0079. The Place to Practice Soul-Winning
The Place to Practice Soul-Winning
"Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee" (Luk_8:39).
1. The first place to do soul-winning work is in one’s own home. Surely we should "learn to show piety first at home," and we should seek first of all to win those next to us unto God. How many young men and women are hindered in their longing after God, because they of their own household seem so utterly indifferent to their lost estate. The fact is, that too often the ones at home, who are saved, would feel utterly at a loss if their unsaved loved ones asked them to point them out the way of salvation. If we cannot talk Christ to the ones at home, who know us best and love us most, the reason is because our life "behind the doors," our home life, is inconsistent with our Christian profession. If one can talk to some other person’s brother or sister better than he can talk to his own, the reason doubtless lies in the fact that his own brother or sister knows him too well.
2. The second place to do personal work is in the church and the Sunday School. There are always those who are truly interested, and who need just a word to encourage them on their way. A believer awake to his opportunities can quickly find some one to point to Christ. Soul-winning churches must always be those where Christ is faithfully preached from the pulpit, and where Spirit-led personal workers are active in the pew.
3. Another place for personal work is on the street. This may be done in many ways. The giving of a tract, or the turning of a conversation, may prove very fruitful in leading to the all-important question of salvation.
4. Perhaps the personal visit to the home across the street, or over town, or even miles away, is just what the Spirit will want you to do.
Illustration: The story is told of a minister’s daughter who spent a restless night, because God had laid heavily upon her heart the lost estate of a man, a big man, an infidel, who lived across the street.
In the morning the daughter begged her father to go and speak to the infidel–but the father said, "Has God told you to go?" The young lady responded: "But, papa, he is so smart and so full of his infidel tricks that I could not speak with him." But the father told her that if God wanted her to go, He would give her words to speak. She went. The infidel met her at the door. She followed him to his "den." When she was seated he asked her quest. The girl at once lost all her poise. She cried, and stammered out the words, "Oh, I couldn’t sleep all night for thinking about your being lost. I do want you to be saved–oh so much, so much." And then the trembling girl ran from the room and out the door and across the street and fell upon her father’s neck and sobbed out, "Oh, papa, I spoiled it all." But not so. The infidel had heard her words, seen her emotion; he followed her with his eye, from the door, as she ran across the street; he imagined the scene within the preacher’s home.
The infidel went back to his room heart-broken, convicted of his lost estate. He fell upon his face and cried for mercy, and there the Lord spoke peace unto his soul, and he was saved.
Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR