Here’s an excerpt:

Day 4
God never meant the Christian life to be lived on an island.

To Read
“And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” 1 Corinthians 12:26-27

To Consider
Ask the average individual, “What is your deepest misery?” Many would answer in one word, “loneliness.” Suicide notes have been left by people that basically said, “I am extremely lonely.”

On the human level, Christians have two words that answer the problem of loneliness – “each other.” Why do we need each other? One reason the Bible gives is so we can shoulder one another’s troubles and triumphs. After using the analogy of the human body and the phrase, “that the members should have the same care for one another,” Paul continues, “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; and if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” Such companionship is so real that as you are going through trouble, you don’t feel like you are going through it alone. And when you are honored, you feel somebody else is excited with you. The burden seems half the weight and the triumph is twice as exciting.

Non-Christians are attracted to that kind of togetherness. They recognize it as something they have missed out on. Loneliness has permeated their lives and try as they do, nothing fills the gaps. It’s no wonder that the book of Acts records an incident of believers so caring for one another during times of persecution that they sold their possessions and distributed to those in need. The end result was they were “praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). The believers understood a basic truth. God never meant the Christian life to be lived on an island.

To Illustrate
A man had a dream one night in which every person at a great banquet had his or her right arm in a cast. They couldn’t feed themselves and hence became greatly frustrated. But they soon figured out how to do it. Each one extended his arm to the person on the other side and fed that individual. They lived through feeding one another. Loneliness would have enhanced the problem. Togetherness solved it.

To Meditate
When it comes to the body of Christ, the thought ought never be, “I can handle it myself,” but instead, “We can handle it together.”

To Pray
Ask God to use your gifts and abilities to contribute to the growth and unity of a local body of believers. Ask Him to show you ways this week that you can contribute to that spirit of togetherness.

1. Have you looked at television lately? Millions and millions of people see us portrayed as idiots on TV every day! You might say, well we have Christian stations. Have you watched the Christian stations? No, you have not. Why? Because they are mostly lousy TV. Buried in that lousy TV might be a wonderful message, in fact, many fine pastors have a caring, thoughtful, Biblical message. Those pastors are featured usually on Sunday morning when non-believers are playing golf, sleeping, fixing breakfast, or at the lake. Where is the Christian portrayed in the many thousands of helpful ways that we contribute to the welfare of others? How about the work of Christians at times of disaster? Or the work of Christians in the armed services defending our country? No place. We are portrayed as idiots or zealots or political animals or people fighting over property – not very smart, behind the times, not relevant, lowbrows.

We are portrayed as people who cannot have an intelligent conversation with a nonbeliever who has a serious, sincere question that demands a serious, sincere answer. Our reputation is lousy on TV, because we absolutely do NOT have a broadcast or cable competitive TV network that is the intellectual, and music, and thoughtful worldview analysis showcase that Christ deserves. Shame on us for letting this happen. I challenge the Christian business community to redeem the Christian reputation by floating a Christian business “bond issue” to fund, and operate, a Christ-worthy competitor to cable programming. Soon the commercial value of the station would be proven. We could start by buying the Hallmark Channel and build on the base of family–oriented movies by creating prime-time and daytime programming that uplifts people and creates competitors to news, documentary, education, sports, commentary, and intelligent debate. Let’s give people something significant to really talk about in the break room.

2. Have you learned a clear and simple method to share the gospel when God gives you and opportunity? Do you know how to share the gospel in a simple conversational way that reflects the fact that you believe it and try to live it every day even if you fail? Can you say in 3 minutes or less what your life was like before you trusted Christ for your salvation and what God has done for you? Do you know what to say if someone says that “all religious are equally good to get you to heaven”? Do you have the answers to the 2 or 3 most common questions that non-believers ask? Can you find the key elements of our faith in the Bible? Do you read the Bible yourself?

Watch for the posts on this site. We are going to give you those questions and answers. We are going to decode Christian talk. We are going to show you how to share the gospel.

