Spontaneous Opportunities
Posted on June 13, 2018 by America's Keswick in Victory Call
On Monday evenings, I tutor a little girl and help her with reading and writing. The other day, we were outside reading a book about a girl who gets caught in the story of Alice in Wonderland. As we were reading, we came across a passage where the characters in the story ended up on trial in “Wonderland” and the queen calls a witness to the stand. The queen asks the witness if he promises to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The witness responds, “I promise to tell nothing of the truth” to which of course there was an objection. The witness says “How can I tell only the truth, aren’t there many truths?” and the objector responds that no, there aren’t. There’s only one truth.
At that moment I asked the little girl to close the book and I told her there was a very good lesson there. I told her, “One day there might be someone who comes up to you and says that Jesus might be your truth, but they believe there are many truths. They might believe there are many ways to heaven and all beliefs are truth. But just like the girl said in the book, there is only ONE truth.” I asked her what that ONE truth is, and she enthusiastically replied with ‘JESUS!’
John 14: 6 – Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
That moment really stuck with me. Opportunities to teach others about Jesus can be found in the most spontaneous or the simplest moments of everyday life. It’s cool when those little “God moments” pop up, but I believe that happens more often than we think… we just don’t always recognize them when they’re there. The glory of God is all around us;there is always an opportunity to share about Jesus.
Mark 16:15 – And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”
My dear friend Carly once shared something very interesting. She quoted a message from David Sills which said that in our world today, over 1/3 of people have still not heard the gospel message. She said that the ratio of trained Christian workers to people in America is 1 to every 235, and when one of those workers leaves the U.S. that changes to 1 to every 450,000.
That tells me that we can’t just leave evangelism to our pastors and church leadership, and we can’t compartmentalize. We can’t think of it as just something to share at a church outreach event because our whole lives are outreach events! We can’t be shy about sharing Jesus with others during everyday moments. Even if it doesn’t go the way we hope, even if we are persecuted or hated for it, we are blessed.
Matthew 5:10 – Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
My friend Carly also stated that the Great Commission isn’t a suggestion to consider, but a command to obey. This news is so good, why keep it to ourselves or reserve sharing with Jesus as a “church time” event? We have a mission… let’s truly look for opportunities – they truly are everywhere.
“Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” – Charles H. Spurgeon