Public Witness in a Professional World

So, how does a person have a public witness without forcing the Bible down throats? How do take every opportunity to witness but still respect other people and their “free will”? What about not denying Jesus to people? How do all these things work together, especially if you work in a critical or cynical environment where Christianity is seen more as a crutch for the weak-minded?
I sat down with my dad the other day to discuss this very topic. My new job has the beauty of allowing me to meet so many people and many of them are in need. They need a skilled physical and spiritual physician. What kills me is that this does not mean that I can just go around introducing these people to my Love, my Lord. Instead, I have to be silent and pray to myself. Prayer is a powerful thing and I don’t want to belittle that but sometimes I feel like it is insufficient. Like a Tylenol for someone who is having an amputation, it does not begin to even partially relieve the problem.
Dad said the best witness to be is just to be like Christ. Be different from the world. It still feels insignificant but it plants seeds. Wouldn’t I be risking the opportunity to be a light to hundreds of people if I cross the line by witnessing? Isn’t it seen as unprofessional even though salvation is better and more fulfilling that anything else in this world? Am I denying my Savior by keeping silent? I am confused but this I know, God brought me into this job and He will take me out when my job has been fulfilled. All I must do is love on Him and obey Him everyday and He will bless. He will plant seeds. He will tell me when to speak and when to keep silent.

Blog 12: Snake on a Pole

Mother has been added to the number… the number of those claimed by the plague. The snakes are everywhere. They are even in the tents. They’re not just any snakes either. They are asps. One bite from them and a healthy, grown man can die in just a few hours. Just when we think all is lost, word begins to spread. Moses, he raised up a symbol. If you look at it after a snake bites you, you will be healed. It’s a silver snake twined around a wooden pole. Rumor has it that many have been healed, but I am skeptical. How could what is supposed to kill me, give me life? Then my day comes. Dispite my precautions, I’m bitten by a snake. my family and close friends tell me to look at the symbol, but in a moment of unbelief, I refuse. The poison courses through my veins and stills my heart.
I was talking with a friend of mine. We discussed various patients’ need for God. Doctors have such an open door to witness but sadly many of them are lost and there for cannot see spiritually. I made the point that even if all the doctors in the world were saved, not all patients would have an ear to listen. That’s when my friend reminded me of the story in Exodus or Numbers where the Israelites are cursed with a plague of poisonous snakes. Moses tells them that their “salvation” rests in a glance. All they have to do is look at a symbol of a snake on a pole to be healed. Sadly, there is inference in scripture that some of the people refused to look. I have to constantly remind myself that, some people will refuse even so great a gift as a personal relationship with Almighty God. They will refuse because it doesn’t make sense, because it’s too easy or simply out of defiance. As you witness, remember this sad truth.

Jerusalem Road

How do you witness to a Jew, to someone who only believes in part of the Bible? Isn’t it like hearing half the story to only believe in the Old Testament? Don’t you get the wrath of God without His saving love and grace? God is not the inconsistent. He continually restates, throughout scripture, that He loves us and wants us to know Him in all His glory. I was once shown a “Roman Road” to salvation that was entirely Old Testament verses. Part of witnessing is knowing your audience. If you are talking with someone who believes that translators have tainted the New Testament or been in some other way falsified, don’t use New Testament verses to witness. Here are the Old Testament verses I was given for witnessing to a Jew or other person who holds to the Old Testament alone. Notice how similar the “Roman” verses are to the “Jerusalem” verses. (All verses in KJV) If you have taken the time to memorize the Roman Road, pact with me to memorize these as well. It will add depth to your witnessing pool.

Ps 14:3 “They are all gone aside, they are [all] together become filthy: [there is] none that doeth good, no, not one.”

Ecc 7:20 “For [there is] not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.”

Is 59:1-2 “Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he will not hear.”

Lev 17:11 “For the life of the flesh [is] in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it [is] the blood [that] maketh an atonement for the soul.”

Is 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Micah 5:2 “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, [though] thou be little among the thousands of Judah, [yet] out of thee shall he come forth unto me [that is] to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth [have been] from of old, from everlasting.”

Dan 9:26 “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.”

Joel 2:32 “And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.”

http://www.chosenpeople.com/main/index.php/evangelism/157-presenting-messiah-to-your-jewish-friend