TMG
Tom’s Midweek Greeting
Crossroads Community Church
Nevada MO
February 19, 2020
Hello, Church Family! I enjoy seeing so many of you during the week, and also hearing about what’s going on in your life! God is working in lives at Crossroads! Some are traveling through hardships and uncertainty; others are experiencing the joy of answered prayer. I feel like many of us are growing in our love of, and devotion to, the Lord. That’s a wonderful thing! I enjoy seeing the courage, strength, and positive attitude the Lord brings to your lives! Let’s remember how important are each of these keys to ongoing spiritual growth:
- Bible (reading, listening, studying alone and with others)
- Prayer (individually, and with others)
- Fellowship (regular connection with others who love the Lord)
- Witness (more on that below)
- Obedience (walking along the path that God says will bring fulfillment and blessing in life)
A friend and former missionary colleague of mine shared some good thoughts about evangelism in a recent prayer letter he sent out. I asked him if I could share some of them with you. I told him that Crossroads Church has a growing desire to share the Gospel with people around us. I hope you’ll be encouraged and inspired by taking time to read, at the end of this TMG, what I’ve included from his letter.
Here’s what’s happening at Crossroads !
This Sunday:
Final Sermon in our “You Asked For It” series — “Where Did God Come From ?” (Psalm 90)
I hope you’ll be at the Y for good fellowship and worship starting at 10:00.
Baby Bottles Due Back
If you’ve been filling up a baby bottle with loose change for Nevada Birthright, the bottles and money are due back this Sunday. Thank you for taking the time and for giving funds to help Birthright!
FFA With Us This Sunday
The Nevada High School chapter of FFA will worship with us this Sunday morning. Come early for some fellowship!
Next Home Group:
Our next Home Group will be Wednesday, February 26, 6:30-8:00 pm, at Cris and Donna’s home, *contact us for location*. Food, fellowship, activities for all ages, study, and prayer.
Next Sunday, March 1:
Next Sunday immediately after worship we’ll have a taco-bar lunch for everyone who can stay. Time for fellowship, announcements, discussion, prayer, and team meetings for those teams needing to meet. If you want to bring some of the taco ingredients, please let Kim Reedy know ! Thank you ! Plan to join the family next Sunday !
Welcome, New Members!
Last Sunday we officially welcomed Ebony Conley, Uriah Lentz, and Liz Hunt as new members at Crossroads! We give thanks to God for the blessing they are to our church family, and we pray they will experience much joy and spiritual growth in the years to come!
I look forward to seeing you Sunday! Please take time to be encouraged by the personal thoughts on evangelism below from Hank Griffith, former EFCA missionary and chaplain.
See you Sunday!
— Tom
True story of evangelism: An elderly Christian woman whom I ministered to at The Rivers was bedridden and near the end of her life. When I visited her one day she told me something that touched my heart: she said that a young man whom she didn’t know came from the kitchen to bring her lunch. The two had a brief conversation in which she told him she was ready to die because she knew she was going to heaven. She then asked him, “Do you know where you are going when you die?” He stood there silently thinking about her question, then went back to the kitchen. In the evening after he got off work he came to her room to learn more about what she had asked him. That gave her the opportunity to explain that she was confident of her salvation because of Jesus and what He’d done for her on the cross.
One of the greatest joys of 2019 was praying with a woman to receive Christ. It was very similar to what we read of Lydia in Acts 16:14, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.” Please pray that I will be able to pray with others in this way in the new year that is before us.
Great joy in sharing my faith: In recent years I have found that evangelism brings greater joy than anything else in my Christian life. That doesn’t mean it’s easy for me. It isn’t, but it is a joy and privilege. I thank God that this burden has grown within me in recent years since becoming chaplain at New Harmony Care Center in St. Paul and now volunteer chaplain at The Rivers in Burnsville.
Opening doors for evangelism: I try to show interest in people. A smile and genuine friendliness often opens a door. If possible, I offer to help them in some way. Missionary evangelist Lois McNeill writes about another door opener, “We start sharing and explaining, but not until after we have done a whole lot of listening! So, we learn to ask many kinds of questions that reveal our nonbelieving friend’s spiritual address and the hole(s) in their hearts. Then we start planting seeds of truth about life … ”
Various ways I have shared the gospel: (1) I’ve told the big redemptive story of God by beginning with creation and the fall in the Old Testament, then moving to God sending His Son in the New Testament. (2) Often times I’ve used the “Romans Road” – 3:23, 6:23, 5:8, and 10:9 & 13. (3) Still other times I’ve used one passage like Ephesians 2:1-10, or one verse like John 3:16, or one parable like “the Prodigal Son.” (4) Occasionally I share my own testimony, as undramatic as it is. However, the main conviction I have in that case is once I get to the gospel message I use Scripture as it is “sharper than a two edged sword.”
Question I sometimes ask: If you were to die tonight and stand before God and He were to ask you, “Why should I let you into heaven?”, how would you answer? (Their answer gives you insight into what they are counting on for their salvation and a chance to correct any false belief using Scripture.)
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