Be loving to people. This honors God. God is love. (I Jn 4:8) Second to loving God, we are called to love people. (Mt 22:36-40; Lev 19:18) Goodness, kindness… these are fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), and bringing forth this ‘fruit of the kingdom’ sows the Spirit of Jesus. (Mt 21:43) However… fruits of the Spirit, and outpouring of God’s love and power, is not the same as the ‘gospel of Jesus Christ’. (Mt 5:45; Acts 17:25) We need to love people, but we need to bring them the good news of Jesus Christ – being one with God, and offering us forgiveness of sin and eternal life! (Mt 1:23; Jn 5:24) We need to feed, forgive and mourn with people (Rm 12:15), but we need to bring them the good news of Jesus Christ. Our number one priority is bringing people the good news of Jesus Christ, and second to this is being ‘kind’ to people. The latter sows a seed. The former is the full plant in full bloom, now and forevermore! Here is what I defer to you this day, and it is counter-culture – even counter church-culture: Be concerted and prayerful about bringing Jesus to people, and ‘use’ acts of kindness to open doors. It says in Proverbs, ‘A gift opens the way for the giver, and ushers him into the presence of the great!’ (Pr 18:16) So we use gifts (literal gifts, tipping, helping, smiling, agreeing, encouraging…), to open the way for the gospel. How? Well, for example, if the Spirit leads, you might tip a little extra-generously, but give a tract as you leave. Or, for example, today I dispatched a sympathy card to a Muslim neighbor, but I included in the small package an Arabic Jesus Film DVD, with a note about how Jesus came to heal hearts and give us eternal life. The Lord may not always call you to use every act of kindness to open the door in that same moment to a tract or a testimony. But we are called to believe, pray and work towards bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to people. Often we ‘substitute’ – mainly in our hearts - acts of kindness for purposes of testimony. It is a heart issue! Do we believe that the love of Jesus is better than life? (Ps 63:3) Let’s not, therefore, lead others to believe that ‘random acts of kindness’ is as good as it gets! ‘Preach the gospel. And if necessary use non-random acts of kindness!’
4 Comments
Laurie Bryan
6/5/2017 10:36:05 am
Amen! Great reminder! Thank you Peter!
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Peter Walker
6/5/2017 10:55:53 am
Thanks, Laurie! I think my cards were well-received because you were tipping!:) Bless you! Thank you for fighting the good fight of the faith!:) (1 Tim 6:12)
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Joanne Duncan
6/5/2017 04:53:10 pm
Thank you for giving me this good advice. Sometimes I am timid and don´t get through what I really wanted to convey and stay in the act of kindness. I will pray that God gives me courage and remind me that Jesus is with me.
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Peter Walker
6/6/2017 06:48:39 am
Amen, Joanne! I know that feeling! But don't let the enemy make you feel bad about this... Jesus often sowed seed, and then later reaped a 'word' (John 5/John 9)... Just stay in step with the Spirit. If you cannot 'speak the word', you can always pray that the kindness you deposit will be Spirit-filled, and part of God opening the eyes of their heart to Jesus one day! The most important thing is that we BELIEVE people DO need to hear about Jesus - and this you do!:)
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