"Are You a Good Person?" Surveys

For the past two and a half years I have made sharing the gospel with strangers a priority in my life. When starting a conversation with someone I don’t know I choose to use a direct approach . Some people are good at starting a conversation and eventually turning the topic to spiritual things. I find it easier to tell the person from the outset why I am talking to them. The most common method I use is to ask one of two questions. The first is, “Would you like to take my test on ‘Are you a good person?’”  The second, “Would you like to take my survey on spiritual beliefs?” will be addressed in my next blog.

When I engage with people about half of them agree to talk with me. The “Are you a good person?” test is adapted from material developed by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort (livingwaters.com). The purpose of this exercise is to first show people that they have violated God’s law and then to present Jesus as the Savior who can meet their need for forgiveness.

When someone agrees to talk to me I ask them, “Do you consider yourself a good person?” Most people answer in the affirmative. About ten percent  admit that they are not good and another twenty percent say something to the effect of “I’m good some of the time.” To help them determine how good they really are, I ask each person, regardless of their self-assessment, about how they are doing keeping the Ten Commandments or other Scriptural standards. I listen as they rate themselves on coveting, lying, stealing, etc. Most people give themselves good ratings and downplay or justify their sins saying things like: “I don’t lie unless I need to” or “I don’t steal anymore.”

I am convinced that for most people the biggest barrier to saving faith is their inability to recognize and be sorrowful over their sinful state. If a person does not see that they have failed to meet God’s standards and need a new heart, they won’t see their need for a Savior.  Coming to this awareness is the convicting work of the Holy Spirit.

Consider a couple of examples I’ve encountered that illustrate this kind of spiritual blindness. At Clackamas Community College there was a woman who was reading my comic “Are You a Good Person?” The tract quotes Jesus as saying that a person is guilty of adultery even if he just lusts in his heart. Three times she exclaimed, “This can’t be true or I would be guilty over and over again!“  Surely, she couldn’t be guilty of sinning! She saw herself as a good person and adjusted her standard of goodness to match her own attitudes and behavior.

                                                                                             

In another instance, I was at the downtown Eugene transit station conversing with a high-school aged homosexual. He had a church background and viewed the church as full of rules. He also felt that they judged him. We had a good talk about the gospel being something quite different than a set of rules. I left him with a tract. Later, he found me in a different part of the station and asked this question: “This says that a person is guilty if he looks at a woman with lust. What if I look at a man with lust?” (As is so often the case, he was looking for a loophole.) I explained to him that Jesus, in his statement on lust, was trying to show self-righteous people that a person can sin with their thoughts and attitudes as well as with their actions. O how deceitful the human heart is in justifying itself! But I believe the Holy Spirit was breaking in and showing this young man his need for the Savior.

After I ask about several of the Ten Commandments, I like to ask if the person expects to go to heaven. Most believe that they will, although some don’t believe that heaven and hell exist, and others feel it would be presumptuous for them to expect to get there. However, when a person answers that they do expect to go to heaven I ask them why.

This question reveals whether or not they know Jesus and understand the gospel. Most answer that they expect to go to heaven because they are a good person (e.g., they are kind, they do their best, they try to stay out of trouble or they haven’t done anything deserving of hell.)  This type of response reveals to me that they are trying to earn eternal life by being good enough. Much to my disappointment, very few people are able to explain that their hope in heaven is because Christ died for their sins, was raised from the dead and that they have repented and put their faith in him.

Once, a high school student in Newport said that her grandmother taught her she had to “earn” her way to heaven. This student was very interested and intrigued when I explained the true nature of the gospel to her. Because the notion of “earning” heaven is so very common I make a habit of trying to gently confront the “works-righteousness” lie and to present the truth that salvation is by grace through faith. I do this by explaining that the Bible says we are all disqualified because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” People often get a shocked look when I say this. Their stunned reaction is a great entry point for me to explain the gospel: that God, who is both just and merciful, sent Jesus to pay the price for their sins and to die in their place.

