Devotions about sharing Christ
                    by Jim Found

Day One - Praying for Those who need Christ

I asked a student on Taiwan whether he had ever shared his faith.  He answered, "Yes, I did try it once, but it did not work.  So now I know I cannot do it."  One way to help overcome this kind of attitude is to understand more clearly the difference between our role and God's role.  Our role is to share; the results are out of our hands.  Please read 2 Corinthians 4:4-6. How does verse 4 explain the reason why some do not believe?  How does verse 5 describe our role?  In verse 6, who needs to be active in order for people to understand and believe?  Verse 6 can also be expressed as a prayer.  I asked a Chinese leader how I could pray for the Chinese.  He said "Pray that God would open the eyes of their hearts."  I invite you to use the thoughts of verse 6 to pray now for your loved ones who have not yet caught the love of Christ.

Day Two - Where's the Power?

In sharing God's Word with others, our hope is that our words would have an effect.  To find the key to effective witness, please read Romans 1:16.  What is it that has power to bring about salvation?  In saying this, it means that other things are excluded.  There are things we could say that may be true, but that do not have power.  For example, if we tell someone, "you shouldn't do that", the sentence is undoubtedly true, but it lacks the power to actually change the person's behavior.  That kind of sentence is "law", and note what the Bible says about how much power the law has by reading Romans 8:3-4.  The law is important, and necessary, but the law does not have the power to change people.  God however does have the power to change people, and the details of how He has done it is called the "gospel."  Let us pray that our conversation will be salted with gospel, so that God's power may come into play.

Day Three - Jesus at the Center

The apostle Paul knew that people at different stages required different kinds of messages.  To those who were already Christians, he had a lot to say, as stated in Acts 20:20.  But to those who were not yet trusting Jesus, his content was much more focussed, as we see in 1 Corinthians 2:2.  This content is called the "gospel," in its narrow sense, as defined for us in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.  ("Gospel" in the wider sense means "all the promises of God," as contrasted with the demands and threats of God.)  We can tell whether we are sharing Gospel by the first few words in our sentences.  If we start with "you should," we are probably about to speak the law.  If we start with "I have," we are about to share a testimony.  In order to share gospel as a way of life, we will want to accustom ourselves to starting sentences with "God will" and "Jesus has already."  Pray that these words of life will come often from our lips.

Day Four - The Spirit Falls

As Peter is speaking to the Roman household in Acts 10, a remarkable thing happens: read about it in Acts 10:44.  This certainly is our hope every time we are talking with someone who is in need of God's help.  So it is instructive to note what Peter was talking about when this happened.  The Spirit came upon these people, but he was not talking about the Spirit.  The Spirit came upon these people, but they were not praying for the Spirit.  Take a moment to read the verses that lead up to the wonderful result. Read Acts 10:36-44.  The Spirit falls as we talk about whom?  The details Peter shared about Jesus are found in each of the cases found in the book of Acts where the disciples took the opportunity to declare their faith.  There is always some statement of our human need (sins), some explanation of how God provided the solution through the work of Jesus (Jesus died and rose), some invitation to receive what God has done (believe), and some declaration of the results of trusting Jesus (forgiveness). Pray that the message of Jesus will be heard by all the people of the world -- and that God will prompt you to do your part.

Day Five - The Message

"I would like to be a Christian."  I was astonished to hear those words from an eighth grade student at our school in Taiwan.  Could someone that young, with no background, understand what could be involved in that wish?  Fortunately, at the time I was unloading boxes of English/Chinese Bibles from the back of my van, so I opened one up to Colossians 1:21 (I invite you to look at it with us).  Her version in Chinese said "Once you were God's enemies because of all the evil things you said and did."  When she told me that this was the way she felt about herself, we went on to verse 22.  Her version said, "But now God has made you into His friends again, through the death of His Son."  These two verses correspond to the first two areas that the apostles brought up when they shared in the Book of Acts.   Note that the beginning of verse 23 brings up the idea of faith (the third area in the "salvation message").  The end of verse 22 brings up the fourth area, "results."  When she told me that she did trust in Jesus, we turned together to verse 27, and then I asked her where Jesus was, based on her trust in Him.  "In my heart", she said.  Pray that the Spirit will continue to work miracles like this, not only on Taiwan, but with those whom God has placed around you.

Day Six - We Cannot Help it

The word "witnessing" conjures up various emotions: sometimes a fear of offending others, or guilt at lost opportunities, or wishing we were better prepared.  We can grow as a witness by noting the times when we have no trouble talking about something, and asking ourselves what keeps us from talking about God in that same natural way.  Our goal is to be able to say what the disciples said in Acts 4:20.  When my wife gets a new recipe, or I get a good deal on a used car, we cannot help but tell others about it.  We do not need to attend a training program first; it comes naturally.  When someone once asked me why my witness for Christ didn't flow that readily, I realized that my witnessing was not just a matter of learning some techniques, but that my witness was an accurate reflection of my spiritual state.  However, as we continue to live the life style of instantaneous repentance, trust in forgiveness, and submission to Jesus, we will grow to the point where we also, like the apostles, will not be able to hide the life that is at work within us.  Let us pray for spiritual growth that will spring forth spontaneously in natural witness.

Day Seven - It's about Promise

How can witnessing become part of daily life?  Read Acts 1:8.  The word "shall" here is not a command, as in "thou shalt be my witnesses."  It is a future tense, which makes it into a promise: "you will discover that you have become my witnesses."  Actually, everything we do is a witness -- of something.  Sometimes our words and actions demonstrate that God is the central factor in our lives, but at other times our natural reactions give a witness that God has been temporarily placed on the back shelf.  But the exciting part about the promise in this verse is not that we would witness -- we do that anyway -- but that our witness would be "of him", that is, of Jesus.  According to the verse, this happens as who takes over in our lives?  And how does the Spirit get to work in us?  Each time we catch ourselves in a word or action that communicates something other than the life of Jesus in us, we know the Spirit is on the job, as Jesus says in John 16:8.  And every time we're prompted to say  "I'm sorry -- no excuses -- please forgive me -- please change me", that return to Christ is also the Spirit in action, according to 1 Corinthians 12:3.  Let us thank God for this promise, and ask Him to bring it about in our personal lives.

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