MOVE YOUR LIPS
The busy street corner was buzzing with the comings and goings of distracted people, the glaze of a long day’s work lingering in their eyes. Their feet moved with the rhythm of a steady drumbeat, and a surge of fear patters up your spine. Your hand grips tight to a stack of tracts held together with a rubber band. The chilly New York City air whips through your jacket, but it’s your anxiety that really makes your teeth chatter. Would your back-pocket Gospel knowledge be enough? What if you were rejected by another businessman with a briefcase in hand and a cell phone pressed up to his face, or another mom shouldering a diaper bag and gripping tight to her toddler’s hand? You run the words over and over again like a familiar tune in your head, finally mustering up enough courage to speak, but the words turn to sand in your mouth, and you back away with nothing but a dry throat, too nervous to speak. This is how many of us felt going into the first hours of Open Air Evangelism, especially those who had never really shared the Gospel before. With so many mixed feelings of excitement, fear, and worry, it was hard to navigate through it all. Yet, as the weekend continued, the sand in our mouths turned to floods of hope and joy that spilled out of us and onto others, as we learned to lean on Jesus and trust the leading of the Holy Spirit. Remembering Christ’s love for us and for all people is what motivated us to evangelize. We realized that we don’t need to share the Gospel because people expect us to or to keep ourselves from feeling ashamed. The spread of the Gospel has to come from a personal place, a place of deep joy and appreciation for what Jesus did for us. And as that joy filled us up, we were able to pass it along to the men and women we met during OAE.
Ministry
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