The Daily Call

We are called to take the Gospel to the world.  Most people hear these words and think that this means becoming full-time missionaries. You would travel the world and take God’s light to the darkest corners.   Or maybe you only need to go on short term mission trips.  Spend a week or two sharing Christ with those who haven't heard the gospel. But these types of situations are not everyday situations. You go into these situation knowing that you will leave them and go back to you normal life.

There is a freedom in going to another city or country to preach knowing that you will be interacting with people that you will in all likelihood never see again.  You don’t have to face the consequences of their opinions.  It doesn’t matter what they think of you.  To them you may be nuts, but why should you care?  You fulfilled your call and shared the gospel with them.  Now you get to go back to your life and they aren’t a part of it.

But what about sharing the gospel with your family, friends, or co-workers?  Your words could strike a chord in their heart. They might see the consequences of their sin. They might turn to Christ as their Savior.  Or not...  

Sharing the gospel with the people that are a part of your life is frightening.  The things that could result from you telling people you know about your relationship with Jesus Christ can scare you into being silent.  If you start to constantly preach at work or with your friends you will have to deal with the consequences. Those consequences could be as simple as jokes at your expense or elevate to all out ridicule. Someone might even accuse you of religious harassment. 

If you are constantly preaching to your unsaved friends or co-workers, in a short period of time you won’t have either.  Your friends and employer will get sick of you and you won’t be spending much time with either.  But sharing Christ with someone does not always involve talking to them about his sacrifice.

How often do we recognize that we are always sharing the Gospel even when we aren't “witnessing” to anyone? When the people around us know that we are a Christian they watch us. They see how we react to the events and happenings around us.  They want to see how we are different. Do we stub our toes and start cursing like a sailor or take a deep breath and move on? Do we take shortcuts with our work because “no one will notice” or do we put forth full effort into every detail? Through our words and deeds, or lack of word or deed, we speak.  We preach the message of Christ crucified every second of every minute of every day. There is no down time.

I have a friend, we'll call him 'George', who has been overseas on the mission field for several years now. He recently related a story about a new Christian. A friend of his, ‘Fred’, who had become a Christian 2 years ago, asked him to talk to a classmate, 'Bill'. Bill had seen the change in Fred's life over the past two years and wanted to know what had caused the change. They all got together and George and Fred talked with Bill about the sacrifice Jesus had made for him and the change that could occur in his life. They asked Bill if he would like to receive Jesus as his Savior. And he said “Yes, I do.” They prayed and Bill became a Christian.

Then Bill told George that they had met before. Surprised, George asked where. It turns out that Bill had been to a Christmas party that George had held two years before. He had heard the Gospel at that party, but wasn't ready to receive Jesus as his Savior at that time. “It was only after seeing Fred live the Gospel for two years that he was ready to receive Christ now.”

I don't know if Fred talked to Bill about his relationship with Christ. Maybe he just lived his life in front of him. Whether or not words were exchanged it is obvious that Bill watched him grow and develop as a Christian. He saw Fred change. He saw what Christ was doing in Fred's life. And that is what drew him to Christ.

You can't decide to take a break from Christianity. The calling to take the Gospel to the world doesn’t have a “when you feel like it” option.  God will use you to change people’s lives in many ways. All you have to do is act and speak on the truth of God’s love. 

Can the people you interact with on a daily basis see that you’re different?

Does your life speak to others of the Goodness of God?

How much does your life draw people to Christ?