The other day I had the privledge of going to see a good friend of mine get married. To be in the experience of everything going on that night, I definitely felt overwhelmed and very excited. It’s almost weird to watch someone your age get married, because it finally hits you that you’re growing up and becoming a big kid. On the way home, I had a real sick talk with one of my buddies about how we as Christians share the love of God with others. Immidately the thought of “evangelizing” came up in conversation. Of course, to us, we automatically assumed evangelizing meant going around, going up to people, and asking them if they wanted to hear about God. This has been coined “initiative evangelism.” Honestly, in my opinion, that just scares people, turns them away from God even more. Who goes out to lunch by themselves and wants someone (usually a group of two or three) coming up to them and asking them if they’d like to know God personally? I’ve seen this on the beach as well. However, before I get hated on, I would like to acknowledge that this is no way is a bad thing, because I’ve seen lives changed by this, but I’m not all for it and it just my opinion. This is getting off topic however. The main point of this story was that when we think evangelism, we associate it with one thing such as street preaching or talking to people about God. Afetr talking with my buddy, we were able to come up with what we felt true evangelism was. To us, it was anything that involves showing the love of God on others, so that they may come to know Him. Period. This can take on many, many, many forms. The real point of this post was to emphasize that how we live our lives is our worship. Our everyday lives are viewed by many, and all the people who are around us. We have so much influence by how we live our lives, because that is where people can see us for who we really are. I honestly think that is where God shows up the most because He is reflected in everything we do. People see God is us. It is very easy to tell people that you are a Christian. It is very easy to even tell people that you love Jesus, or go to church, or even read your bible. That all means nothing if those poeple don’t see the love and character of Jesus inside of us. I’ve sadly seen it all too many times where people acknowledge God with their lips and deny Him with their lives. Even more sadly, I’ve seen it in myself.
I went for a run today and I always do the iPod music on shuffle thing because that way I don’t have the same music playing every time I run. Today for some reason I wasn’t in a very good mood, so I just needed to get out of the house and clear my head. The first song that came up was a worship song, which ordinarily I would not listen to while running, but today was different. It made everything feel right. It made me realize, as I was running, that God wants to be part of every aspect of our lives. So I asked God for the rest of the songs that were played during my run to be worship ones, because I feel that He was using that for me today. Lately in church during the music worship, I have just felt stagnant, not really getting into it. I have just gotten into the habit of the weekly church service and making it a chore rather than an experience with God. My run today was like no worship service I’ve ever had. That 40 minutes was the most uplifting time with God I have had in a long time. God was really putting on my heart that He wants my life, every aspect of it, to be centered around worshiping Him. Then all the other things, like “evangelism” would fall into place after that. I will have no choice but to show others who God is through the way my life is lived and the love that fills me up from Him. And coming back to end with the story that I started with, the marriage of my two friends yesterday exemplifies what I just wrote about. It is a testament to God’s love and grace and it is being shown through those two being together to everyone who knows them, and I’ve seen personally lives changed by them.
OUR LIVES ARE OUR WORSHIP
That’s all I really have, and as usual it is in it’s random thought format.
Cheers,
Brandon
