90 Days or 90 Seconds of the Gospel?... Yes! And, 90 minutes! Part 2

Hypothetical: I jump into a cab and the trip is going to take a few minutes to cross town.  Is it worth my time to give a declaration of the Gospel to the cab driver?  We have trained this out at The Bridge and it is probably the most common way that the Holy Spirit saves people.  The Gospel is declared (maybe in the form of your 90 second testimony...I once was...then, Jesus...now I am), and the Holy Spirit saves people. So, the answer to the question is yes.  We will not negatively affect someone if we love them with Good News.  Remember, we do so with gentleness and respect.

But, what if you get on a plane and will sit next to someone for 3 hours?  This provides the opportunity for a 90 minute Gospel presentation. Let me give you an example.  I was on a flight to Salt Lake City one time and found myself with a young man who had just completed his Mormon mission in Detroit.  He was returning home to start college  I listened to his story to understand his perspective and knew that we had 90 minutes, so I asked him to give me the complete message of his mission. I listened carefully to his description of the 3 heavens and the other 2 or 3 post-death destinations and determined for certain that his teaching from the Book of Mormon was that good deeds from others could move people around in the afterlife.  I, then, asked him two questions. "Do you believe this book?" I had a Bible in my hand.  From his training, he told me that he did. And, "Did you know that a lot of what you just told me over the last hour (I just listened for an hour, more on that in a minute) is in contradiction to the Bible, our final authority as Christians?" He said that he was not aware of contradictions, and I believed him because I did not believe that he had ever read the Bible.  I showed him in Luke 16 where a chasm was fixed in the afterlife between Lazarus and the rich man and that no movement was ever allowed - once to die and then judgment.  Then, I told him that the reason that no movement was necessary was because of the sufficiency of Jesus' work on the cross and no good merit by any person was necessary to change our locale because of His magnificent work on our behalf.  In the last 5 minutes that we had, I prayed him through the Gospel and simply asked him to continue to pray that the Holy Spirit reveal the truths of the Bible to him about the true Gospel.  I did not rail against what he believed, but I did brag on the glory of the Jesus of the Bible.  He thanked me as we left, and although I will probably never see him again on this version of earth, I am looking forward to possibly seeing him in the one true heaven -- the one that does not require good works to attain.  I left him to deal with the Holy Spirit and the Gospel -- a good team when on mission.

That is a 90 minute Gospel mission.

Then, we should all be working on 90 day Gospel presentations where we are getting to know someone at work, at school, in the coffee shop we frequent (somebody has to do it), or in the foreign land we have been sent.  Relationships are important and filling needs in the relationship out of true love essential, but without Gospel proclamation, no mission has happened.  If it gets much beyond 90 days without finding what Tim Keller would call the "defeater beliefs" and work the Gospel -- the good news of Jesus -- into those defeater beliefs, we may just be walking in unbelief of the abilities of the Holy Spirit to win the day and in some kind of people approval idolatry sin.  Or, in other words, chicken.

Listen! Listen more than you talk.  In the 90 minute and 90 day efforts, we have time to answer the questions that this person has rather than the ones we want them to have.  To learn the questions we must listen.  And, PRAY! In prayer, the Holy Spirit will determine the day and the course to take to bring the Gospel to bear.  Also, we ask the Holy Spirit to save this person.  I had two running prayers that day on the plane.  Well, three.  After asking God to keep the plane in the air (I figured I could have more mission if actually alive), I asked him to provide me someone to share his great story with.  Then, I just bluntly asked Him to save the young Mormon.  I look forward to seeing one day if God's glory was revealed in salvation on some day that I never even knew about with a person that I cannot remember his name.

Remember, one of your identities as a child of God is as a missionary.  That means you are a lover of people and a presenter of the Gospel -- the good news that we are in a spiritual nightmare of our own doing and Jesus came, lived sinless, died sacrificially, rose again in victory, ascended, and is returning.  These 90 second, minute, and day proclamations are what you were reborn to do.  Jesus was a missionary and learning to do this and doing it makes you like Him which brings Him glory.

Year End Giving or Anytime Giving

I know that we teach giving our resources to the local church as a very worshipful reaction to the Gospel, and that is very true.  God gave His only son and Jesus willingly gave up His life, so that makes us great givers as the Gospel presses in.  However, that does not mean we have to park our brains as we worship.  If you have invested some of God's money in the stock market, this has been a very good year.  Most mutual funds and stocks have done very well, so I want to make you aware of a double tax break if you donate the stock and not cash to your local church.  You get to write the entire amount of your donation off AND you do not have to pay the 15% capital gains tax that is applied to the profits of the investment.  If this sounds attractive to you as you give so that God may be worshiped and His mission of Gospel declaration can go out, you have about 24 hours to call your broker to get it in on 2013.

But, if not, you know have knowledge for 2014.......

Glory to the King!