Week Six - Have You Forgotten?

One of the privileges of our current society is the opportunity to listen to and interact with people around the world through social media. Love it or hate it, it is an amazing avenue. 

This past Sunday, I enjoyed listening to the sermon from our first mission church. As the minister preached on the church’s responsibility to missions and evangelism, he put forward one challenging question that stuck in my mind. Trying to motivate the congregation to take up their individual responsibility in evangelism, he asked them, “Have you forgotten what it was like to live without Christ?

What a great question. Have we forgotten? Have we forgotten the fear and blindness of life without Christ? Have we forgotten the hopelessness and confusion? Have we forgotten what it is like to live without peace, trying to make our own peace, or that nagging feeling of inner desperation and turmoil? Have we forgotten what it is like to try to hold things together yet be always looking back over our shoulder because we felt something just isn’t right, something is missing?

This challenged my heart. How often do we rest in the love and assurance of Christ and forget the lost? How often do we enjoy fellowship with like-minded believers and forget the loneliness of the world around us? How often do we look to the Word for assurance and strength and forget there is no rest, no peace, no assurance with the ungodly? 

I remember arriving on the mission field and being totally overwhelmed with the fact that in a teeming crowd of shoppers on a Saturday afternoon, I could potentially be the only believer walking the streets. How would I ever begin to tell this many people about Jesus? I could hardly bear the pressure of my burden for the lost around me. And even now, I must keep my thoughts under control because my heart wants to burst forth with the gospel.

But the minister gave a simple illustration that afforded me an encouraging avenue for evangelism. He spoke of blowing the gentle seeds of the dandelion – letting them take air. Our testimony is the same. We need to let it take air – to gently blow the truth of the gospel as we live our lives. Then, let the wind of the Spirit take it to fertile ground. It reminded me of Ecclesiastes 11:1, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” We are to be casting, blowing, giving out, letting the Word of Christ flow into receptive hearts.

May we never forget that someone did the same for us. Someone took time to speak, give, show, or tell, and the Spirit lodged the Word into our hearts. Let us not forget that others need the same opportunity. Whether it be through social media or the personal spoken word, may we not be neglectful.  May we not forget – people still need Christ.