God doesn’t merely recruit silver-tongued orators or skilled apologists for his quest for friends. Silver and skill sometimes actually inhibit the Spirit’s efforts to find his way into a person’s consciousness. They can detract from the actual good news itself.
Don Everts writes, “If they have just a thimbleful of curiosity, we could actually douse that small curiosity by answering their small, limited question with a hundred and one apologetic answers we’ve been waiting to ‘use’ on someone. Try not to dump five gallons of answers on a six-ounce question.”
If you’ve ever actually talked to a telemarketer for more than ten seconds you know that they operate under the assumption that if they just keep talking you’ll cave in and buy whatever they’re hawking. Those who subscribe to the Sales Method of Evangelism are not terribly dissimilar. They figure if they keep up the verbiage, their customers will eventually wear down and sign up to be saved!
Restraint is said to be the highest form of discipline!
– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends the profits of which go to YWAM San Francisco.
barney wiget 