Yes, we need relationships. But, Andy, we already have the right and the duty to share the gospel – we can’t earn it. And we have ample examples of relationships we already have with dear people with whom we have not shared the gospel because we don’t know how or we’re scared to do so. So we need to learn how to do the one most important thing for everyone we know – make sure our friends on earth are our friends in heaven!

I appreciate Andy’s focus on each Christian’s need to establish Christ-worthy relationships with nonbelievers, indeed, with everyone, believer or not. And I think he is reacting to a very real issue of our reputation.

Some of our poor reputation is certainly deserved. We often don’t live the Christian life well enough for anyone to observe it! Maybe we don’t even tell people we’re trying! We can’t share the gospel if we: Don’t fortify ourselves with the Word. Don’t ask God for opportunities. Don’t give ourselves away to someone else. Don’t take a risk by offering to actually help someone else who is in trouble or hurting, not worrying about what will happen next! If that’s Andy’s point, then “relationship” means relationship first with God that empowers a person to have a fine relationship with anyone they know or meet. Hardly any of us pray enough for opportunities to share the gospel that the Lord wants to give us!

But I disagree with Andy strongly on one point: We need not “earn the right” to share the gospel! Every believer is told to share the Good News – it’s a simple message of grace and faith, and every one of us sinful servants is charged to take that message wherever we go and share it. Sharing the gospel is a command given to us by our King, and we need to learn how to do it so that it is in keeping with His Word and can be heard and understood by the non-believer. Nowhere does the Bible say we are to accost people with the gospel. Neither does it say we have to “earn” the right to share the gospel.

Our King might expect someone to, “Take the train over there and give the message to those folks at your office.” He might say, “Kindly think of your office as a mission field where I have sent you, and forget going to some foreign place. I’ve had to send some folks from the foreign place to your town! Where were you? You know more about the people in your office than those folks I’ve sent from the foreign place.” We need to learn the message and go where we have already been sent, use the talents we have been given, and think about how to share the gospel with our friends so it can be heard, without driving them nuts and gagging them with platitudes. We can learn that from Paul, actually. We really have to trust the King to decide where we are sent and who will hear us when we get there. Here are some proven tips for sharing Christ in the workplace from You Can Tell It! a way of sharing the gospel that is used by thousands of people all around the world:

1. Prepare for the BEST not the WORST. Most of the time, what we worry about never even happens. On the basis of John 4:35 and 1 Timothy 2:4 we have every reason to be optimistic about our earnest and loving attempts to share the gospel with someone who knows us.

2. People respond DIFFERENTLY. People are at different stages of spiritual readiness to hear the gospel. Recognize that God may use us to do some “sowing” of the gospel message and for others we may do the “reaping.” (John 4:36-38)

3. God holds us responsible for CONTACT not CONVERSION. Relax! Evangelism is sharing the good news of Christ with the intent of seeing the person trust Christ for their salvation. Whether or not the person DOES trust Christ for their salvation is God’s responsibility! God asks us to bring Christ to the lost (share the message), not to bring the lost to Christ (John 6:44)! Just think about presenting the gospel clearly and simply. Forget counting converts – it’s really not our job. God is a God of grace. His love for us is not based on our performance! It’s based on His Son’s performance on the cross. For that reason, if you blow it, God does not think any less of you than if you led 100 people to Christ. You can develop your understanding of how to share the gospel knowing that you have God’s message and you are the messenger.

Your first assignment is to look at the two videos on our page marked VIDEO. Those are a very short, and a medium length gospel presentations. You can watch them in your pajamas at home! Pray for someone you know that you would like to tell about your love for Jesus and His impact on your life and salvation. Pray that God will give you a private, comfortable way to talk with them about the gospel.

So it is with the work God calls all Christians to do: Trust the Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation. Go fish for men. Share the gospel. Feed the hungry; clothe the naked; give drink to the thirsty; be merciful; act in humility. There they are. The services of God distributed through the living channel of regular people like us.

