Witnessing 101

Hey everyone:

Ok, so now you know that your brain is most receptive fifteen minutes before you fall to sleep and the first fifteen minutes after you wake up, but how does this pertain to helping us witness for Christ?
Part of the problem with witnessing is that many of us don't memorize scripture.  We want to witness and  I have heard so many say that they would witness but they don't know what to say. Sadly, the majority of our churches never teach us the tools we need to share our faith.  We get sermons on not judging others, we get sermons on why we need to tithe and how God loves a cheerful giver, they teach us why we need to get baptised and what we are doing when we take communion.  We get plenty of biblical teaching about how we should daily be an example of Christ and why we practice certain church activities, and we need that, but it's hard to find a church that teaches the tools to witness to others.  In other words, many of our churches today don't raise up soul winners or go out into the local community reaching the lost.  They will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars sending someone to New Guinea, but I have found very very few that show any desire to train up Christian soldiers to go to the house across the street from the church.
I might also add that if we individually don't have a burden for souls, we need to pray about that.  I encourage everyone to go to church.  We need fellowship with other believers, other believers need fellowship with us.  You might be the one that God uses to start teaching others in your church about soul winning, if you have a burden for souls.

Isaiah 55:11 says, "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

To me this verse is promising me that if I just put God's word out there, He will do the rest.  So this is why I feel that the strongest tool other than prayer and empowerment of the Holy Ghost is to memorize scripture.
It is the strongest tool whether we are memorizing it for witnessing or to draw on in our own personal walk in life.  God's word changes lives, that is a truth that has been proven over and over for thousands of years.

That is why I bring up the part about our receptive minds.  If you can get in the habit of trying to memorize scripture and use those two times a day to aid you, you can start building a tool box that you have with you at all times to take on any witnessing job that God puts in your path.  From here, I would like to start sharing a series of verses that have been used by some of the greats of Evangelism.  This first set of verses has been given the term, "The Roman Highway".  It is a series of verses in Romans that if you memorize them, they can give you a strong foothold on sharing the plan of salvation.  I suggest that each week, as we go through these verses, you underline that verse in your Bible, and spend fifteen minutes a day memorizing that verse. Then at night, try reciting that verse.  If you can't remember all of it, get your Bible and refresh your memory and recite it over and over and pray until you fall to sleep.
I will always use the King James Version.  You should use what ever version it is that you are comfortable with. I just personally like the KJV and have used it for a long time but I am not one of those staunch hardcore believers that thinks its a sin and desecrating the Word of God by using another version that you are comfortable with.

This week, start memorizing the verse above, Isaiah 55:11.  It will give you practice and it is a promise to draw on as we together start our journey to learn God's word and reach a lost soul for Christ.

In Christ,
Brother Bill

Please feel free to check out my other blog about my growing up on the Merced River outside Yosemite.
It's not a Gospel oriented blog, but hopefully some interesting reading.
www.yosemiteriverrat.blogspot.com