Evangelism...Do It!

It's still there. On my office bookshelf. A brand new copy of Herman Melville's Moby Dick. This classic was one of my favorites in High School and college. I purchased this copy at my local Barnes & Noble bookstore, pledging to myself to reread it at leisure over the course of the next year. That was three years ago! I still haven't reread it. It serves as a constant reminder about good plans gone awry. Perhaps you can relate. But as we prepare for the coming year, 2012, let's determine to not let this be just another year of half-achievements, partial accomplishments, and tasks lost completely to procrastination. And may this be especially true concerning evangelism. Personal evangelism isn't easy. But it is necessary. And we are all called to do it. In his book The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Mark Dever addresses the issues at hand that often inhibit our obedience to the Great Commission. He writes:

"The way I've been careless can vary. Sometimes I don't see the opportunity because I'm busy. Evangelism, after all, can be time consuming and inconvenient. Or maybe I'm too tired...Maybe my neglect of opportunities is more habitual. Maybe I'm lazy, caring more that I not be hassled or hurried than that this person hears the Gospel. Maybe, when it comes right down to it, I'm simply selfish. I don't see the opportunities because I'm unwilling to be inconvenienced. I guess that means that I am, finally, apathetic. My blindness to God's provision is voluntary. I don't consider the reality and finality of death, judgment, and hell. So I don't notice the reality of the person and their plight before me. We must not only close our eyes in prayers for opportunities, but we must open our eyes to see them."

I'm not calling for resolutions and well-intentioned plans. I'm simply asking for Christians to be obedient to the Gospel. And that means sharing the Good News in the coming year. If 2012 closes and I haven't even cracked the pages of Moby Dick, who cares? As Linus questioned Lucy years ago in the Peanuts comic strip, "A hundred years from now, who'll know the difference?"
But if I don't tell others about Christ, a hundred years from now we will all know the difference. And that's worth caring about.


p.s. -Remember what Mark Twain observed about a classic. It's a book that no one's read but everyone recommends.