Life Lessons From The Road
In Defense of Evangelism, Conversion, Proselytizing and Missions!

It's about time someone comes to the defense of the most despised terms in the world today.

To tell someone about Jesus and lead them to know and follow Jesus as Savior and Lord is one of the most important things you can ever do in life. To lead someone to salvation is to have God give him or her new life, eternal life. The result is them missing hell and the horror of separation from God for eternity. This should be a cause for celebration and joy and praise. However in our world today this is viewed by most of the news organizations, humanitarian organizations, aid agencies, government bodies and even religious groups as one of the greatest crimes on earth!

The follower of Jesus really loves and cares for the whole being.
A public that is being led by blind leaders of the blind is attacking people who help others to know Jesus and to be saved.

On one hand we promote people being converted. Converted to favoring democracy rather than communism. We want people to convert from eating too much fatty food to a more healthy diet. We want nations under dictators to convert to democracy. All political parties are trying to convert people to follow their policies. On and on I could go.

Those same people who want you to change and follow their ideas do not want you to help others to know Jesus and follow Him; they see no hypocrisy in this. The popular notion is that we are to care for the sick, the dying, the diseased and the homeless. We are to go to the war -torn lands and poverty stricken places and meet the needs of the people. We are to seek to cure the AIDS problem but give no Godly teaching. However one must leave the 'Gospel' at home. Care for the needy but don't try to convert anyone. You give money but don't give the Truth or the Way or the Life of Jesus. How foreign this is to the true Christian mission of caring for the whole person, body, mind and soul. This is love.

Many “Christian' aid and mission groups go to all lengths to keep from witnessing for Jesus in many nations. Any mention of Jesus is banned. No gospel material is allowed. No songs about Jesus or for some, even no Bibles allowed. This is the mission policy. You combine this with the opposition of many nations governments to evangelism and you are attacked from the front and behind as you seek to witness openly for Jesus. You want to know how much of your money goes directly to the needy and is not lost in overhead expenses.

I ask you another question. Is that mission aid group you support also sharing Jesus? Do they evangelize? Do they witness for Jesus in word as well as deed? We need both a helping hand and witnessing lips. Because the Bible says “How shall they hear without a preacher'.

At the very inception of the message of salvation in Jesus, we have the apostle Simon Peter preaching on the day of Pentecost and saying; "Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
" Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. (Acts 2:36,38)

The message of the early church apostles was for people to be saved. First they went in every city to the synagogue and preached to the Jews. Remember all these apostles were Jewish. Then they went to the 'pagan' gentiles. They called for people to believe in and follow Jesus and be baptized. Conversion and evangelism and missions were the heart of the early church.
Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life and that no one comes to the Father except through Him. (John 14:6)

This was the heart of Jesus that the world has the gospel preached to them and that they make disciples and baptize them.

To witness is to love. God expressed this love in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.'

Jesus also said “If you love me you will keep my commandments.' (John 14:15 in the Holy Bible)
The witness for Jesus does not condemn anyone. The world is condemned already. We come with good news, love, hope and salvation.
Jesus said:
“ He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.'
(John 3:18-19 in the Holy Bible)

Should you have a problem with this, you have a problem with Jesus, not the person today that proclaims this message.

Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
" Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
(Matthew 28:18-20 in the Holy Bible)

And he said unto them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every person.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned'.
(Mark 16:15-16 in the Holy Bible)
And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.
(Mark 16:15,16,20 in the Holy Bible)
Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem'.
(Luke 24:45,47 in the Holy Bible)
Jesus said, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
(Acts 1:8 in the Holy Bible)

Now I may not agree with every way that some people use to evangelize but that does not mean that evangelizing is wrong. We are to seek to be the best witness possible.