Sometimes I use an illustration about the time that we will give an account to God for our lives. As I am standing I ask what would happen if they came and tackled me around the ankles. The answer is that I would fall!  This is because what I am resting my weight on (my legs) has been taken away. I then ask them if I were seated what would happen. The answer is that I would remain seated because what  I am resting my weight on (the bench or chair)  remains securely grounded. So it is at the judgment: if a person is relying on oneself  and one’s own ability to earn their way, they will fall because no one obtains eternal life that way. But if a person is relying on Christ, and what He has done for them, they hold fast.

Usually I will end our time together by doing one or more of the following: offering to pray for them, encouraging them to read the book of John or leaving them with a tract. Often after conversations like those described in this blog, people have expressed to me that they have come to understand the gospel for the first time. Hallelujah!

 

Next week: “Spiritual Beliefs Survey”

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013 

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.

 

 

Our Struggle to Obey the Great Commission

It is clear that Jesus has commissioned the church to make disciples. Once when I was vacationing on the Oregon coast I attended a church’s Bible study. That week the town was hosting a presentation by Tibetan Buddhists. I figured there would be some seekers at that meeting and I was eager to engage some of them in spiritual conversation (I could easily have been among them 35 years ago.) I extended an invitation to anyone from the Bible study group to join me. A man responded by saying that he thought we should stay away. “If these people are interested in Christianity, they can come to church,” he said.

That was not Jesus’ nor the apostles’ approach to sharing the gospel. They didn’t say, “If someone shows up in your church building, make disciples of them.” They went to the people.

What makes us afraid to go out and share the gospel? I often have to fight through fear at two points when talking with a stranger about the good news of Christ. Fear first comes up when I contemplate approaching people. I don’t naturally start conversations with people I don’t know.

Secondly fear creeps up when I consider bringing Jesus, the gospel or spiritual topics into a conversation. I know that not everyone will be pleased with my efforts to talk to them about Christianity.

Truth be told, this is fear of people. It is my desire to have others’ approval, or at the very least, not wanting their disapproval. It is over-valuing  others’ opinion of me. And what overcomes that? It is caring most what God thinks and not what people think. It is doing what is pleasing to him and leaving my reputation in His hands the way Peter and John did before the Jewish leaders:

Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. ¹⁹ But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. ²⁰ For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:18-19).

I love the way Mark Dever frames this issue: “We are called to love others. We share the gospel because we love people. And we don’t share the gospel because we don’t love people. Instead, we wrongly fear them. We don’t want to cause awkwardness. We want their respect, and after all, we figure, if we try to share the gospel with them, we’ll look foolish! And so we are quiet. We protect our pride at the cost of their souls. In the name of not wanting to look weird, we are content to be complicit in their being lost.”

I have often found that when I obey the Lord and go, God is already out there fighting parts of the battle which I cannot fight. He sets up circumstances, causing people to be at the right place at the right time. He prepares the hearts of people. When you step out of your comfort zone you step into God’s comfort zone.

 

For example, at the Albany skate park I ran into a couple of Native American guys. One claimed to have a wolf in him. He was very friendly and willing to engage as I asked him about his spiritual beliefs. His claim was that everyone has an animal force within but most people do not tap into it. I asked if I had one and he called his “spirit guide” friend over. The “spirit guide” identified my animal as a coyote. After getting permission to share my beliefs,  I explained the gospel, starting with the sinful nature within each of us. It was apparent that it was the first time this young man had heard the gospel as he was very friendly and courteous.  Clearly pondering what he had heard he thoughtfully said, “This is very different from what we believe.”

Another time an elementary school Lebanon I talked to a Linn-Benton Community College student who was happy to take my survey entitled “Are You A Good Person.”  He shared that he once lived with an Assembly of God youth pastor in Silverton and that he had given his heart to the Lord at that time. Later he stopped living the life and finally gave up on it. Nevertheless his tender heart was evident. I believe we both had a sense that God was calling him back to Himself through our encounter.

