Picture yourself talking with an acquaintance. This person is not a close friend or someone you know intimately. But you do know them. We all have these kinds of people in our lives. Coworkers, people at the gym, parents at our kid's school, neighbors. The kind of people where conversation usually stays pretty light.

Now picture that the conversation turns spiritual for one reason or another. They hint at some pain in their life, open up about their marriage or suggest they are looking for something more. One thing we have to keep in mind is that scripture says that these types of people will know there is something different about a Christian. The peace that surpasses understanding or by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another, etc. The idea that we need to keep our spiritual eyes and ears open to these kinds of responses is another entry. So, suffice it to say that it will not be uncommon for one of our friends to breach the intimacy barrier because they know there is something different about a Christian.

At this point many Christians would recognize the need and the searching of this friend for the gospel and want to give them the gospel. We want to share with them the love of Christ so that they would know that peace and that love that we have grown to rely on. We know that often times these hints from our friends represent the tip of the iceberg and under the surface there is pain and wanting that can only be filled by repentance and faith.

It is at this point that I have been afraid and reluctant to follow in my savior's footsteps and I think many Christians as well. It is at this point that we say something like, "Where do you go to church?" or "you should come try my church..." or "My pastor was just talking about that a couple of weeks ago."

The gospel is not "Come try my church". There is something inherently wrong with that statement as an attempt to witness to those who are lost. Buried in those statements and questions is our fear by attempting to read what this friends religious temperature might be or what their response to faith might be. By asking where they go to church, we are asking what kind of music and worship they are familiar with so we can measure it against the church we might be attending and judge whether they would be comfortable at our church.

But we are doing 2 things much more neglecting of scripture. First, we are passing off the duty to spread the good news to someone else. By suggesting that they come to our church to find peace for their problems, we are placing the duty of witnessing on our pastor or someone else in our church. We do this because we are afraid to be rejected, outcast or looked at as weird. It's much easier to have one of our friends reject a nebulous organization or a second party than it is to be rejected ourselves. Secondly, we are basing whether they are ready to accept the good news on our own discernment, persuasion and presentation or lack there of. Scripture is very clear that the heart of man is prepared by God to receive the Gospel (2 Cor. 4:1-6, Acts 13:48, Acts 16:14, and many others). We are not called to discern if someone will receive the gospel or persuade them to believe. We are called to spread the good news. If someone has been prepared by God to believe, then a child could witness to them and they would believe. If someone has not been prepared by God to believe then Tony Robbins, Donald Trump or Billy Graham could not persuade them.

The bible says that we will be rejected and hated because our Savior was rejected and hated. I pray that the Spirit would teach us this and, also, that our comfort does not come from the acceptance of man. Scripture also says that the fields are white for the harvest but the workers are few. Our conversations are not random. Our running into people is not by accident. God sovereignly places people in our lives that He has prepared for what He has to offer. We are only called to deliver it.

Spread the gospel like there's no tomorrow and have confidence that God will give you peace in rejection and that He will bring you those He has prepared for faith.

2 Corinthians 3:4-6, "Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."