
Two street witnessers took corners of Broad Street.
“Jesus can heal your diseases!” Yelled a woman in a microphone headset.
“Heh! ‘Jesus’ can save you.” A tourist mocked.
“Sir, you don’t have to go to hell! Do you want to go to hell?”
“There is no God!” A middle-school boy yelled back with a grin.
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I can’t speak for someone else’s calling – Paul and Silas preached on the streets. Personally, I have seen street witnessing make Christianity look cringey and out of touch – the exact opposite of our goal (“I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.” – 1 Cor 9:22) Nevertheless, it wrenched my heart to hear a loud call for life and death on the streets of a secular town.
Why am I silent about humanity’s destiny?
“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.” Wrote CS Lewis. “The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”
I made up my mind – stomach-led – to speak to someone.
Our striking problem is a lack of acuteness to vocalize the best thing that has ever happened to us.The last matter Jesus relayed while on earth was to “go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19)
A person’s relationship with Christ begins with a relationship with you. You cannot scare someone into Heaven. One Muslim woman came to Christ through the invitation of soup. She said she would have never sought out Christianity as a religion; nobody could have argued her to it. It is about love. It is about relationship.
I love working in the field of entertainment. Though I am a non-fiction and fiction storyteller, a creator of 'worlds', I write articles on spirituality - our reality - because it concerns all of us. It is everything to me. Whether you are a licensed EMT or interning graphic designer, if your faith is important to you, you will talk about it.
Yet how many of us work in secular fields and don’t cross over the bridge of witnessing? If this is real, we should be spending every day telling people how we came out of darkness into light. And if you really care about your friends, you’ll care about their future.
How do you witness? How do you start? I talked London history with a taxi driver. I shared fascinations of the spiritual realm with a Hindu. I discussed plots and protagonists with a prolific writer. Every situation, every person, merits a different response. Your surest method is to be Spirit-led. Your biggest witness is your life. If you’re walking in the Spirit, people will be able to tell by your countenance.
“There’s this light and glow around your face.” Two classmates at odd moments told me in Oxford. “It’s because of the Lord.” I answered both times. They knew I was a Christian; most of my class writing was publicly known to be moral and philosophical. But it wasn’t an argument or protest that made me attractive. People simply respond to authenticity. My dad’s words: “Give them truth and back it up with your life.”
Give them truth and back it up with your life.
Jesus tells us in Mathew’s gospel, “don’t worry about how to respond or what to say. God will give you the right words at the right time. For it is not you who will be speaking—it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.”
He adds, “Everyone who acknowledges me publicly here on earth, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But everyone who denies me here on earth, I will also deny before my Father in heaven.” So don’t be embarrassed.
I have never studied theology. I am only a student of the life of Christ. My life is centered on spreading light in dark places because it is what my story is about. I cannot shake this missionary mindset. And if your salvation from eternal death is of any importance to you, perhaps you will adopt a similar conviction.
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“I do everything to spread the Good News and share in its blessings.” – 1 Corinthians 9:23
“Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!” – 1 Corinthians 9:16
{What was it like living for Christ at a rich private school? Read what it was like in my new book, A Time to Stand, releasing Christmas 2022.}
Oh, how true this is. “A person’s relationship with Christ begins with a relationship with you.”