Thought of the Day !!

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.

Then the angel spoke to the women. "Don't be afraid!" he said. "I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn't here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you."

Matthew 28:1-7 (NLT)

Yesterday we saw where the women were instructed to come and see the empty tomb. They had to come and see the Good News before they could heed the second set of instructions, which were to GO and TELL. The same goes with us. We must come and see Jesus before we can tell anyone else about Him. But once we've seen Him, we too are instructed to go and tell. This is called evangelism.

I believe that as a whole, the Church has done a poor job of this here in America. Maybe we've been good at being missionaries to other countries; I don't know? But over the last several decades we've lost young people, and now research from people like the Barna Group (Christian research group) and others suggest that people outside our church often equate the term "Christian" with something negative.

A great number of people from ages 16-40 see Christians as "hypocritical", "sheltered", "too political" and "judgmental". Now I'm not saying that this is right or wrong. But I'm saying that way too many people have these impressions of us, which means that we've done a poor job with the good news.

Think about Jesus' day and who was seen as hypocritical, judgmental, sheltered and too political. Who were they?

They were the Pharisees and the Jewish priests. They were the ones that Jesus opposed. It's sad to think that in anybody's minds we have become what we are supposed to be opposing.

So what do we do? Can we change the world's view of Christianity and the Church? Well, maybe not. But what we can do is change people's views about each one of us. We can't share the good news by hitting people over the head with the bible. We can't condemn people or try to "scare" them out of hell. Because this just doesn't work. Evangelism begins with forming relationships. We have to live out the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. It can't be just window dressing. We MUST commit the time necessary to actually love others. And then...and only then...will they listen to us. Only after people trust us, will they trust what we have to say to them.

It takes time. But nothing worth while ever happens over night. We must Go and Tell people who look like us and those who don't; people who act like us and those who don't; people who think like us and those who don't. We are called to go and tell our neighbor that the tomb is empty and Jesus died and rose for ALL of us.

The Angel of the Lord said "Come and See". And then he said, "Go and Tell".

In the love of Christ,
greg