Tag Archives: sharing the gospel

October 3, 2022 · 5:59 AM

Becoming God’s Partner

When my wife and I go somewhere with a group, I become a social butterfly and she looks for a place to hide. If we need to keep a low profile, she’ll jokingly say, “Don’t get any Social Security numbers.” I like to know about people. I like hearing their story, and do my best to look for avenues for us to connect. Hen you connect with people, they begin to pull down their invisible wall one brick at a time. Once their wall is down, you can really get to know the person and find out what’s really going on inside them or what they’re going through. It’s then that I can give them solutions that they’ll listen to and implement. If I never connect, I never get that opportunity.

The apostle Paul, who wrote the most books in the New Testament was a learned, well traveled person. He too looked for ways to connect with people. Everywhere he went, people gravitated to him and he had the opportunity to share the message of Christ. He attracted large crowds and was not afraid to get up and speak. He understood the importance of relational equity. People won’t listen to the hard things you have to say unless you’ve built some equity into the relationship. He was able to build it with the early churches. Because of that, he could correct in love and point them to a better way of living. He was also able to use that to share the Gospel with many different nationalities and people groups.

In 1 Corinthians 9:22-23, Paul wrote, “I became “weak” to the weak to win the weak. I have adapted to the culture of every place I’ve gone so that I could more easily win people to Christ. I’ve done all this so that I would become God’s partner for the sake of the gospel” (TPT). Paul became all things to all people so that He could partner with God. I know the thought of meeting and talking to large groups of people terrifies many of you. However, God can partner with you using your personality and skill set if you’ll be open to it. You don’t have to be a social butterfly for God to do great things through you. Wherever you go, whomever you meet, look for opportunities to connect so that God can do something in someone’s life. God does some of His greatest work in people’s lives in one on one situations. In nearly every case, He looks to partner with someone like you.

Photo by Cytonn Photography:

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August 10, 2020 · 5:30 AM

Broadcasting Seeds

If you’re like me, you’ve probably planted a small garden somewhere on your property. In the spring, we till a few rows in a box beside our house. We usually plant a few things like tomatoes, cucumbers and green beans. The garden is small and takes just a few minutes to plant the seeds. My son enjoys checking on them to see how they’re growing. After watering it for weeks and pulling weeds, we get to go pick the vegetables and eat them. The garden is so small we can usually put our daily harvests in one bowl. We then try to share it between three people so all we get is a taste. My son is always super proud of it, but each time we split the vegetables, I can’t help but be reminded of how small the garden is.

When I think about the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4, verse 4 always catches my attention. It says that he cast his seeds. That’s different than planting them one by one like we do. I looked up how farmers plant large fields, and that’s what they do. They have a mechanism that broadcasts seeds and then they cover them up. In my mind, I always thought farmers planted each individual seed with the love and tender care that we do in our garden. It’s no wonder that in the parable some fell on the path where the birds ate it, and others fell on rocky soil and some even fell among the thorn bushes. However, you have to know that a majority of those seeds fell into the good soil he had tilled. Those are the ones that produced the harvest yielding 30, 60 and 100 times more than was planted.

It’s got me to thinking about how I sow seeds in life. Am I only planting a few within a confined space or am I broadcasting them everywhere. You can’t expect a large harvest when you only plant a few seeds. Are you broadcasting seeds? Will you need the Lord of the Harvest to send laborers for the seeds you’re planting? We’re reaping small harvests because we’re planting so few seeds. Freely we have been given, so freely we must broadcast or give. There will be seeds sown in rocky places, but we can’t let that stop us from broadcasting everywhere we go. Jesus finished that parable in verse 9 by saying, “If you understand this, then you need to respond” (TPT). Now that we understand what it means to broadcast, it’s time for us to respond.

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Tagged as bible study, bible study on, bible verses on, christian living, Devotional, devotional on, freely you have received, great commission, harvest, parable of the sower, planting seeds, scattering seeds, share the gospel, sharing the gospel, sowing and reaping, what does the bible say about