Thoughts on 1 Peter - Day 15

                                           1 Peter 3:13-16


Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.”¹⁵ But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶ keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander

    Who is really my lord - who or what is my master? We can say,"oh, it's definitely Jesus" but if so, why do we bow down to people?  Why are we afraid of what they think of us, what they will do to us, or their approval. We are so timid that we don't tell people about the good news of Jesus when we get the chance, , because people are our lord, not Jesus.

    I said in my last blog that if you want to get conviction, talk about prayer.  The other button to push is witnessing. This passage gives some hints on witnessing that we need to take to heart. First of all Peter says always be ready. Sharing Christ needs to be in the forefront of our minds daily. I used to go to the gym and play pickup basketball and one of my friends, Ken, would lead us in prayer prior to leaving the car. He would pray that we would demonstrate Christ and have an opportunity to share the good news with someone. This convicted me because I thought we were just going to play basketball. We need to pray every time we get out of our car those same words whether it be work, Walmart, fitness center, ,etc. I have seen signs on sidewalks of churches as I exited, "you are now entering the mission field". How about posting one on the door of your car?

     Next, Peter says be prepared. What do you say to people? There are many tools to help like evangecubes, tracts, evangelism explosion, Roman's Road, FAITH, gospel beads, etc.I like to draw out the bridge illustration. What does that require, pen and paper. If I am not carrying that with me it shows that I am not ready. Karen met with a woman lately and she asked Karen, "there are so many religions out there, how do I know Christianity is the right one." And then she asked,"wasn't the Bible just written by men?" Karen had just read Reason for God and listened to some messages by Andy Stanley on that topic. We have listened to Vodie Bauchum, Josh McDowell, Ravi Zaccharias, read Case for Faith and because of that Karen was prepared to give an answer. Would you be? She didn't convince her to be a Christian because God has to work through the heart not the intellect (another blog for another day) but she did convince her to come to church.

    Lastly, Peter tells how to share - with gentleness and respect. To me this says, be winsome. Show that person that you value them and their opinions.  Pray for wisdom to introduce doubts into their stances so that they can wrestle with their beliefs rather than telling them that they are wrong. Ideally they will already be wrestling with their beliefs by seeing how amazing your life is,  your marriage is,  your family is,  and how selfless you are in serving and doing good deeds. They will ideally see too how you don't cave to peer pressure and be intrigued by that too. The unspoken assumption here is that you are around unbelievers. I personally have a tendency to just hang out with Christians and then this whole blog is meaningless.

     Lord, help me to be ready, prepared, and winsome in regards to witnessing.  Along with that, help me to get involved in some unbelievers lives in order to lead them to You. Amen