Because of these encounters and many, many  others I am convinced that speaking with strangers about the gospel is worth pursuing. Many I never would have otherwise met  have come to understand the gospel for the first time because of our conversations.

 

When I share on the street my objective is not to get people to pray a “sinner’s prayer.” I’m glad to “close the deal” if I sense that God is drawing the person to Himself. Conversion is a work of God. I see my role as sharing truth. The Holy Spirit does the work in the heart that I cannot do. Most of the time, I am simply planting seeds.

So many times I have been tempted to play it safe.  But what great opportunities would have been missed along with great blessings! If you obey the Lord in sharing your faith, you’ll be amazed at how He can use you. When it comes to sharing your faith, what is the next step that God is calling you to?

Next two weeks: “My Approach to Sharing the Gospel”

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013 

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.

 

Why Share the Gospel?

 

The Apostle Paul stated that he was unashamed of the gospel. Why? Romans 1:16 gives the answer: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

The gospel is the power of God for salvation. It is the only means God has given by which a person can have eternal life. What could be more important than that? Belief transforms a heart dominated by rebellion and selfishness into a heart that loves God and His will. Ultimately, belief changes a person’s destiny from hell to heaven. The gospel is powerful! When I am ashamed of it, it shows that I have lost sight of its transforming ability.

In the gospels Jesus is recorded as speaking of hell 33 times. Every person you see today will either spend eternity in a lovely, glorious state of eternal bliss or in a terrible state of suffering that never ends. When I see people I want to view them in this way. The gospel tells us what it is that will determine their destination.

William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, had a vision of a dark and stormy ocean full of screaming, cursing, drowning people. On a great rock was a platform where a few people were rescuing those in the water and pulling them to safety. However the vast majority on the platform were entertaining themselves, or preoccupied with things like making money, while myriads struggled in the water right before their eyes.

William Booth’s vision may seem overly dramatic but in reality it is not. We live in the midst of an emergency situation. People who do not believe the gospel are in grave danger. “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:17-18).

There is a 20^th Century story about a non-believing man addressing a minister who had spoken of hell. Addressing the preacher he said, “Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!”  

Though we don’t have the power to “save” people, we have both the privilege and the obligation to share the truth of the gospel. I want to encourage you to take the risk of sharing Jesus with friends, relatives, and neighbors and possibly even strangers.

Some would say that sharing with strangers, as I have made a habit of doing in the last couple years, is ineffective. I used to believe that myself. I fully support the practice of building relationships with non-believers and thereby earning the right to speak. But hundreds of meaningful encounters with people I do not know have convinced me that talking with strangers is also appropriate.  

For example, at Willamalane Park in Springfield my friend and I spoke about the gospel with a group that included a 17 year-old boy. He followed us as we spoke to others in the park. It became clear that the Holy Spirit was doing a drawing work in his heart and we were able to lead him to Christ as we sat on a picnic bench.

Once at the Eugene Transit Station, a middle-aged man asked about a scenario in which one person had lived a good life but was not religious while another was a rapist or murderer who had come to faith. He asked, “Do you believe that the good man would be condemned but the murderer/rapist would be forgiven?” Like most humans who want to earn their way to heaven through being a good person, the concept of grace being shown to a sinner was offensive to him. He was somewhat hostile at first but eventually his attitude softened. He told us about his daughter and son-in-law who were Christians and how he admired them. By the end of our conversation, he was open to my suggestion that he read the gospel of John.  

Many Christians believe that we should simply live lives of love and integrity and only rarely speak the words of the gospel. When I was a new Christian I shared my faith with a family member. When my mother heard about it and was not impressed with what I had done. She said, in reference to my Father, who passed away when I was 14, “Your Dad never had to speak about his faith, he just lived it.”

