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saykha

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We have all done this. During our online evangelism we will sometimes totally lose our audience, or confuse them, by speaking what most people call “Christianese”. What is Christianese, you ask? Christianese is terms, words and phrases that only a Christian will understand.

I’ve witnessed online conversations that went like this:

Christian Evangelist: “You know that Jesus’ redemptive power can save you.”

Unwitting Totally Not Saved Person: “I don’t know what you mean.

Christian Evangelist: “Jesus’ blood was shed on the cross so that you can be saved and freed from a life of sin.

Unwitting Totally Not Saved Person (now feeling slightly judged): “Listen, I have my problems like everyone else. No one’s perfect.

Christian Evangelist: “We have all sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. If you give your life to Jesus you will be saved.

Unwitting Totally Not Saved Person: “I’ve had enough of this. Please stop bothering me.”

Now, this might seem like a full out rejection of God from the Christian’s point of view, but if you really look deeper you’ll see that the person being evangelized too has no idea what the Christian is saying.  The Christian is using so much "Christianese" in the above mentioned conversation that the "Unwitting Totally Not Saved Person" isn't getting what is being said at all.  Most unsaved people don’t even know what “being saved” means, or what entails “giving your life to God.” They also don’t understand that just being a good person is not enough and that we all need “salvation” (which is a term they might also not really understand in a Christian context). You see, we as Christians don’t realise just how incomprehensible we are to people who’ve never been to church, never read the Bible, and who don’t really understand exactly who Jesus is or why He came to Earth and died for us. You see, we speak in such a way sometimes, that the outside world fail to understand us - or they totally misunderstand us.  Let me use my own experience as an example:

When I first started going to church, I still hadn’t give my life to God. I was 19 and still very new to everything. I remember when I took my first communion the Pastor told us all to “drink the blood of Jesus, poured out for us”. So there I was, “shooter glass” in hand (that was my state of mind at the time), looking very confused and apprehensively at the grape juice in it. “What is wrong with these people?”, I thought, “Are they vampires or something?”. Very unsaved, and with a serious lack of knowledge in the area, I thought the Christians in the room with me were a bit, well, crazy. Over time I started to understand what the analogy of Jesus’ blood meant and the purpose of communion, but not on that day (or a couple of weeks after that really). I had to learn what it meant through teachings and sermons I heard - at church. Your unsaved reader most probably doesn’t go to church where they can learn these things. Keep this in mind when you’re doing online evangelism and use thorough, explanatory ways to evangelize.

For example, when you want to tell someone that “Jesus can save them”, explain to them what this means. Instead of just telling them that Jesus saves, explain it in its entirety. Tell them that we all messed up, and that we are all very imperfect yes - that’s the reason we need Jesus. You see, we’ve messed up so badly that, no matter how good of a person we are, we are still selfish, greedy, liars, cheaters, and in pretty bad shape. We are the reason the world is in such a bad state with all its crime, abuse and dysfunction. That’s why God sent us Jesus. He didn’t want to lose us, so He sent someone to take the fall for us, and to carry all our mistakes on His back. Jesus did that for us. If you accept Jesus (you might have to explain to them in detail how to accept Jesus too) He takes all of that away from you – He takes your blame so that you’ll go to Heaven when you die and be with Him forever. That’s who Jesus is, and that’s why it’s important to accept Him. Apply this way of explaining Christianity when you evangelize and make sure that, even if you're speaking to someone who has never heard the name “Jesus”, that this person will still get who He is and what He did for us when you’re done with your conversation with them.

If you do this your online conversations with non-believers will go in a very different direction than just using short, Christianese ways of explaining things. As a rule of thumb, I always ask myself the following question when talking to a non-believer: “Will this person, who doesn’t read the Bible or go to Church, understand what I’m saying now?” If you do this, the message that you're trying to portray, will come across clearer and you'll have a very good chance of really reaching that person with the Gospel.

If you guys have any questions on this topic, please let me know :hug:  Happy Evangelizing!



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Here's to 2019

2 min read


Happy 2019 EVERYONE!!

You know, I'm really excited for this year.  I say, bring IT ON 2019 Run  With all its problems and blessings, with all its challenges and serenities, with all its WORK and pouring hailstorms of issues - I will be content and live my life to the fullest.  What is life without difficulties and how boring would it be without complications hey? :D  This year, we should all stay close to Him who loves us so much, and not let any challenge beat us down.  Let's do it!!

On a side note, Udemy is having a pretty good special on all their courses.  So, if you're like me, and you're always chasing to improve your writing and drawing skills - go and find one and enrol!!!  Here's the link:  www.udemy.com

I'm doing a couple of short courses to improve my writing.  I finished one at the end of last year, and came up with this:  The Demise of Mary Conner
Let me know what you guys think ok :D

I hope you all have an absolutely wonderful week!

