WITNESS 'IN OUR SLEEP'

 

(“He who wins souls is wise.” Proverbs 11:30 NKJV)

Dear Readers:

Two weeks ago I mentioned building up our ‘mental muscles’ by practicing the fundamentals of soulwinning so that we could essentially witness the love of Jesus to others ‘in our sleep’.

The goal of any habit that we want to become a regular part of our lives is to practice it over, and over, and over again, until we can do it so well, and it comes to us so naturally, that we don’t even have to think about it.

Two things that always bothered me growing up were the following. 1. I never learned to roller skate. 2. I never learned to swim. When invited to roller skating and swimming parties I always felt embarrassed that I wasn’t able to do either.

Years ago while still living in Berlin, Ohio I went for about four months straight to a roller skating rink every week because I was determined to learn to roller skate.

I’d like to say that I became proficient at roller skating. I did manage to stay upright longer than ten seconds, but roller skating never became my forte.

In 1990 I moved to Ashland, Ohio for my new job. I didn’t know anyone there, so it was the perfect opportunity to try to learn to swim. I went to the YMCA and signed up for a membership, and immediately started taking swimming lessons. I felt self-conscious when I saw little six-year olds swimming better than me, but I was determined, and went at least three times a week to take lessons and practice. After all, what else did I have to do in a new town?

In the past I never thought it was possible for me to learn to swim. My swimming instructors, however, had hope for me, and it payed off. The biggest hurdle, and it was a huge hurdle, was learning to breathe in between strokes.

I literally stood in chest-high water and repeatedly put my head straight down under water, blew out my breath, and turned my head to the side to take in a breath. I felt sort of foolish doing it, but I did this over, and over, and over again.

Finally, after about four months of this routine, it started becoming more and more natural for me to breathe in between strokes. I started improving to the point of being able to swim laps. I gained a couple of swimming buddies in the process, and we laughed and joked as we swam along together. I shocked myself that I was able to do something I had previously thought impossible.

What about witnessing? Can we practice it over, and over, and over again so that it becomes so natural for us that we can literally do it in our sleep . . . or so that it becomes fun for us to witness to other people, and we can gain new friendships we once never thought possible?

Two examples I had of this in the last week. I met one man who was reading a book that I thought looked like a Bible. I asked him about it, and he said it was a combination Hebrew reading book with English translations.

This man said that he believed in the Old Testament, but the New Testament where it talked about Jesus was not as important . . . or it was merely an extension of the Old Testament. I told him of my love for Jesus, and he minimized the importance of this, and that it was more important to serve and learn about the God of the Old Testament. I wasn’t able to finish my conversation with him as he had to leave.

I met another lady while waiting at a car service area. She was a young black lady who I really came to like when she talked about her job, her mother, and various other topics with another lady and me. This young lady was full of life and had a smile that lit up a room. I was disappointed when she was called out to the service desk, and I didn’t have a direct opportunity to share the gospel with her.

But as I went out to pay for and get my vehicle, there she was standing outside smoking. I had my homemade Roman Road tract ready, and I pulled alongside her and handed it to her, shared about it briefly, and she gave me a big smile and said “thank you”.

So, I think there’s great joy in overcoming obstacles that we once thought impossible to overcome. And I fully believe that being able to ‘witness in our sleep’ is one of them.

See you next week,
Arlen

SOULWINNING EXPERIMENT #4: ANSWERING THE “HOW ARE YOU?” QUESTION

 

(“He who wins souls is wise.” Proverbs 11:30 NKJV)

Dear Readers:

I didn’t directly rescue someone from the fire in the last week, but I shared my love of Jesus with various people and I’m not disheartened at all. I plan to move forward in my soulwinning quest.

Recently I had two men I knew fairly well pass away. I lived with one man and his family back in the late 80’s for a couple years while attending college. The other man was my wife’s late husband’s Dad. One thing they both had in common was to openly share their love of Jesus with other people, including with family members, friends, people they met in the community, and others.

I’m taking their lead in my next soulwinning experiment. In it I’m planning to take a specific strategy when I meet people. It’s based on the one thing that most people ask other people. You guessed it . . . “HOW ARE YOU?” I joke with my family every time we’re in the Taco Bell drive-in line. I tell them “I’m 100% certain that the Taco Bell worker will ask over the intercom “How are you?” They’ve been doing it for years.

My plan in the coming week is to take the “How are you?” question to the next level, and really tell them how I am. What’s the point of exchanging pleasantries if we don’t even share the truth? I don’t mean sharing the details if we’re having a horrible, rotten, no good day. I mean doing the following:

I plan to say something like this: “I’m feeling blessed by Jesus”, or “I’m feeling blessed by Jesus, thanks for asking”, or “I’m feeling blessed by Jesus, how are you?” By doing this you’re sharing a meaningful expression of your heartfelt feelings about how you really are.

I believe this simple response can have the effect of starting the person to thinking about their own relationship with Jesus. I also think it might open up opportunities to dialogue in the future about Jesus.

