Mission Week is coming to London this month. For those not in the know, Mission Week is a week set aside by the Christian Unions (CUs) of the universities in the UK for active evangelism. It is not that the CUs only evanglise on that week, but their affliated schools would set aside rooms for Christian events during that week.
Every time I hear the word "evangelism", I immediately think that it is God's plan of making me lose friends. Of course I am exaggerating -- I am just merely afraid of being thought as "uncool" or "unintellectual". Part of this fear came from a past incident.
Some years ago, I was about to attend a Bible study group with two friends. I prayed that I would be strong enough to declare His name over the next weeks. So I went for the study, and we were studying Psalms 68. Pointing to Psalms 68:4, they asked me what the name of the Lord was. It was like destiny -- God had given me an opportunity.
"Lord Jesus Christ!" I confidently shouted, with a huge grin on my face. However, the audience glared at me as if I had made the biggest blasphemy of all time. Fearing my Singaporean-accented English -- also know as 'Singlish' -- caused a misunderstanding, I repeated my statement over and over again, each time more loudly and slowly.
The older of my two friends stopped me, reminding me that the name of the Lord was "the Lord". Being new to the faith at that time, I did not protest. Still later on in the Bible study, one of the attendees asked me why I said Jesus was God. I pointed out references in the Gospels, and then he said my translation of the Bible was corrupted. Like a child, I retorted that his translation was probably corrupted too!
Then I caught a glimpse of his book --
New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. My two friends were Jehovah's Witnesses. This was a Jehovah's Witness session. I had been doing Bible study with them for the past three months and did not know. A huge debate followed, one Christian (me) against the rest. After the Bible study, I ran back to my rented apartment and locked the doors and windows and prayed; I was traumatized by the whole incident. Well, at least I did declare His name.
Years had passed since that incident, and I was over it long ago. Nevertheless, please pray for courage of the believers to declare His name, and for the hearers to receive it.
Do you believe Jesus is God? How do you view evangelism, honestly speaking?
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Comments (6)
Jesus Christ is God. There are many ways and methods to "evangelize" out there. Yet, how is it done makes a huge difference. If one is doing it to impress other humans in a group that is a very wrong motive. It has to be done in love and actions. People are tired of hearing words spoken. They want to see the difference it makes in anothers life. Jesus is not something just to "try on".
On of the best ways to share is to share what God is actively doing in your own life as one study and applies the scripture to their own life. If others see the fruits of the Spirit in your own life then they will see the difference it makes. 1 Corinthians 13 if applied to ones life does set them apart and makes a difference.
The chances of this story being true are so close to ZERO I give it a ZERO.
The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures has restored the name of God to the English Language convention of JEHOVAH over SIX THOUSAND times.
A Jehovah's Witness that does not know Jehovah is the Name of his God, Jehovah, is absolutely absurd.
Jehovah's .... Witness .
Get it?
I suspect, giving them the benefit of the doubt, the person who wrote this piece, because of the stated language barrier, got all confused. REALLY screwed up.
If you have any doubts, open the King James Version of the Bible to Psalms 83:18.
.... by the way... LORD is a title, not a name. This should be especially obvious in England where the TITLE is used for all kinds of people.
Tom.Rook@Technik-SA.US
This story is true. They told me that Jehovah means "the Lord". I think they knew I was Protestant, and wanted to accomodated my NIV, so they told me that. I do not know if Psalms 68:4 of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures Psalms 68:4 said "the Lord" or "Jehovah".
YHWH, Jehovah, it doesn't matter what humans call him. In the bible the christian god himself says that his name is Jealous:
"For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." (Exodus 34:14)@Whatisfaith@xanga - The New World Translation of the Bible is different that any other Bible for the simple fact that in the Gospel of John chapter 1 it refers to Jesus as "a god" and not "God". I think this story is true given that JW's have different beliefs about who Jesus is and they have a different gospel.
Heres a good video, entertaining at least:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G80lC6dIiZo
I've just found your blog and notice your emphasis on evangelism. I wonder
if you have seen my friend's page and resources about online evangelism, at
www.internetevangelismday.com
blessings,
Gweno