Love,
~ Natasha

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God came through in yet another amazing way :heart: My Mom met this lady, Martie, on the 27th of May 2018 and something amazing happened:

Martie is 70 years old, and when my mom met her in May, she was a victim of lymph node cancer which had also spread to her breasts.  She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2012 (6 years ago), had 12 operations and also went through chemotherapy.  She had been in remission, until 3 weeks before my Mom met her, when tests showed that the cancer was back - and had spread.  She wasn’t in a good place, and it seemed like she had already given up.

My Mom told her that, more than 2 thousands years ago, Jesus already paid the price for her healing on the cross.  This cancer was a lie.  As she told her this, you could see realization sweep over her - God was really speaking to her.  My Mom immediately recognized her faith.  She continued by adding that she was speaking death over her body by acknowledging time and again that she has cancer.  There is power in what we speak over ourselves; there is power in the tongue.   Martie then repented for all the times she had spoken death over herself and she and my Mom prayed together for her healing.  They proclaimed that there will not be any cancer in her body - not anymore.

The very next day Martie called.  She was in tears and told my Mom that she had gone to her Doctor’s appointment that morning.  Her Doctor could not find any trace of cancer in her body!  It was all gone.  Her Doctor was amazed, telling Martie that this could only have been a miracle.

God is so good :heart: Martie took the Truth God placed before her, and she believed Him.  She isn't sick anymore.

We always have to remember just how good God is :heart:  If you find yourself in an impossible situation, or someone has given you a death sentence, always remember that God can do anything - He is the God of miracles and nothing is impossible for Him to do.  Don't lose hope!

"I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?"
Jer 32:27


Skin by SimplySilent
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Hi Guys :hug:

Guilt ... this topic is heavy on my heart tonight.  A woman I very much admire, Joyce Meyer, wrote something that I would like to share with you.  Please read her article below if you feel this is for you :heart:

Love,
~saykha


xxx


I used to have a massive problem with guilt. I remember how I suffered with it. It was horrible! I would get up in the morning and wish it was time to go to bed because it was always there…lurking…condemning me with thoughts like this: “You didn’t… You should have… You shouldn’t have… You should know better. You did it again. What do you think you’re doing preaching to other people?”

Like I said, it was horrible. But I can honestly say that today, I am completely free from guilt and the condemnation it brings!

Now, I’m not saying I don’t do wrong things sometimes. But I have learned the truth about what Jesus did for me, which gives me forgiveness of my sin and keeps me from carrying around the terrible burden of guilt, letting it steal my life day after day.

I’ve also learned that it’s good to have a healthy grief about my mistakes but instead of just feeling bad about it, I come to God, admit what I did that was wrong, receive His forgiveness and then move on. The truth is, we don’t have to live with the burden of guilt!

The Price Was Paid

Guilt is mainly caused by the way we think about God’s expectations of us, our sin (mistakes), and the remedy for our sin. Guilt enters as a thought, which creates a feeling, and then we live by that feeling. But here’s some more good news: We don’t have to live by our feelings or make decisions based on our feelings.

If we’re smart, we won’t believe our feelings when we know they don’t line up with what God tells us in His Word, and God’s Word tells us that Jesus has paid the price for the forgiveness of our sins and removed our guilt.

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore, if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! We see in this scripture that being a new creation, or born again, means we are in Christ—we have personal, intimate relationship with Him.

And because of that relationship, we have whatever Jesus has and the Holy Spirit lives in our spirit. So His righteousness is now our righteousness and we can have His grace and strength to do what’s right.

Your True Identity

We need to see ourselves in Christ and identify with Him as our substitute, who paid the price for the cleansing and forgiveness of our sin. Our identity is no longer “sinner” but “new creation in Christ,” and there’s a difference between our “who” and what we do. I like to look at it this way: My children don’t always do things that I like or agree with, but they are always my children. It’s the same way with us and God.

What keeps us from knowing who we are in Christ is thinking more about what we’ve done wrong than what Jesus has done for us. We have to stop thinking about what we’re not and start thinking about the progress we’re making in our relationship with Him.

Journey to Freedom

The closer you get to God, the more you’ll know what’s right and wrong. And the closer you get to God, the more strength you’ll have to do what’s right.

Please don’t be discouraged if you don’t feel like you’re getting this all at once. It took time for me to really get that Jesus paid the price for the cleansing and forgiving my sin and then receiving His forgiveness. That’s why guilt tormented me as long as it did. If you will keep seeking God, study the Word, and fellowship with God, you will get completely free from guilt and condemnation.

You may be thinking, “But Joyce, I still make mistakes.” Yes, we do. And God knows that. He understands our nature and knows we have a lot to learn. He knew what He was getting when He called us into relationship with Him. But He is so merciful!

He loves us and He wants us to be free to come to Him when we do something wrong, admit it to Him with a sincere heart, receive His forgiveness and press on as you leave guilt and condemnation behind.


Original Article :pointr: www.joycemeyer.org/everydayans…

Skin by SimplySilent
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So – Depression.  We all know someone (or we are someone) who has suffered from it, who popped the anti-depressant pills, who stopped smiling, stopped living and just sank down into this pit of sadness that we felt we could never get out of.  I’m here to tell you today how God showed me what depression was, and how He helped me get rid of it.  

