Monday, February 21, 2011

Intrinsically Organic

Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. (Colossians 4:6).

Jesus was an awesome conversationalist. He was able to speak the truth in love without feeling the need to make sure everyone always agreed with Him. He was never fearful or intimidated. He spoke out of the reality of who He is. It is so easy for us to get intimidated in sharing our faith because we have fallen into the traps of thinking we have to give someone the formula for salvation or of being afraid that we are going to offend. We are robbed of being able to share incredibly good news!

In Christ we have entered into this awesome wonderful love relationship with the Lord. He has become the biggest person in our lives. In normal conversation we talk about the things and people that are most important to us, but somehow in our current climate of political correctness, we are expected to keep quiet about our relationship with Jesus. That is a trap of the enemy that we have allowed ourselves to fall into. We get intimidated into not sharing the thing that people most need to hear. Will some people be made to feel uncomfortable? Obviously. That's just part of it. People don't like things that challenge what they believe, and yet, there are people dying to hear what we have to say.

I think that one issue we have is that we have made "witnessing" so formulaic. We've turned it more into winning a debate or presenting a sales pitch than something that is intrinsically organic to who we now are. In doing so we have taken something that should come naturally and made it something artificial. How many times have you argued with someone that the outcome was them changing their position and agreeing with you? Pretty rare I suspect. We like to win and hate to be proven wrong. How many of us really like to be sold? Do you really like when someone pops into your life with some plan or thing that you weren't interested in and proceeds to try to get you make a commitment to it? Most of us find those kind of encounters unpleasant.

There is a better way though, and that is to take Jesus from a sales presentation to the very real, living person that He is. He is "King of kings and Lord of lords" and yet He is also "the friend who is closer than a brother." His love for us is beyond belief. If He is the biggest person in our lives He ought to be a big part of our conversation. The reality of that relationship is something that should challenge the people around you. As we cultivate our relationship with Him and grow in His grace then there will be an outworking of that in our lives. It really does change us and transform us. Because He is love our actions and attitudes begin to reflect that love more and more. Our conversation will reflect that love more and more too!