Weekly insights from Chuck Colson and great saints of the past and present

We must not allow our “go/tell” mandate to be reduced to merely “come/see.”

“But the truth is that the Gospel should be radiating out from our churches, the messages in the pulpit translated by those in the pew. We often think that evangelism belongs mainly to the clergy, but every church member has a particular ability and calling to extend the Church’s witness into the world…often the most effective way in which a church can evangelize is to seek out opportunities for its members to share the Gospel in the workplace, in homes, and in community halls, and draw people in however we can reach them.”
-Chuck Colson, The Faith

“Observe what Andrew says to his brother, ‘We have found the Messiah, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.’ You see how, in a short time he demonstrates not only the persuasiveness of the wise teacher but also his own longing that he had from the beginning. For this word, ‘we have found,’ is the expression of a soul that longs for his presence, looking for his coming from above, and is so ecstatic when what he is looking for happens that he hurries to tell others the good news. This is what brother affection, natural friendship, is all about, when someone is eager to extend a hand to another when it comes to spiritual matters.”
-Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John

“…there is no more terrible disaster with which the wrath of God can afflict men than a famine of the hearing of his Word, as he says in Amos [8:11]. Likewise there is no greater mercy than when he sends forth his Word, as we read in Psalm 107[:20]: “He sent forth his word, and healed them, and delivered them from destruction.”
-Martin Luther, The Freedom of the Christian

“When this shall be accomplished, it will be by a remarkable pouring out of God’s own Spirit, with the plain preaching of the gospel of his Son; the preaching of the spiritual, mysterious doctrines of Christ crucified, which to the learned men of this world are foolishness; those doctrines which are the stumbling-block of this learned age. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” It will not be by the enticing word’s of man’s wisdom; but by the demonstration of the Spirit, and of power.”
-Jonathan Edwards, Man’s Natural Blindness in the Things of Religion

“…today all the really vital questions that touch the depths of existence enter man’s consciousness through the medium of persons in whom these questions are, as it were, incarnated.”
-Helmut Thielicke, The Trouble with the Church

Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.
-Acts 8:4

For more insight to this subject, get the book, Evangelism & the Sovereignty of God, by J. I Packer, from our online store.

Or read the article, “Provoked to Curiosity,” by T. M. Moore.

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