For example, if we meet the same person repeatedly, they’ll know ahead of time how we’re going to respond to the ‘How are you?’ question. It might make them think over and over again about their own relationship with Jesus, and whether this strange person in front of them is sharing something of value for their own lives.

You might think this approach will scare the other person off, or you might feel very uncomfortable sharing in this way. But what do we have to lose? As I used to say to my people trying to get jobs who were reluctant to call, or communicate with an employer repeatedly about the prospect of getting a job. I used to joke, “Will they call the police to arrest you for annoying them?”

We do feel blessed by Jesus, don’t we? Why not share it with others when they ask us the “How are you?” question.

See you next week,

Arlen

SUPERHERO RESCUE MISSION RESULTS

 

(“He who wins souls is wise.” Proverbs 11:30 NKJV)

Dear Readers:

Well, how did we do with the ‘Superhero Rescue Mission’ experiment? I’ll be candid that my mission was what some might term ‘a bust’.

Does the failure of performing the mission make me, or you, a failure? I said a couple experiments ago that I was going to be upfront with success . . . or failure. The key is what did we learn from our experience?

I prayed daily for someone to rescue, but perhaps I prayed just in passing. If you’re like me you have a lot of people and activities vying for time and attention. That’s not a bad thing. God can use us even in the busiest of times. I fully believe that.

The heroes of the Bible also had a lot of people and activities vying for their time, but God still used them mightily. In Exodus 18 Moses was warned by his father-in-law to hand out some judging duties to other qualified men because the task was so large that Moses was becoming overwhelmed. God used Moses’ father-in-law to help Moses understand that it’s okay to not have all the answers all the time . . . and it’s okay to rethink whether we should try a different approach.

In Mark 5:25-34 Jesus was engaged in traveling to Jairus’s home to heal Jairus’s little daughter. While walking there a large crowd also walked close by him, and Jesus was so popular that the crowd pushed in on him. 

It reminded me of a couple weeks ago when Phil Mickelson became the oldest pro golfer ever to win a major golf tournament. Most golf tournaments up to that point were spectator-less due to Covid. But the fans were celebrating their newfound freedom, and they crowded in on Phil in mob jubilation. The other golfer in the twosome became perturbed at the melee, and he said that he even reinjured his knee trying to navigate through the fans pressing in on them.

In Jesus’ case, even though he was on a very important mission to heal a very sick little girl, he felt ‘power’ radiate out from him to someone in the crowd. His disciples were incredulous and basically told him that no way could he know who in the great mob touched him. But Jesus took the time out of his busy schedule to address a woman with a serious issue of bleeding.

So being busy doesn’t mean a death knell to performing the task of The Great Commission. It only means that perhaps we need to practice the fundamentals over and over again so that we can basically ‘do it in our sleep’ when the opportunity arises. We need to build our ‘mental muscles’ to make soulwinning come as naturally as the many other activities of our days.

So I intend to keep on practicing the fundamentals, building those ‘mental muscles, and praying to God and the Holy Spirit to bring people my way to witness to. How about you?

See you next week,
Arlen

SOULWINNING EXPERIMENT #3: SUPERHERO RESCUE MISSION

 

(“He who wins souls is wise.” Proverbs 11:30 NKJV)

Dear Readers:

Have you ever wondered what draws us, at least most men, to watch superhero action movies, or action movies in general? Or draw us in to watch combat movies such as ‘Sergeant York’?

What is it about these movies that suck us in?
1. There are good guys and bad guys, villains if you will.

2. The bad guys continually try to snuff out the good guys . . . so that they can do what?

a. Seize power by taking over and ruling other people, or in some cases the entire world.

b. Make enormous amounts of money.

What happens if the villains gain too much power?
1. Villains may sometimes make promises to the people of ‘a better tomorrow’ . . . but in the end the people are rudely awakened that the villain, or villains are in it for themselves, and they will make life miserable for anyone that stands in their way.

2. There is never enough for a villain. If you ever watch gangster movies, which I have, the mob bosses never have enough. They are always conniving to gain more power, more control, and more money . . . and they’ll resort to any tactics, even killing, to get it.

So what do the good guys do in such dire circumstances?

1. They might take it upon themselves to counteract the villain. They might collectively gather to develop strategies. The villain, on the other hand, tries to silence any dissent among the ranks . . . by intimidation, even to the point of threatening to kill family members.

2. Secondly, they might look for a hero, or heroes that have the wherewithal, stamina, and brainpower to outflank the villain. If any of you have watched the western “The Magnificent Seven” with Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen, you’ll know what I mean.

So where do you and I come into the picture in soulwinning? Can we gather collectively to counteract the villain, which in our case is Satan?

Or can we become a superhero to do as detailed in Jude 1:22-23: “Have mercy on those who waver, save others by snatching them from the fire...”

So can you and I really be a superhero to save a person at the last minute who is heading for the fire? The answer is, “Absolutely!”

Our Soulwinning Experiment mission, if you decide to accept it, is to look at others as heading toward a fire . . . which is very true if they haven’t accepted Jesus into their hearts . . . and to pray with all your might, to see if God would have you be a superhero in their lives.

See you next week,
Arlen