Wow, I was convicted this past weekend....
Let me set the scene for you.
I'm a Seventh Day Adventist Christian. Which means I hold two things very close to my heart...
I believe that Jesus is coming back soon!
The Sabbath is the seventh day!
So what is commonly called Saturdays, is the biblical sabbath. And God commanded us in Exodus 20:8 to 'Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy'....Which means from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday I literally.....Shut down and spend some good ol' fashioned quality time with my Lord and Savior.
And when Sabbath ends, my family gathers for worship, we praise the Lord and pray for a blessed week ahead. When Sabbath ended on Saturday night though, things went a little different for us...
As soon as I knew it, there was a knock at our door. Which is super strange, because no one knows where we live as we just moved into town. I opened the door and here stood two young people with a gift basket in hand.
They introduced themselves and asked if we were the new home owners. We told them we were and they essentially knocked on the door to welcome us to the neighbourhood and present us with a thoughtful basket filled with gifts and household items.
I was taken back because this was an awesome gesture but there was a few things I was curious about...The first being, how did they know we were new to the area?
They explained, they were actually members of a local Baptist church down the road and look for 'sold' signs on lawns. Once the sign is removed, the purchase a gift basket to drop off to the new member of the community.
So you guessed it, this was absolute brilliant evangelism for their church...
This Scripture kept playing in my mind...
Here I am, a brand new member of the community, part of another church and I'm sitting there asking myself...Am I even touching on. what God expects me to do when it comes to the 'Great Commission'?
Honestly, I don't think I am at all....And it took these two young adults to wake me up to that fact.
They spend the time and energy to find out and seek new members to their community and welcome them....I don't even come close to that kind of mission work.
Now look, I'm not comparing myself or even envying what this amazing brother and sister in Christ are doing....Honestly it just shook me. It made me realize that I'm not spreading the gospel as I'm commissioned to.
And no, I don't think I'll be knocking on doors or anything like that...It's not my style. But there are ways I think I can live out Matthew 28:19
How about you?
As a Christian, do you feel like the Great Commission is something you may not take seriously enough? Is there anything holding you back? Is it too pushy for you maybe?
I'd love to hear from you and your experiences with talking about Jesus with your community, friends and family :)