Preach what you Practice

Who among us has not been told since early childhood to “practice what you preach?” Certainly this is good advice. If we do not believe in our message strongly enough to lead by example, we probably need to either rethink our message or rethink our actions.

This weekend someone told me that he had donated blood that day because he needs to “practice what he preaches,” and I was struck by the idea that if this is true, it must also be true that we have an equal obligation to preach what we practice. After some further thought on the subject, I have concluded that preaching what we practice may be more difficult than its converse.

It seems to me that one of the biggest obstacles we face as Christians is sharing our faith with unbelievers. Many of us live our lives carefully; we treat others with true Christian charity, and we attempt to not do anything that will dishonor the name of Christ and set a bad example for others. Certainly, these are important elements of the Christian life, but we must move beyond those basics if we are ever to help others find Jesus as their Savior.

The Bible says: “But how shall they ask Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in Him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them….That is what the scriptures are talking about when they say, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the Gospel of peace with God and bring glad tidings of good things.’ In other words, how welcome are those who come preaching God’s Good News!” (Isaiah 52:7 and Romans 10:15, Living Bible)

For many years it was more or less true that anyone living in the United States had been exposed to the Gospel on numerous occasions. They might have chosen to reject it, but they had heard the salvation message. This is no longer true. Our society has moved so far away from genuine Christianity that many people do not even have a reference point for what it means to be saved.

One of my sons was telling me about his co-workers’ total lack of Bible knowledge. He loves to reference scripture as it applies to various life situations, and on numerous occasions had mentioned the accounts from the Gospels of the dishonest accountant and the wicked farmers who murdered the king’s son and stole the vineyard.  He had also referenced the handwriting on the wall from the book of Daniel.  Invariably, the response was, “That’s not in the Bible.”

One day my son decided that he would use the story of The Pied Piper of Hamlin to illustrate a particular situation, and recounted the story in some detail. After he had finished, one of the young women made a reference to it’s being from the Bible. “No,” my son replied, “That’s not in the Bible.”

“Oh,” the young woman responded, “I was waiting for you to say that Jesus came and saved the kids and took them home.”

Unfortunately, this young woman is typical of the absolute spiritual darkness that permeates today’s generation of young people. They do have any idea of what the Bible says, and because they have never heard the Gospel message, it all sounds like a fairy tale to them.

So, how do we reach them? In Part II I will share the method that the Lord gave me for sharing Christ with those who have never heard the Good News.

For books and blogs by Joyce Swann visit http://www.frontier2000.net/.