I’ve heard some presentations of the good news that sounded terribly similar to billboard guarantees: “If you come to Jesus he will get you that job, win you that wife, or heal you of cancer!” Maybe he will and maybe he won’t, but unless the Spirit clearly compels you, don’t make promises on his behalf. His is a “gospel to the poor” but it doesn’t come, as gospel grifters would indicate, with a guaranteed path to riches.
“Evangelism as a method, is dangerous,” says Carl Medearis, “because it’s something we ‘do’ to other people. Nobody likes to be ‘done.’”
A woman was struggling to get her dog to take some medicine. She lifted him up in her arms in a vain attempt to shove it down his throat. He squirmed and fussed until she dropped him and the medicine on the kitchen floor. At which point he lapped it all up. He didn’t mind the medicine; he just didn’t like the way she was giving it to him! Delivery is important.
– Originally published in Reaching Rahab: Joining God In His Quest For Friends
