So, (so before I get started rambling, let me warn you that I am terrible at starting to write/type out something, but once you get me going I am hard to stop.)(oh and I usually start with 'so'.) (just so you know.) (got that cleared up? Good.) So. I just watched Ray Comfort's Hell's Best Kept Secret...and he really goes through HOW to witness to people....how Jesus did. Look at how Jesus talked to the woman at the well (John 4): (But wait, before u do that, let me clear up one more thing here....a lot of the text below is the Bible....for the first part. No,I don't talk THAT much.) well, maybe.
9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’18 for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
19 The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and youJews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.
Point Numero Uno:
He is just talking about water...you know, just plain, good, old H2O. Then he takes it from the natural around them and swings it to the the super natural...living water. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." Notice what Paul does in Acts 17:
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship —and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath".....and he goes on to preach the gospel.
This same pattern of starting with the natural and swinging it to the supernatural is seen somewhere else in the Bible, but I forget where.
Point Número Dos:
He uses the seventh commandment to convict...thou shalt not commit adultery commandment. Now, granted, he doesn't quote it exactly, but that is what (i presume to think) he is getting at in verse 17-19. People have got to see the need for the medicine before they'll willing take it. An interesting example that Ray brought up was: OK, someone tells you,
"I've got great news for you!"
"What, what??"
"Someone just stepped in and paid your $25,000 fine!!"
"Good news? That isnt good at all....that doesnt make sense. And it is insulting. I didn't have a 25000 dollar fine, and you are now implying that I broke the law and I did no such thing."
Now imagine that you drove 50mph through a 15mph zone with 10 warning signs around a blind children's convention.
"Uh-oh."
Now say that earlier good news was told to you. Suddenly, it is INCREDIBLE news! So now look at 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 "For the word of the cross is foolishness" and later on "but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness." The cross is foolishness to the lost, because it doesn't make sense. And is offensive and a stumbling block because we are implying that they broke the law by giving them a Savior before the need for salvation is seen. Do you see what I am getting at here? Romans 3:20 "for by the law is the knowledge of sin." And Gal 3:24 "the law is the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." It shows us the sin, so it shows us our need for a Savior.
People try to pull the "God is forgiving, he'll let me off." Or "Well, I am a good person, and the good will outweigh my bad." Would a good judge let a murderer off easy because he's always been a good guy besides that? Of course not...and God is the best judge you can get! And if someone buys you a super expensive, jazzed up car, do you go "Oh wow thanks, here's $10 to help out with the cost." Of course not. That would be degrading and insulting to the giver, to try to so cheaply pay them back. That is exactly what you are doing to God...."here's my two pence." And not only that, but you then feel self justified.
That was the intro.
Ok. So. Put on your parachute and lets sail out into .....hmm. Never mind. Let's stay home.
Now introducing: Billy and Bob. No, I didn't name these guys. Um. Oops. Anyways, to the point. (tangent again, just so everyone knows, I just declared war on spell check.)
Ok. So. Billy is flying happily along on an airplane going to Timbuktu. I don't know why he is happy going there. Along comes a parachute dealer. He informs Billy that if he'd only get a parachute, it will improve his flight so much. Billy experimentally dons the parachute, and the first thing he notices is how heavy it is. Then he sees everyone else laughing at him and ridiculing him. He angrily gets out if the parachute and gives the seller an earful on how it so totally didn't improve his flight. He sits back down in a huff.
Bob is flying merrily along to Barcelona. Along comes a parachute dealer. He informs Bob that this plane he is in could crash any moment, and he could be falling 30,000 feet. If he bought a parachute, he would safely coast to land. Bob hastily and happily dons the parachute, profusely thanking the guy for possibly saving his life, not noticing the weight or the stares he got, because he was content in knowing that he was safe.
Along comes a stewardess. She's new, and what's to make an impression on the people. She does. She trips and dumps a boiling cup of coffee all over poor Bob (I can sympathize. I just hope he wasn't wearing a blue shirt on the way to church.) Now does Bob stand up, rip off the parachute, and declare "That stupid parachute?" Of course not! For anything, he is going to cling tighter to it, hoping for the time that he gets to jump OFF that plane and AWAY from boiling cups of coffee. HE didn't put it on to improve his flight.
See the point? The modern church says "Put on Jesus, he'll give you peace, joy, and happiness!" People tentatively try it, and get what Christ promises...trials, hardships, and persecutions..sometimes in the shape of coffee cups. In disgust, they're like, "forget it!"
But if you tell people that they are sinners, bound for eternity in hell, and they could be jumping ship at ANY time, they are going to perk up. If you know the plane is going down, and there is a parachute under the seat, are you going to believe its there, or are you going to put it on?
Eph 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self,which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age
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