This weekend at Alive one of my favorite things happened! I gave the talk….NO…just kidding! Well, I did speak, but that wasn’t my favorite thing!
We had several people take the step in their faith of being Baptized! The celebration was fantastic, and the variety of lives moved to share this public declaration ranged in age from 2nd grade to 70! I love the spirit that fills the space whenever we have baptism.
Invitation…it’s an interesting concept. We often use invitation in our lives, but do we utilize it the way we should as followers of Christ!? I’m often excited to invite people to view an art piece that I’ve been working on, or invite someone into a lively discussion about who’s team should win the Superbowl, or even invite people to eat a BBQ meal in my back yard! I think I can speak for most people that inviting someone into a religious conversation isn’t at the top of their list of fun things to do! BUT this weekend we discussed just that; it is our responsibility as followers of Christ to INVITE people into the most important relationship in their lives. To invite people to be followers of Jesus!
Granted, we don’t just walk up to someone, hand them a bible, and tell them…you should read this and do what it says! You can try it! It just might not be the most effective way to invite people into relationship with Jesus! I suggest first, thinking of the invitation as a way to live! Looking at the surroundings that you naturally are in, work, family, community; and finding opportunities to SHINE Jesus without necessarily saying a word. Building relationships with people is the best way to open doors to communicating about “taboo” topics like religion and, let’s say, politics! So, we GO into our normal lives and BE the church to people!
This is where the invitation to relationship with Jesus can happen best!
This is where you have built trust and developed closeness!
This is where you have moved from being the “next door neighbor” to being a friend!
I know for certain; I don’t want to miss opportunity to share Jesus with people and not have them spending eternity in heaven with me! I don’t want to be that person that Jesus asks, “what did you do for the least of these”, and I answer…well, I’m here!?! I would rather be the person who has shared Jesus with people and given them the opportunity to decide YES or NO! Let them weigh the pros and cons and make a choice to follow Jesus and then, we can have MORE BAPTISM celebrations like this past weekend!
Everyone spends eternity somewhere! Heaven has no boundaries so there’s plenty of room for ALL! Let’s INVITE more people to spend eternity with Jesus!