Sean Gladding's book, "The Story of God, the Story of Us" is my morning reading right now, and I am being blessed with his creative and thought provoking way of retelling the Old Testament and hitting highlights through the stories of the "old man" who is reminding his people why it is that they are in captivity in Babylon. I'm taking all the time I need to process those things that especially speak to me...as I should, but at the same time I am anxious to see how he presents the New Testament.
This most excellent reading takes me back to something I heard soon after Greg and I joined YWAM as students in Lausanne, Switzerland. Speaking in one of the school worship settings, Loren Cunningham talked about the importance of "every" Christian being ready at all times to tell others about the love of God.
This was frightening sounding to me as I was unsure of exactly how to go about this. I seem to have an evangelist's heart, but lack the confidence. I have never been one to beat anyone over the head With the word of God (so to speak) and am very uncomfortable with others doing this as well. What a turn off these "Bible thumpers" can be! What Loren went on to say was a huge relief. For the first time verbally witnessing seemed within my reach as a natural thing to do.
He reminded us that there is not one person in the world that does not long to know God. Many have just not yet realized it yet. They are searching alright, but do not know yet exactly what it is that they are searching for. Herein lies the call of every Christian's mission. Just as Jesus' last words to the disciples was to " go and tell...", these are Christ's last recorded words to all of us.
Now...how to do that, right? Some of us are not bent like the make-no-bones-about-it Prophet Elijah, or any other prophet for that matter. But, YWAM's Founder did not leave us there. He told us what many others already knew, but I had never before heard at that time.
He said two things I will never forget about being prepared to share about who God is:
1) Show the person story/people how the story of God intersects with their own story!
(Make it personal or it may never hit home in the hearts of some. My personal comment here in parentheses, not Lorens.)
2) Always have your personal testimony ready. Make it short and relevant.
(Regarding #2, we were cautioned in one of our YWAM entry level class that, other than our personal salvation experience testimony or some other major miraculous testimony, that if our testimony of what God has done for us more than 3 months old, we might need to pay more attention to our sensitivity to the workings of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.
