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Evangelism Takes Time
Evangelism, like sanctification, takes time. Therefore, we must give it time.
By Earl Palmer
Leadership Journal, April 1, 1989
Source: Christianity Today
A man who liked C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters went on to read Mere Christianity and was infuriated. He wrote the author a scathing letter.
Lewis’s response, in longhand, shows a master evangelist at work:
“Yes, I’m not surprised that a man who agreed with me in Screwtape … might disagree with me when I wrote about religion. We can hardly discuss the whole matter by post, can we? I’ll only make one shot. When people object, as you do, that if Jesus was God as well as man, then he had an unfair advantage which deprives him for them of all value, it seems to me as if a man struggling in the water should refuse a rope thrown to him by another who had one foot on the bank, saying, ‘Oh, but you have an unfair advantage.’ It is because of that advantage that he can help. But all good wishes. We must just differ; in charity I hope. You must not be angry with me for believing, you know; I’m not angry with you.”
What impresses me about that exchange is the light touch. Lewis acknowledges the man’s complaint; he gives him one thing to think about—and he stops. He steps back as if to say, “Your move,” which opens the way for the man to write again.
“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-7 (ESV)
What does it mean to “walk by faith, not by sight”? God is someone whom we cannot see with our eyes, feel or touch with our hands, hear with our ears. Yet we still believe Him. We still place our faith in Him. The author of Hebrews defined faith as “…the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)
How often have you felt like shouting at God, “Show yourself to me!”? How often have we neglected Him just because we can’t see Him? How many times have we felt like giving up following Him because He isn’t in a physical form? I have. Many times. But God has revealed Himself to me over and over again. Though not in a physical manner, like some strange, supernatural face-to-face encounter with God, but all the evidence in each circumstance points me back to God. And so we are always of good courage, because of the assurance that God is with us.
So, what will it be for you? Will you put your faith in God whom you cannot see? Or does your faith depend on what you can see from or of God?
