Read 1 Peter 3:8-16

When we first started coming to Grace Church, I kept hearing about this ministry that helped equip you to better share your faith in Jesus Christ and what this relationship has meant in your life. I felt a prodding to do it, but I was scared and a bit lazy. Finally, after a few months, I could no longer ignore God’s prompting and I committed to being involved in this ministry for a semester.

The idea was that we would learn the basic points of the gospel, get better about sharing God’s faithfulness in our lives, and share this with family, friends, co-workers or whomever. We put into practice what we were learning by visiting people who had visited the church. The vast majority of people were very impressed that we would take the time to come out and see them. The goal was to listen and get to know them better and maybe have an opportunity to talk about Jesus Christ. One of the things that would really have fouled up sharing with someone is if you had a bad reputation, which really gets around in a small community or talking badly about other people or other churches.

There are many reasons for doing and saying the right things but I think Peter’s emphasis here is don’t do anything that would keep someone from learning the truth about Jesus Christ and hopefully coming into a relationship with Him.

My prayer is that we will all ask God for opportunities to interact with people, watch for these opportunities and ask Him for the timing and the words to help people know about Jesus and make an informed decision as to whether or not to receive the free gift of forgiveness.

When talking with people, we won’t always have the opportunity to share about Jesus but it’s a “win” if we just truly listen to them, get to know them better and maybe be able to meet a need in their lives.

We aren’t going to be perfect and I never want to come across as though I think I am, but we can take responsibility when we foul up and do our best to “fix it”.

When people see a positive difference in us and are curious as to why, we need to be ready to answer them in a concise manner and point them to Jesus Christ.

So, let’s be careful what we say and do so we can ultimately help others by serving them and sharing about the hope and love that is found in Jesus Christ.

Mike Molter