Lifestyle Evangelism is . . . An Unconfused Witness.

Every year as we approach Christmas Day, it becomes more and more evident that we are living in a vastly confused world. For example, if you listen closely, you might hear, “I can’t believe it; those Christians are now trying to take our Christmas fun, too, and make it a religious holiday.” Did you stop and explain to that person just what the Christ-mass is all about?

To add to the confusion we have our Federal Government, which we whole-heartedly support as being placed over us by God (cf. St. Paul, Romans 13), trying to pass more and more legislation to keep religion out of government. It is my understanding that the United States of America wrote its Constitution for just the opposite reason, to keep government out of religion.

As Americans we have religious freedom. We have the freedom to be a member of whatever religious organization we wish and to worship in whatever manner we desire. Unfortunately, as Americans, we have come to take our freedom of religion to mean freedom from religion. We are not mocked, ridiculed, or tortured for our faith as many Christians are in many countries of our world. As a matter of fact, our faith is a mere luxury if anything, so we sometimes ask ourselves, “since I do not have to, why go to church?”

The Christmas season and the Easter season are the two seasons of the year, especially when we see our great worship of creation rather than the Creator. Our thinking is that life on earth will be for a very long time and eternity is some vague concept a long time away. Our surprise will come when at the end of our brief life here on earth, we will face eternity, either in heaven or in hell. Have we confused our focus of what is really important here on earth?

We have also confused our focus in our witnessing efforts. We tend to focus on the differences between believers and unbelievers, not wanting to associate with those non-Christians—afraid it will rub off. Instead, we should be focusing on the difference faith makes. We focus on ourselves as witnesses instead of on the Holy Spirit, who gives us the power to speak and who does the converting of the heart.

Time is linear; it is heading someplace-to eternity. There is an overarching purpose to all that happens. You do not have to look very closely to see Satan’s game plan at work in corrupting our world today. God is not the author of confusion; Satan is, as he is the father of lies. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can refocus our love, trust, and guidance.

As we redirect our focus, the witness opportunities become even more clear. As the Psalmist says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Psalm 3:5).

48 of 52 © Rev. Ronald A. Bogs