Hammer on Anvil '

This week I’d like to introduce you to a video series called The Way of the Master with Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. It’s a very useful series with practical suggestions on how to talk with people about Christ. In the videos, their big thing is street evangelism, but their technique is useful for way more than just that. I strongly encourage you to take a look at examples of them in action at their website.

To come up with their technique, they looked into Scripture to see how Jesus himself did things (that’s why the series is called The Way of the Master). One of the basic principles is law to the proud, grace to the humble. What that means is this. You wouldn’t go up to someone who is broken spiritually and emotionally and tell them they’re a sinner. They’re already broken; they need grace, not law. Similarly, you wouldn’t go up to someone who thinks they’re doing just fine and tell them they need to be saved. They’ll probably think you’re crazy, because if they’re doing just fine, what do they need to be saved from? These people need to be confronted with the law.

Step 1: The first step with The Way of the Master is to steer a conversation in the direction of spiritual things. Actually, this might not even be necessary. You might just need to be aware of when the conversation has steered itself in the direction of spiritual things.

Step 2: Ask the person, “Do you think you’re a good person?” Most people will respond, “yes.” You then ask, “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions to see if that’s true?” Once again, most people will say yes.

Step 3: This involves a series of questions dealing with the Ten Commandments.

Ask the person, “Have you ever told a lie? Even a small lie?” Some people might need some prodding, but most will consent that they have told a lie. To help put them at ease, it’s smart to say something along the lines of, “Sure you’ve told a lie, everybody has.” Then you ask them, “What does that make you? If I told a lie, what would you call me?” The response you’re looking for is “a liar.”

Ask the person, “Have you ever stolen something? Even something small like a pen?” If they say no, joke with them by saying something like, “I don’t believe you; you just told me you’re a liar.” Sure it’s a little lame, but it keeps things lighthearted. Once they admit that they’ve stolen something, ask what that makes them. It makes them a thief.

Ask the person, “Jesus said that if you look at another person in lust, you’ve committed adultery with them in your heart. Have you ever looked at another person in lust?” They might need some prodding, but they’ll probably admit that they have.

Step 4: This is where you shift things to judgment day.

You say, “So by your own admission, you are a lying thief and an adulterer at heart, and you have to face God on judgment day. If He judges you by the Ten Commandments, would you be innocent or guilty?” At this point, you could get several responses, so I’m going to give suggestions for each.

Response #1: The person responds, “I don’t believe in God” and/or “I don’t think God is going to judge me by the Ten Commandments.” You respond by saying, “Okay, but IF God is real and IF he judges you by the Ten Commandments, would you be innocent or guilty?” Then they should give you a response that will allow you to continue to response 2 or 3. After you finish the whole thing, this issue may come up again. In this situation, it will be helpful to look over the apologetics information that I’m going to share in the coming weeks.

Response #2: The person responds, “I think I’d be innocent.” You respond, “Really? Why?” Responses will vary, but will probably amount to something along the lines of, “I believe that God is forgiving and he sees that I’m overall a good person.” You respond with this analogy: “Okay, you’ve said you are a good person, but even good people commit crimes. Imagine that you committed a crime like stealing a car. You’re standing before the judge and it’s absolutely clear that you stole the car; the evidence is there. If you tell the judge that you’re a good person overall, do you think he’s going to let you go free? If he’s a good judge, he can’t let you go free. He’s there to uphold the law. God is a good judge. He’s not going to let thieves and liars into Heaven for that very reason.” This reasoning will hopefully allow you to continue to response #3.

Response #3: The person responds, “I think I’d be guilty.” You say, “Does that concern you?” If you got to this point via responses 1 or 2, the person might say no and go back to their earlier reasoning. You’ll need to get that sorted out before you can continue. If they say “yes,” you can continue to step 5.

Step 5: NOW you can finally share the Good News!

You say, “It should concern you; it should concern all of us. The Bible says in Romans 3:23, ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ But do you know what God did for you? What he did for all of us? He sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty for your sin. He came down from Heaven, took human form, and died so that you wouldn’t have to. Now he offers that to you as a gift, and do you know what you have to do to receive this gift? All you have to do is accept it. Romans 10:9 says, ‘That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’”

At this point, you hopefully have a captive listener and can go in several different directions like inviting the person to join your church or encouraging them to find a church family.