Sometimes, though, the most elaborate distribution channels just don’t work. In Myanmar (Burma), the bigger the infrastructure the more impossible it is to use! Politics and geography make it so obvious that we are not in control. All the organizations of might – armies, navies, big benevolence organizations – all are struggling to fulfill a humanitarian mission in Myanmar.

What’s needed is a huge network of money moving toward the disaster, safely delivered directly to people who know the needs of their village, managed by trustworthy people. What’s needed is a broad, effective, simple infrastructure, provided in the heart languages of Myanmar, ready to serve in place in the country, composed of thousands of indigenous people in the cyclone-struck areas.

This simple-to-operate network exists in Myanmar and around the world! The network has been constructed by God and EvanTell, a ministry of gospel trainers and tellers headquartered in Dallas, TX. Founded thirty-five years ago by Dr. R. Larry Moyer, EvanTell focuses on a single thing: equipping people around the world to share the gospel clearly and simply, building networks of Christians who help each other. They build networks of people to do it – just like Paul did! Around the world EvanTell’s network delivers five million gospel presentations each year! Gospel materials in 55+ languages make it easy to share.

The result of this 35-year effort is something that only God and single-minded people could build – a network of millions of people built on the concepts of multiplication and compounding. All of us in business know what that means – leverage – every dollar spent in mission and disaster relief is compounded in the network.

Think about it. Indigenous missionaries on the ground serve today in Myanmar’s physical, emotional, and spiritual relief effort, each one living in an area where they know their neighbors, co-workers, and friends.

EvanTell is using this network in Myanmar right now. They can get the money, message, and relief materiel distributed through the 67 Gospel Trainers and 16,000 trained people they have in Myanmar. They cannot be stopped at the airport or anywhere else! They use their expertise in the language, geography, and partnerships in the cyclone-hit area. EvanTell can reach them and they can reach their friends and family and co-workers. The network is PEOPLE, just in the days of Christ. It’s working right now right where the agony is…

Donate money. That’s what they need in Myanmar right now. They need to buy rice, water, generators, gasoline, bamboo for structure building, tarps to close roofs, and labor. The network will carry the money in and the 67 trainers will work with EvanTell to oversee distribution. And it will work. Just as Christians have always worked in hard, remote, suffering places. Face to face, hand to hand, heart to heart.

Trust the network of grace. Call your buddies. Match your employee contributions. Go to MyanmarResponse.org and get your cash into the compounding network NOW; it costs so little to save a life in Myanmar today.

Well, all churches are not created the same…click here for the place to visit in Washington, oh, wait, Washington, DC! Better stop here first, then you will be fortified for visits to the Smithsonian and the top row of the Senate chamber–by far the best show in town!

You can find the National Community Church at four (yes - 4) locations! Union Station, Georgetown, Ballston Common Mall, and Ebenezer’s Coffee House (best, best, best coffee house…).

Can’t go to Washington? Get a webcast. Get a podcast. Read Mark Batterson’s blog. Get a Senatorial appointment so you can afford to live around there! Oh, wait, you should get hazardous duty pay for that… Get a job mowing the White House lawn — much safer!

They will even let an old hag like me in that place, but I would need to have a little work done first.

During my lifetime, Christ’s church has been transformed by the expansion of technology, a significant change in worldview called “postmodernism,” and a revolution led by those who have moved the Church out of the building and into the world in a new and wonderful way. (more…)

The study shows that now a majority of adults feel comfortable with other “biblically legitimate” methods of faith expression. This agrees with my observation (through reading and study) that people are increasingly creating a mosaic of spiritual encounters and disciplines formed from alternative methods of worship, devotion, prayer, and community. (more…)

People can make a decision that takes them to heaven if they’ve heard the gospel clearly and simply. The ones who’ve heard from someone they trust and like are most likely to really listen. On the other hand, when we hear statistics like “only 30% of the people in the US go to church,” we wonder where the 70% will get their spiritual information! (more…)