share with you though. I think they work and they feel natural to me as well.
One is called, Praying For You.
This is a book by Howard A. Tryon Jr. In this book Tryon shows you how to witness using prayer.
Basically this is how it works: when you meet someone who is having a problem, you ask them if it would be okay to keep them in your prayers. You keep a journal of the people you are praying for. Then each time you see that person you ask them how things are going. This gives you an opportunity to share with people as appropriate. People see you as a caring person and God gets to meet their needs through prayer.
The other method I like to use are Chick Tracts.
These are comic book booklets. I don’t use Chick Tracts face to face. Some do, but I like to leave them in hotel rooms and other places where people can find them. To me it’s more powerful for someone to be confronted with the truth of the gospel in the privacy of their own thoughts. It allows the Holy Spirit to work.
By going to their website, Chick Publications, you can read them online. Click on any title and they will open up.
I hope this information has been helpful to you. God bless you as you share your faith.
Maranatha!