One of the main reason I like this approach is because of its principle of law to the proud; grace to the humble. Several other approaches would have you jump right in to tell someone they need to be saved. But why does someone need to be saved if they aren’t even in trouble? We need to show people that they are truly in trouble (as are all of us) before they can see the amazing value of being saved.

I had the exciting opportunity to speak to a group of students at a youth retreat last weekend at Logan Valley Retreat near Ellington, MO. The topic of the weekend was "spiritual purity". Today, I wanted to share wtih you just a little blurb from the section of scripture that was assigned me to teach that weekend.

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(2 Corinthians 5:13)
For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.


There are some false teachers who have come to Corinth to purposely try to destroy everything that Paul had worked so hard to build, teaching a gospel of works, undermining Paul’s doctrine (Judaizers). There are those who think Paul is a bit of a fool and a maniac, and lacks the finesse to be a good leader. There are others who just plain don’t like Paul, and don’t like some of his executive decisions that he is making for them. So they are questioning whether he is fit to lead, truly sent of God, questioning if he has pure motives.

“Beside ourselves” = “a little bit crazy”. We can probably imagine that some of Paul’s opponents were accusing him of being a little bit crazy. They might make the argument to Paul’s supporters “why do you listen to that nut job? He’s crazy!” This is not the first time Paul had been called “crazy”. After he had been standing trial and made his defense before Festus (Acts 26:24), Festus told him “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you mad."

We know this about Paul: He was VERY passionate about the ministry of the gospel, and he would go ANY length to take it as far as he could, to the ends of the earth. He was also very well-studied. He was a genius BEFORE he became a Christian, but after his conversion, Paul EXPLODED in his growing knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, and how they relate to Christ! We typically like people to be reasonably intelligent, but people who seem to be really geeked out about a certain topic and like to talk about it ALOT (i.e. how to make your own pickles, mating habits of the North American snail), we kind of shy away from them, thinking “freak!” That is the mark of a very intense, focused, narrow-minded individual. The problem is that in our culture, we see narrow-mindedness as a sign of insanity, don’t we? We tend to disregard the opinions of radicals or narrow-minded people because we think they are just out of touch with reality.

That especially becomes a problem when we relate that to our walk with Christ. Jesus reminds us “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14 It’s not very popular, even in our hip Christian community, but being narrow-minded is exactly what God has called us to be. Paul is saying “if people are calling me crazy, that’s fine, let them. I am what I am for Christ’s sake.”

A. W. Tozer: “we are still living in a wicked and adulterous generation and I must confess that the Christians I meet who really amount to something for the Saviour are very much out of key and out of tune with their generation.”

You want to find a hero among the saints, someone to look up to, find the guy that everyone thinks is a little bit crazy and narrow-minded, because of his devotion to Christ. Paul said “imitate me, as I imitate Christ.”

I've been poring over some verses in Jeremiah this week, wondering how God wants me to respond to them. As I read Mike Johns' blog 'drifting', I was once again blessed at being witness to the way He works in our lives. So, without any foreknowledge of what Mike was planning to write; I'd like to submit a follow-up to his words.

Jeremiah 3:12-14a
"Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. Tell them, 'Come back to me, wayward Israel,' says the Lord. 'I will not continue to look on you with displeasure. For I am merciful,' says the Lord. 'I will not be angry with you forever. However, you must confess that you have done wrong, and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God. You must confess that you have given yourself to foreign gods under every green tree, and have not obeyed my commands,' says the Lord. "Come back to me, my wayward sons," says the Lord, "for I am your true master."

I love the tone of these words. There is so much love in this message from God to Israel. It doesn't matter to Him how far they've drifted, or for how long. He only wants them back, in His arms. The message is one of pleading: "I won't even be mad. Just don't stay away!"

It's the same with us today. We drift away from time to time. We allow ourselves to get distracted, and we slide into sin without even realizing it. Despite this tendency, God loves us. He knows we're going to wander off and get lost. That's why He pursues us. He shouts our names, calling us back to Him, and all He asks in return is that we confess that we've let ourselves get off track. That we acknowledge we have hurt Him, and ask for Him to forgive us.

God is the parent of a billion prodigal sons. "All of us like sheep have gone astray, seeking our own way. We've left the shepherd's care again." Like the father in Jesus' story in Luke, our Father shows His delight when we return to Him. "Paddle back, my beloved son."