Last week I took an intensive class about how to communicate cross-culturally. For those of you who don't know, an intensive is a three credit course done all in one week. I was there from eight in the morning till five in the evening. With these crazy hours, it was obviously physically tiring, but man, was it spiritually powerful or what?! I thought we would be talking a lot about other cultures, which is something I love to learn about, and although that is not what most of the material was focused on, it was probably the best class I have taken in my college career thus far.
I've been continuing to wrack my brain for just what I want to share with you all from what I learned last week. I've been journaling, praying, and talking to friends about the many things that we discussed. I realized that I have been all of the pressure on myself in spreading the gospel. I had this mentality that teaching and sharing the gospel had to all lead to the plan of salvation and the point where the individual had to make a decision one way or the other. Now don't get me wrong, the plan of salvation is a HUGE part of the gospel, but that is not all of it.
The gospel is simply Jesus. The completion of the story of Israel, his life, his death, his resurrection, his kingship, and the promise of his second coming. If we share the story of Jesus we are sharing the gospel. It's that simple. I had this skewed view that if I didn't present the gospel in the proper way or left out a part that a person would never come to know Christ or would discount him because of an error in my memory or accuracy of Scripture.
This is completely wrong on so many levels. First of all, how prideful of me to think that the outcome and response of the one I am sharing the gospel with rests on my shoulders. Who am I to think that I can do the work that only the Holy Spirit can do. And how silly of me to fear that something I say/don't say can nullify the Holy Spirit's power. Jesus didn't have training sessions for the disciples before he sent them out to teach. Some of them had just professed that they finally believed he was the Messiah for crying out loud! Who are we to hold back with the knowledge of Jesus and His Word that we do have because we fear that won't live up to the level of intelligence that we want to portray that we possess.
This post is not meant to make you feel guilty or discourage your, but instead I pray that the Lord humbles you as He did me. Also that you would be encouraged to share with others around the good news of Jesus Christ, no matter how long you have been walking with him, no matter what your profession is, and no matter what stage of life you're in.
Also, a HUGE shout out to Ashley of Overcome the Lie for asking me to be a part of her blog tour this month. I am so thankful and it is such a privilege! Definitely go check out Ashley and her team via their blog and social media. You will be encouraged without a doubt!
