Lifestyle Evangelism is . . . Being Faithful.

Success in our world today, and especially in our capitalistic society, is measured by dollars and cents, or by other numbers. Although this is denied within the church, there is truth to the fact that even in the church the success or failure of a congregation is measured by its number of those in attendance, baptisms, adult converts, and so forth. Even as individual Christians we may, at times, feel a little pressure suggesting that we are not as good of Christians as we could be because we are not, individually, bringing in the numbers we should to church, either as guests or visitors, or the like.

Fortunately, God does not measure success the way we do. Fortunately God never has commended that we be successful. And simply to ask that we be successful would be to ask to define the term success. Do we use this word to mean numbers, dollars and cents, or what? No, God never asks that we be successful about anything. He does ask that we be faithful. “Be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

“Be faithful.” What does that mean? That means holding on and clinging to Jesus, believing in Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength until the end, your physical end on this earth. We are not to be running after (as Moses says, a whoring after) other gods. We are not to concern ourselves with counting how many “notches” we have on our belts from bringing others to Jesus. As a matter of fact, in the Old Testament, David sinned when he counted the people. It is only with God’s bidding that we attempt such counting.

One of our greatest concerns in Lifestyle Evangelism is to life faithful lives. As we live faithful lives, we will be showing the faith that is in our hearts. Others will see our faith and we will have the opportunity to give an answer for the hope that we have in Christ our Savior, which is what motivates our living lives of faith. And we pray that the Lord would help us to live such faithful lives even unto our own physical death.

28 of 52 © Rev. Ronald A. Bogs