Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen
And he said, 'Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom.' And he said to him, 'Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise'.
Luke 23 v 42-43
"Jesus says: Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives give I unto you."
"Surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."
Matthew 28 verse 20
"I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."
C.S. Lewis
Headline News in the Anglican Church Worldwide
"Father of all we give you thanks and praise that while we were still far off you met us in your Son and brought us home.."
An extract from the prayers used after we have recieved Holy Communion together.
"...what does the Lord require of you but to
do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" Micah 6:8
Download a copy of John's Gospel using this link
Living God, your Son made himself known in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may see him in all his redeeming work; who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Sharing Your
Faith Without Being Obnoxious
By Bishop Dave Bena, Suffragan Bishop, Diocese of Albany
When I was a young Marine officer, I began a search for a personal faith in God and also a search for a church. Finding the church was the easy part - Yellow Pages, newspapers, try them out, find a friendly church - BINGO. But finding the personal faith was more elusive than I thought it would be. First of all, once I got involved in a parish, no one seemed very comfortable talking about personal faith; not even the rector. I got the impression that faith was looked upon as some community thing that you just sort of lived into by serving humanity. If you were baptized, you had faith -end of story!
Well, I thought about it and came to the conclusion that personal faith in God seemed to have little to do with a baptism ritual performed on me when I was an infant. What God wanted to do with that ritual act regarding my salvation was His business, but He obviously wanted to have some kind of relationship with me after I was baptized. How could I get into that relationship? No one in my parish seemed to know. In fact, I am not sure they knew what I was talking about. The priest said something like, "I cannot explain a personal faith; it is a catholic faith. Hang around long enough and you will catch it." I hung around and I DID NOT catch it, because nobody wanted to share it. Maybe, I thought, my problem is that I think about it too much. Maybe I should just go to church, read the prayers, receive Communion, try to be good, serve others, and all will be well. I tried that for awhile and all that happened was a sense of boredom with the weekly, canned worship services and what I judged to be impersonal and intellectual sermons. And I began to find it easy to schedule occasional training flights weekends and thus avoid church altogether.
So I began to search for a
personal faith outside my parish church. In the process I met some who were
downright obnoxious in the way they evangelized me. I got everything from
"You're going to Hell unless you get baptized again and join MY
church" to "If you want faith, you need to leave the military and
become a pacifist." I learned a lot about bad evangelism simply by
encountering people evangelizing me! But I also learned about good evangelism.
In the end, it was friendship evangelism which made the difference for me. A
fellow Marine officer became my friend first, and then openly spoke to me of his
personal faith. We had built a friendship based on trust. He was able to listen
to my faith concerns, assure me he understood, and then share with me the
timeless truths that (a) this loving God who sent His only Son to die for sins
did not just "do the deed" and then pull away into a distant and
impersonal role, (b) through the Person of Jesus, God wants to relate directly
with every one of us, and (c) as I respond to Jesus as my Lord and Savior, God
flows into my life and fills me with the promised Holy Spirit,
establishing an intimate and day-by-day parent-child relationship. Through the
encouragement of my friend, I repented of my sin and invited Jesus Christ to
come in and be the center of my life. And then, church began to make more sense
to me. Communion became very important, and the parish became a center for
living out Christianity.
All of us in our parishes
have the opportunity to evangelize. It is not just a task for missionaries or
clergy. But we don't have to wear a pith helmet or stand in a pulpit to
evangelize. We evangelize right where we are - in our church, home, work, and
school. The questions are, of
course, HOW do we evangelize and WHAT do we say? And how do we do it without
being obnoxious as all get out??!!
Let me give you my SHORT answers to the above questions, just in case you can't make it to the classes:
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How do we evangelize? By prayer, word, and deed; by making friends with people, especially unchurched or lapsed people; by listening intently to them without having "our answer running" to bowl them over as soon as they stop for a breath; by gently sharing with them what God has meant to us and how we began to experience peace with God; by casually inviting them to come to church with us; by caring for their needs in a specific way; by praying for them and with them if the opportunity presents itself; by assisting them in committing their lives and problems to Jesus Christ the Good Shepherd and Healer of our souls.
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What do we say? Well, first of all, we do not need to be Bible experts or master theologians. We simply need to have committed our own lives to Christ and be willing to tell how that happened. We need to say the words which translate "I care for you and want to share with you the wonderful gift of Jesus that I myself received." Stay centered on the Person of Jesus and NOT on the million social issues that pop up and you will be alright. read up on the life of Jesus in the Gospels, and you will surprised at how much good stuff the Lord gives you to share with others. Just don't be obnoxious about it!
And if someone turns you down or says this God stuff is not for them, don't take it personally. They are just not ready yet to receive the Truth of Jesus. Just keep loving them. You know, if my friend had not had the courage to share his faith with me, I don't know where I would be today. Can you make that kind of difference in someone's life?
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