Depression is something I never quite understood, until I started suffering from it myself.  It was a terrible feeling. My body felt heavy, and my heart felt broken, tender and vulnerable.  I would just sit, doing nothing in particular, and then I’d just start crying.  When I cried I couldn’t even point out why I was crying or what was making me sad.  I was just desperately unhappy.  I couldn’t deny it – I had full blown depression and no idea how to get rid of it.

Now, being a Christian, I knew where to go with this problem.  I had had many other problems in the past, and God always helped me through them.  I went into my room, and I started praying.  I prayed for God to tell me how to get rid of this.  I knew it wasn’t something I wanted, and I was not going to start living on anti-depressants and crying for stupid or non-existing reasons.  I wanted it gone and I wasn’t going to leave God’s side until He showed me how to get rid of it.  And, as always, God didn’t let me down - my answer came.

It's Not Who You Are
The first thing I felt I should do was to chase it away.  Now, this might sound odd to some, but the reason for doing this is to establish to yourself that this “depression” isn’t a part of you.  It’s not who you are, and you are not going to accept it in your life.  You will not stand for it, and it has to go!  In the same way that the Bible says "Resist the devil and he will flee from you"(James 4:7), so it is very true with depression:  “Resist DEPRESSION and it will flee from you”.  

So this is what I did.  All tearful, sad and down I stood in my room and I told the depression to GO.  I didn’t want it and it was definitely not going to make a home in my heart, and in my life.  Now, I wish I can tell you that my problem went away on that day I stood in my room, all red-eyed and bold, declaring that I wanted depression to go - but it didn’t.  I had taken the first step, but there were still some other things I had to do.

A Web of Words
After this, I continued to pray, telling God that I still didn’t feel any better -  and the next part of the puzzle came to me while I was praying:  God showed me how I had complained about my problems that last two years.  He showed me how the negative words that came out of my mouth had slowly built a cage around me.  The more I complained the more entwined I became in this cage, until I was bent over and weighed down by the weight of it.  It was like I was caught in a spider web of all the negative words I had spoken about my life, and I couldn’t get out.  

Now, we’ve all heard the Bible verse, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof." (Prov. 18:21), but man, it never made more sense to me on that day when God showed me what my words had done.  I suddenly realized that it was my own words that had made me depressed.  I had done it to myself because of my complaining every day.  Death and life was in the power of my tongue, and I had chosen death because I chose to complain so much.  

When I realized this, I realized how powerful words could be.  Then, using the same power, God showed me in my heart how to undo it.  I will use the same power to get rid of the depression for good – my words.  I felt prompted to list 3 things each morning I was truly thankful for.  Some of these things were big, like thanking God for the wonderful husband He gave me, and some were small – like thanking God for my cat (she’s cute – really), the pleasant taste of coffee in the morning, the sound of the birds outside, anything that I found pleasant really.  I did this every morning and I tried to focus every morning on the good things in my life – not the bad.

My Negative Mind
So, my days went on, and I realized that there was another obstacle I hadn’t thought about – my thoughts.  They were pretty negative.  I had to deal with them to if I wanted to stay positive, so I went about trying to think of only good things, like the Bible said we should:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Phil. 4:8

Every time I found my mind spiralling into someplace negative and unpleasant, I stopped and tried with all my might to find something positive to replace it with.  This was the hardest part, but the more I did it, the easier it became.

The Recovery Period
To be honest, I still felt depressed and down while I was doing all of this, but I felt a little bit less so after every day.  The progress was slow, but there was definitely progress.  I focused on ignoring the sad presence at the back of my mind, and just taking every day as it came, spending time with God, listing things I was thankful for and keeping my mind-set positive.  I started making these things my habits, and slowly started to forget about the sadness and depression.  

And then, one day about 6 months later, something amazing happened:  I woke up one Saturday morning, looked out my window at the beautiful day and I just felt joy flowing out of me.  I loved everything – I loved God, I loved my life, I loved the birds outside my window and the trees they sat on.  I was deliriously happy.  I then realized that I haven’t felt sad in a long time – I hadn’t even noticed – I was so focused on keeping my mind and my heart with God – and during this time God fixed my heart and my mind and gave me nothing but happiness.

I was so thankful, and still am, that God showed me what I did wrong, how to fix it and how to never fall into the trap of depression again.  I am free because He showed me the truth about depression:  It’s a lie you believe is true.  You start to believe that everything is wrong in your life, and that you have nothing good going for you, and that is so not true.  Even during the times of our deepest despair, there is always something to be thankful for – there is always reasons to be happy and thankful – even for the smallest of things.

Even now I have felt that God’s love and joy never goes away, no matter what I’m going through.  You will be tempted to become negative again, and become depressed, but don’t give into it.  Always stay grateful and keep your mind positive.  Depression isn’t part of who you are, so kick it’s ass with some positive thinking and spending loads of time with God ;)

Skin by SimplySilent
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