Guest Post by Megan // the most important lesson I have learned in my teenage years

Today I'm RIDICULOUSLY excited to share this post with you. I came across the lovely Megan through blogging and we recently decided to do a post swap. So I'm blogging over at her fantastic blog (Pen and Ink) and she's taking over here today. Megan is amazing and I'm so excited that you get to read her awesome thoughts!! :) Here we go.

Sharing your Faith // Part 2: Strangers

Sophie sharing the gospel with a complete stranger 

Hi everyone!

My name is Sophie and I am Bonnie’s little sister. Bonnie asked me to do a guest post here on her blog about how you share the gospel to strangers. Let me start by saying, I am NOT an expert at this! Every time I step out of my comfort zone to speak to someone I am nervous. "Will this person reject it? Will they even listen to me? What if they have questions I can’t answer?’ The questions always fill my head. So if you feel nervous at the thought of sharing your faith, don’t worry - you are not the only one!

There are many ways you can share your faith and different people find different ways that suit them and the person that they are talking to best. I am NOT saying any other ways are wrong, but this is how I have learnt to do it. 

So anyway I believe that you can’t understand why you need a Saviour if you don’t realize that you are a sinner. Imagine someone saying to you ‘someone has just come and paid your $10,000 speeding fine! You are free now!’ That just wouldn’t make sense to you unless they said it this way, ‘you were just caught speeding at 80 km per hour when the speed limit was just 30 km per hour due to road works, and so you have been given a $10,000 speeding fine. But the good news is that someone else is offering to pay your fine for you, all you have to do is accept it.’ 

That would make a lot more sense to you wouldn’t it?

The 'Good Person Test' flip chart and Sophie in action at the Christchurch A and P show

To present the gospel, I use a flip chart created by a chap named Ray Comfort. He was originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, although he now lives in America (have a look at his website where he has a whole lot of great resources!). He has a great autobiography called "Out of the Comfort Zone".

The flipchart is called the Good Person Test and works like this.

The first few pages of the chart are from the Ten Commandments i.e. Do not lie, Do not steal, Do not murder (and did you know that 1 John 3:15 says that even if you just hate someone it is the same as murdering them in your heart) etc… and it shows them that they, like me, have fallen short of God’s standard (Romans 3:23). Then on the next page of the flip chart we explain how on judgement day God will find us guilty and we will have to bear our punishment of eternal separation from God in Hell (and remember that God is good, Psalm 119:68 and Psalm 107:1, so that means that there will be nothing good in Hell). God would love to forgive us and let us into Heaven anyway but he can’t as justice must be done.

Then on the last page, the picture of the cross, I explain that God sent his son Jesus Christ to die on the cross (and then on the third day Jesus defeated death and rose back to life) for your sins- and all the punishment that you deserved was poured onto him. 

Imagine it this way, you are a murderer and you are standing in court and you know that you can’t pay the punishment but then someone walks into the court room that has never done anything against the judge and they offer to pay your punishment for you. But it is an offer, that person will only pay your punishment if you want them to, so you have to accept their offer. It is just like that with Jesus, you have to accept his offer of eternal life (Acts 16:31). 

But what is interesting about that word, ‘believe’ in this verse is that it actually also means ‘to repent’ or ‘to trust in.’ So we must say sorry (and really mean it) and give our lives (trust in) to our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

If you think about the question, ‘does God exist’ you will find it is a very important question. I like to say it this way, “find out for yourself if God is real, and then if he wasn’t real it wouldn’t have done you any harm, but if his is real (which he is) it will completely change your life and I hate to think what would have happened to you if you had waited till judgement day to find that out.”

To start with you may only feel comfortable with handing out tracts, but that is a great start! I have heard of several people’s lives being changed through a gospel tract. Or you may feel more comfortable and sit down beside someone on a park bench or somewhere and get chatting to them.

You will be amazed at how open and willing to talk most people generally are. As I said before there are many ways you can do it, but the key to evangelism is not the impressive words or even what you say, the key is prayer. 

Without the Lord’s help I know that I would never be able to do evangelism, I am too much of a shy person. I have often found though that when I am stuck for something to say, that a phrase or word will pop into my head that was the perfect thing to say to that person right at that time that I would never have thought of myself, I know that it is God who tells me at those moments what to say.

So anyway, a big thanks to Bonnie for asking me to do this guest post and I want to encourage you all to find a friend or someone and together go and find someone to share your faith to! And just think how awesome it will be when one day we get to Heaven we find that there are other people in Heaven that are there because you obeyed the Lord’s prompting, stepped out of your comfort zone and took the time to explain the gospel to them!

About the author // Sophie
I am a 15 year old sister to Bonnie and soon to be 9 other siblings. I am currently studying Biblical Hebrew part-time at Laidlaw College along with being homeschooled. I love evangelism, learning Hebrew, spending time with my family, baking, reading books, board games and card games, Bonnie’s bad jokes and having lots of fun!



Note from Bonnie: Thank you to Sophie for her awesome guest post! :) And by the way, just for clarification, my jokes aren't bad..... :P