But I ask you, Is it biblical to say: “Live it but don’t speak it”? Certainly how we live is very important. We don’t want poor behavior in our lives to cancel out the gospel message we share. But we are called to proclaim the good news. I could not begin to cite all the passages that teach or imply that we should speak the message. Here are a couple of them:

He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. ¹⁶ Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mark 16:15-16).

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

(2 Cor. 5:17-19).

In my own life, I came to realize that just trying to “let my life speak” did not lead to many conversations about Jesus. I don’t want to come to the end of my life only to have talked to a few people about the Lord. Rather, I want to be like Paul who said: However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace (Acts 20:24).

Don’t you desire that same kind of sold-out commitment to testifying to the gospel of God’s grace?

Next week: “Our Struggle to Obey the Great Commission”

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.

 

Sharing the Gospel: My Story

I am grateful to have been able to share the gospel with hundreds of people in the last two and half years at various places: fairs, skate parks, school parking lots, malls, etc.  In this series of articles I would like to share some things I’ve learned and experienced.

First, I do not consider myself as having the “gift of evangelism” nor do I consider myself a bold witness. Truthfully, for the majority of my Christian life I have been too scared to talk to people about the gospel.  I’ve been a far cry from what the Apostle Paul said about himself: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew then for the Gentile” (Romans 1:16).

Throughout the years I’ve been inspired by sermons or books to share my faith only to “wimp out” when opportunities arose. Once, when I was a new believer I, along with my classroom parents, were in charge of a booth at the annual school carnival in Pleasant Hill, Oregon (I taught elementary school at that time). I had invited my wife Char, then a girlfriend, to come out and volunteer for a couple hours at the booth. After considering this invitation, I became fearful that she was going to speak openly about her faith in Jesus given her outgoing personality. I was scared about it because I didn’t want anything to hinder my reputation. I did not want to be known as a “Jesus freak” or as religious fanatic.

I tried to break through this self-conscious fear but my nervousness often caused my witness to be indirect, awkward or forced. For years my evangelistic efforts seemed to be a complete bust. But I desperately wanted it to be different. Things began to change in 2006 during a season of revival God brought to my church. Infused with new courage I began to take risks I had not taken before. Specifically, I began to cultivate relationships with neighbors and with strangers. I met over fifty people in the neighborhood and at times I found myself boldly bringing up the gospel. It was exhilarating! But as time went on I was more successful at approaching people to start a conversation than I was at turning the conversation to spiritual things.

Months later I listened to a man’s powerful testimony. After his conversion he so excited about Jesus he was compelled to tell everyone he saw about him. His boldness inspired me.  I thought to myself: “I want to be like that. I love Jesus and he is precious to me and I want to tell people about him.” Why is this so difficult for me?

On my drive home from that presentation the diagnosis to my problem hit me. I had a “filter” in my mind that was preventing me from sharing the gospel. Picture a filter similar to one you would use with your furnace to keep dust and other particles from circulating throughout your house. My “filter” served to keep me from sharing about Jesus and the gospel. This filter had been strengthened through the years and had been built up with warnings: “Don’t be weird.” “Don’t rock the boat.” “Be cautious.” You don’t want to be thought of as a religious fanatic or a Jesus freak.”  “Don’t be rude.” “Don’t offend people.” “They may not like you if you share.”

I realized this filter had become so powerful and effective that it had to come down! My strategy would be this: I would attack this filter again and again causing it to weaken. The way I would do this would be to bring Jesus, the gospel or spiritual matters up in conversations. Eventually, I hoped the filter would become ineffective due to the holes I had poked through it as a result of my sharing. Though it has been a slow and sometimes painful process the filter is weakening.

One of the things that has spurred me on is seeing a friend of mine boldly sharing the gospel in a variety of settings. After observing him I set a goal to present the gospel to at least one person each day. It has been a wild and thrilling ride! Over the next few weeks I will be sharing some of the highlights. Stay tuned.

Next week: “Why Share the Gospel”

Copyright Ed Skipper 2013

For more information about Ed’s ministry, to listen to him speak or to contact him about speaking to your group, visit heartofrevival.net.