Archive for category Evangelism Bible

The Way, the Truth, and the Life

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have known me, you will also know my Father. From now on you know him and have seen him.”

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and that will satisfy us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? The person who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? You believe, don’t you, that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own. It is the Father who dwells in me who does his works. Believe me, I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe me because of the works themselves. “Truly, truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I am doing. He will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.” (John 14:1-14, NIV) Read the rest of this entry »

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The Art of Christian Writing

Over the past years it is not at all surprising that Christian book sales, both fiction and nonfiction works, has soared. In fact not only are more Christian authors making a living from their writing, mainstream traditional book publishers have started to woo Christian authors, especially Pastors whose faces frequently grace Christian television networks. The reason for this is obvious. Christian writing has become more lucrative than it has ever been before.

The art of Christian writing is one that anyone who has passion for writing can master, if they stay focused and steadily perfect their writing. In many ways, Christian writing is not really different from secular writing, except in it’s content and approach. For example, as Christian believers, the Bible commissions us to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, as a Christian your writing needs to evangelize and minister to others in the manner that Christ would have. Still, you need to assess your audience and know how to deliver your information. If your audience is mostly a secular one, you need to better clarify your use of Biblical language or you could lose them. Also, you can paraphrase the Scripture in simple every day language and then reference the Bible source, rather than use deep Biblical language that requires revelation knowledge to decipher and understand.
The essence of Christian writing is not just to reach Christian believers, but also to reach others who may be curious about Christianity and who may not know what the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ says or means. Also, Christian writing needs to identify and point out an existing problem, and give guidance and encouragement to readers on how to solve the problem. While many people think or believe that the Bible is just a collection of outdated stories, the Bible is really a “how to do” book that shows us the problems and challenges that individuals experienced, and how they overcame such problems by relying on God’s grace and guidance. The Bible also points out the errors that individuals made and how such mistakes created difficulties in their lives, and sometimes even caused their death. Christian writing should mimic the Bible in its presentation of problems and solutions. The art of Christian writing includes bringing into words the light of God, to bring encouragement and hope to readers and solutions to their problems. This is why it is critical that a Christian writer remains an inspired writer. The ancient Greek word origin “theopneustos”, which is the meaning of the word “inspiration”, really means “God-breathed.” So within an inspired Christian writer, God has placed His breath (Genesis 2:7), which is His “inspiration” in you to write.

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The Evangelical Tradition – 5 of 6

This tradition works best when in tandem with the previous, the Social Justice tradition. For how could non-believing people be convinced of the power and grace of the Spirit without seeing it in the evangel?

This tradition, or the Word-centred life, is about faithfulness in three orders: proclamation, repository, and interpretation.

The Word of God is preached to influence people’s faith in line with the Augustine philosophy, “To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory.”[1] The preaching of gospel truth is primary.

The ancient Near East (ANE) repository tradition centred around the oral tradition due mainly to the generational and communal culture if not the core reason that texts weren’t available and reading and writing were not relevant to the age for the majority of the people.  Evangels passionately protect the role of Scripture as the contemporary repository for the Gospel.

Confessional witness and response to the Gospel message is key.

Entrusted as the ‘keepers’ of the Word of God, evangels study the text and faithfully preserve it; each of the different Bible translations and paraphrases have been carefully and dutifully composed based on the primary texts.

Of course, the great commandment of Jesus’ in the final verses of Matthew charges us to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” -Matthew 28:19-20a (TNIV).

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