One of the topics of discussion that has been circulating among our team on this young adult missions trip is, “Why is our faith so alive on a missions trip but dies so quickly in the everyday? How do we keep our passion alive?”

I’m convinced, 100%, that passion must be kept alive through action. If all we do is read books, attend church, listen to podcasts, go to conferences, attend prayer meetings, purchase Christian music, and have discussions with our Christian friends, we will lack in our faith and vibrant passion.

I know this firsthand because oftentimes I would rather speculate than serve.

Romans 12:11 says, “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.”

“Serving the Lord” means action. Paul wrote this as, quite possibly, the most action-oriented Christian in history. The Gospel of Christ was so precious to him he had to give his life to declare it.

The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ was not meant to be contained in your own heart, privately. It was meant to be spoken. It was meant to be preached. It was meant to be sung. It was meant to be shared with a broken world that needs salvation in Jesus Christ.

Is your passion weak? Here’s the deal: Go and bless someone. Go and do something. Don’t wait for God to reveal his ‘will’ for your life or your ‘calling’. Just go and do the will of God, which is open to us everyday.

Last night at APEX we kicked off God Questions. These questions carry such relevance for today because we live in such a pluralistic society where ‘all roads lead to God’. To claim you have the pulse on absolute truth in our culture is like saying The Pittsburgh Stealers are a ‘wrong’ football team or Starbucks coffee is demonic.

When it comes to evangelism isn’t it so much easier to be quiet – to keep your faith to yourself? We talk about ‘friendship evangelism’ but somehow never quite get to the ‘evangelism’ part.

The truth is that Christianity stands alone because of the person of Jesus Christ. While other religions show the path to ‘salvation’ or ‘enlightenment’ through good works, Jesus claims to be the Way of salvation. No one else has ever claimed that.

Here are 3 Ways to Prepare for Gospel Conversations that I shared last night:

• LEARN – many Christians don’t know what they believe and why they believe it. Make sure you are ever deepening your knowledge of what your life is built upon so you can answer those who have questions.
• LOVE – Is your passion for Jesus contagious? Is there deep feeling or merely facts? Nothing rubs off on others more than passion.
• LISTEN – too often we’ve viewed evangelism as the “Jesus is coming back in 5 minutes, I need to get you saved so please sign this card so that I can feel good about myself” approach. It’s a huge turn off to people of different faiths if you don’t listen and hear their heart before you speak about yours. See everyone you come in contact with as ‘interesting’ and get to know them for who they are. This will open their hearts to your message because you are friendly and they feel you care about them and they can trust you.

I’ll add another one that doesn’t start with an ‘L’. Pray. Trust the Holy Spirit to do supernatural things through you. Don’t just think about it. Go.

DS

I recently finished reading the book, “The Living Church” by John Stott. Quite a powerful read. John has been a pastor for more years than I can count. He is deeply in touch with the past as well as what is currently happening in the church. So much wisdom here. At the end of his book he quotes from Michael Ramsey on the topic of humility. Don’t miss this:

• Thank God, often and always…Thank God, carefully and wonderingly, for your continuing privileges… Thankfulness is a soil in which pride does not easily grow.
• Take care about confession of your sins… Be sure to criticize yourself in God’s presence: that is your self-examination. And put yourself under the divine criticism: that is your confession…
• Be ready to accept humiliations. They can hurt terribly, but they help you to be humble. There can be the trivial humiliations. Accept them. There can be the bigger humiliations… all these can be so many chances to be a little nearer to our humble and crucified Lord.
• Do not worry about status… there is only one status that our Lord bids us be concerned with, and that is the status of proximity to himself…
• Use your sense of humor. Laugh about things, laugh at the absurdities of life, laugh about yourself, and about your own absurdity. We are all of us infinitesimally small and ludicrous creatures within God’s universe. You have to be serious, but never solemn, because if you are solemn about anything there is the risk of becoming solemn about yourself.

I referenced this moment in my message at APEX last night. I know it’s a bit long, but it is worth your time. Challenging, powerful, life-changing.

DS