What do we do in a world that knows the gospel?

We Christians often think that we need to propagate the gospel more, that we need to get it out there, we need to write more books, put up more advertisements, hand out more tracks, talk to more people, rent bigger stadiums, and go put the gospel in the public eye.

The problem is, in the world today, almost everybody knows that "Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from our sins". I think we ought to realize that the world knows the gospel very well. They have heard it a thousand times over. But it isn't make a dint of a difference. So what's new?

The Kingdom of Christianity is like a farmer who has a plot of land. Every year, he tears open a packet of seed, broadcasts it on the field, and returns to his house. Sometimes the ground is soft and ready. Sometimes, the rain comes and waters the seed. But other times, the environmental factors just aren't right. Out of, say, a hundred seeds the farmer sows each year, he can get a minimally got response of a harvest of two, three, maybe even twenty stalks of wheat.

The field is the world. The farmer is Christians and his sowing technique is evangelism today. We just keep "doing evangelism". We do it over and over again.

The problem is that we are sowing the seeds, but we aren't preparing the soil. We aren't tilling the ground. We're waiting for the harvest, that's for sure, we aren't willing to put our backs to it. And if we do put some effect, it's mostly ineffective, because there's only one way to do it right - by doing it according to the Book. Notice that the farmer did not read the instructions on the packet of seeds!


The solution: Do it according to the book - live from the other side of the cross.

What is discipleship?

To trust and obey.
To love and serve.
To surrender and sacrifice.
To follow and forsake.

Indirect Denial

Sometimes, we Christians may believe in a completely orthodox creed but yet, in our hearts, deny cornerstone doctrines like the incarnation, cross and resurrection. That is because we fail to take into consideration the implications of what we so easily confess, implications which we so easily ignore.

If Jesus came as God incarnate and walked this earth, then He also came and called us to this walk - to physically follow Him, to take up our crosses, to leave everything, to deny ourselves.

If Jesus came as God incarnate, then He can demand this of us.

If Jesus died on the cross, then we have to realize that the cross is not just a gift to us but an imperative on us, for it is better to give than to receive. 

When we deny Jesus' word or commands to us, we deny Him.

When we refuse His call, we again deny Him.

When we live our lives in the fear of man or self-service, then we deny Him and all that He has done for us.

When we refuse to love our neighbour, we have denied the salvation that He won for us that makes us apostles of His love.