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Bring In The New Year
Lose weight. Exercise more. Quit some bad habit. Read the Bible from start to finish. The new year is upon us, a time when we make plans about how we’re going to spend the next twelve months. But one of the best resolutions you can make for 2013 is the decision to bring someone to the Lord. That is not only a commitment that will change another’s life; in the process, you will start your own revolution.
Bringing someone to Jesus makes you take a closer look at Him. I have found that there is no better way to get to know the Savior than to tell other people about Him. Since you want them to come and follow Him as you have, you will seek to present His case in the most persuasive and convicting manner.
When you describe His miracles and wonders, you will have a better appreciation of His deity. When you tell of His temptations, sufferings, and tears, you will have a greater grasp of His sympathy with the human race. When you explain His sweat that fell as drops of blood and the nails that were driven through His hands and feet, you will have a more graphic picture of the destructive nature of sin. And when you tell of His glorious resurrection from the dead, you will grow the anticipation of your own promised victory over the grave.
Help someone see Him through the eye of faith and watch how your vision for the unseen becomes even clearer.
Bringing someone to Jesus makes you take a closer look at the Scriptures. No matter how many times you have read Rom. 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek", those words will take on a new meaning when you see them in action.
It is that gospel that has the power to penetrate stone hearts and to break stubborn wills. It is that gospel that causes hope to be realized with the news that "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness" (1 Pet. 2:24). It is that gospel that brings people under the condemnation of their sin and provokes the response of "what must I do to be saved?" It is that gospel that produces inexpressible joy over the forgiveness of sins like the eunuch, after he was baptized, "went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:39).
Show someone the passages that led you to the obedience of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It will only draw you closer to Him who authored that same message.
Bringing someone to Jesus makes you take a closer look at yourself. If you want to point someone to Christ, then let them see Him living in you. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me" (Gal. 2:20). Your life is no longer about you. It’s about Him.
Jesus said, "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). Who was more qualified to make that statement than He who practiced what He preached? Jesus never took the approach of "Do as I say, not as I do." And He needs disciples who will follow in those steps of sincerity. You can’t recommend a way of life that you are not willing to live yourself. People have to see Jesus when they see you. Not only will that allow you to be a good example to those you come in contact with, it will ultimately bring glory to God.
Live the life of a Christian. Evangelism is as much about showing as it is telling.
The story of Jesus is too good not to tell. It’s too good not to live. You say you want a resolution? Ring in the new year by bringing someone to the Lord.
