EVANGELISM, COMMITMENT TO

Coca-Cola has fulfilled their own version of the Great Commission many times over. They have virtually put a bottle of Coke in everyone’s hand. If they can do it with a soft drink, we can certainly do it with the gospel.409

Many Christians are like the Arctic River—frozen over at the mouth! In evangelism, the hardest thing seems to be to open your mouth to get the first word out.410

Each human soul is like a cavern full of gems. The casual observer glances into it through some cranny, and all looks dark and sullen and useless. But let light enter into it and lo! It will flash with crystals and amethysts and quiver under the touch of brightness. If souls do not shine before you it is because you bring them no light to make them shine. Throw away your miserable, smouldering, fuming torch of conceit and hatred, lift up to them the light of love, and lo! “They will arise and shine; yea, flame and burn with an undreamt of glory” (Canon Farrar).411

When Henry Ford purchased a large insurance policy, the Detroit newspapers blazoned the fact, since the amount was so large and he was so prominent. The story was read by one of Ford’s old friends, who happened to be in the insurance business. The old friend went to confront Ford to see if the story was true. When Ford assured him that it was, the friend asked him why the policy was not purchased from him, since he was a personal friend and had been in insurance for many years. Ford’s reply was, “You never asked me.”

How many of our friends can say to us, “You never asked me,” as to our sharing Christ with them?412

Jehovah’s Witnesses spend at least ten hours a month pounding the pavement in their hometown, looking for new members. “Our religion is not just a formality,” said Jared K. Hardie, a public-relations officer for the Dallas Watchtower Convention. “Our whole lifestyle revolves around our obligation to follow the command of Jesus. We have five hours of meetings each week in addition to our personal study. And our door-to-door work is not an effort to pester or harass people. I think most people know that we do it because they know we are sincere.” (Cited in Dallas Times Herald, 7/1/79, p. B-2.)413

Once, when walking down a certain street in Chicago, D. L. Moody stepped up to a man, a perfect stranger to him, and said, “Sir, are you a Christian?”

“You mind your own business!” was the reply.

Moody replied, “This is my business.”414