Preach the gospel

1 Peter 3:15

 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

2 Timothy 4:2 

Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage--with great patience and careful instruction.

Today some Jehovah Witnesses came to my door while Amy was at the store. I had Aria in my arms and she was not feeling well (spitting up). All of this to say my mindset was not fully prepared to talk to the JWs. Isn't it great that God gives grace? I talked with them close to 30 minutes but my brain was scattered and since I had Aria in my arms I wasn't able to pull out the Bible (I did for a bit but it wasn't working). 

After they left I slowly started to remember what I should have said and what verses I should have gone to and started to kick myself. I was thinking "But it's so much to try and remember! How can I be ready at all times for everything?". Immediately I felt the Holy Spirit saying you don't need to know all of their beliefs just the truth.

From: http://www.gotquestions.org/test-the-spirits.html

Second Corinthians 11:13-15 warns us that “such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.” So the reason for testing the spirits, for testing all religious teaching is to see if it is truly from God or if it is a lie from Satan and his servants.

The test is to compare what is being taught with the clear teaching of the Bible. The Bible alone is the Word of God; it alone is inspired and inerrant. Therefore, the way to test the spirits is to see if what is being taught is in line with the clear teaching of Scripture. In Acts 17:10-11 the Berean Jews were commended because, after they heard the teachings of Paul and Silas, they “examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” The Bereans were called “noble” for doing so.



From this I thought of a few things that are important when talking to others whom you are not sure what they believe.

1. Ask them plainly if Jesus is God? You want a yes or no answer. Do not let them talk their way out of answering yes or no. (John 10:30-33, John 1:1, 14)
2. Ask them how do people get to Heaven? Works or Jesus? (Ephesians 2:8-9, John 14:6) 

And really that's it, that's all you need to remember. If you can just go through those 2 things with the person that's what we are called to do. If they don't agree with these two things, don't even talk with them about anything else for if you can not agree on who Jesus is then nothing else is important.

Practical: Write these verse references in the front cover of your bible so that if you do encounter someone you will have them ready. If they will not agree on Jesus and are not willing to change, kindly tell them that you are done talking with something like this: "I am sorry but if we cannot agree on Jesus then I see not fruit in continuing to talk about anything else so please have a great day!"

Implied vs Spoken

As with all my posts I ask you to examine your heart and see if this applies to you.

Implied vs Spoken, the thought being that in a conversation you can say something out right (Hey David you are an awesome guy) or you can imply something (My best friend is pretty cool **wink**).

So the question is: In public (more than 2 people) conversation should you ever imply? Here are my thoughts. Implying something usually ends up excluding people because more than not someone in the conversation doesn't get what was implied. Also that is usually why you imply something because you only want certain people to know what you are talking about.

Why would we as followers of Christ do this? Why would we intentionally exclude people? What part of following Christ is that? Also if not everyone needs to know something why talk about it or hint at it?

Example: "John is going to miss practice again because he is 'busy' if you know what I mean". 

In this fake situation I am implying to everyone that John is ditching us again for his girlfriend. So, 1: I am talking about John behind his back, 2: I am airing frustration to everyone in the conversation rather than confronting John with something that I see as an issue and 3: if there is someone who doesn't know what I mean I have just alienated them. None of these things are Christ like and they are all self serving.

One of the other ways implied is not good is that it is an excuse not to be vulnerable. By saying in a group setting "My best friend is pretty cool" I am only excluding and speaking in a round about way so as not to show people that I really care a lot about someone. But if instead I said "David is really awesome guy and I care about him." Not only is it very clear but suddenly the focus is shifted from me to David so it becomes less about me.

Is there a situation where it is needed? Sure I think there are but they are the exception to the rule rather than the norm in my opinion.


2 Corinthians 10:5b
"...we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ"

The practical application of this is to capture your thoughts and usually to speak with clarity that includes people and helps them understand rather than exclude people.

I feel really strongly about this but I would like to know what others think about it? What are your thoughts?