The greatest story to tell

I've been thinking a lot about evangelism since we moved to Ithaca. For the first time in my entire life, I interact daily with more people who choose to not "claim" Jesus as their Savior than believers in Jesus Christ. This, I believe, is a good thing. I realize this is partially due to the fact that there is no cultural Christian here. There aren't people who go to church because someone expects them to. People don't say they are a Christian with no desire to really know Christ here. You certainly don't gain anything from claiming Christ. This is also a hard thing. There is a lot less encouragement in my daily life. There is a lot less filling up and a lot more pouring out. There is a lot more prayer.

But as believers, our primary goal shouldn't be to be filled up. I shouldn't desire to make myself feel warm and fuzzy at the expense of sharing the gospel. Easier said then done, my friends. I also shouldn't so strongly desire to appear cool at the expense of sharing the gospel. Again, easier said then done. Even as I type this, I'm asking myself why. Why don't we incorporate Christ into our daily lives in such a way that His Name comes up in everyday conversation?

My thought, (and I'm welcome to other ideas, because I know there's more than just one reason) is that we think we have to make the gospel something that it's not in order to excite people. Have you heard of the pastor who had a motorcycle jump over him while he was preaching on stage? Here's the video. And at the expense of offending someone out there somewhere, my opinion is that this is just crazy! This is NOT the gospel. This is not what Jesus meant when he said to go and make disciples of all nations. To be clear, I think technology is an incredible resource for us. I daily listen to worship music from our home church in Dallas and weekly listen to sermons. I read blogs from New York City pastors and from missionaries in Kenya. So I am not knocking the use of technology to share the gospel...at. all. However, we have bought into this lie that the gospel is not a great enough story on it's own. So we try to dress it up into something pop-culture-y, or holiday-ish. We want people to be drawn to the gospel the way they're drawn to the newest version of the iPhone. The intentions are right, the manifestation is wrong.

And the best thing I've ever heard a pastor say..."shouldn't we all want the gospel to be true?" I think about that everyday. Shouldn't we want there to be a way out of our sin? Shouldn't we want it to be true that Jesus actually took our place on the cross and has saved us from the punishment we deserve for our own sins? The only reason I think your answer should be no to these questions is if you are indeed sinless. Almost every day I see more sin in my heart...and it is ugly. It is embarrassing and it should be punished, but it won't be. Best. News. Ever.

That is why I am such a fan of admitting our own weaknesses so that Christ can be made much of...this is so much easier to say than to actually do because well, I want people to like me. I don't want you to know my ugly, embarrassing stuff. But really, wouldn't life be so much easier if we could just own up to the fact that we are ALL broken? Perfection won't be attained by us in this life, so let's all stop hiding the truth and be grateful that God has enough grace for all of us. Hiding your weaknesses only takes glory away from God. It doesn't make you less weak. It doesn't make you more appealing in the end.

I love when people can break down the gospel into a simple, easy message that is compelling. The best one I've heard is that "we get Jesus". (dang I wish I had thought of that on my own!) That's it! That's the beauty and benefit of following Chirst. Why is this message so hard to share with everyone we know...especially if we claim to believe it?