SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/6/2017 8:29 PM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “The
Speech of Proclamation”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Colossians
4:3-4
Message of the verses: “3 praying at the same time for us as well, that God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned; 4 that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.”
Paul’s request to the Colossians is that God will open a
door for the gospel, “I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak.” We need to look at the word “ought” as it can
be understood in two ways. MacArthur
writes “First, it refers to the compulsion Paul felt to preach the gospel. That was a constant burden in his life. To the Romans he wrote, ‘I am not ashamed of
the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes,
to the Jew first and also the Greek’ (Rom. 1:16). In 1 Corinthians 9:16 he said, ‘If I preach
the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is
me if I do not preach the gospel.’
“Second, ought to speak refers to the mandate for using
the God-ordained method of presenting the gospel. Paul preached the gospel by ‘solemnly
testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our
Lord Jesus Christ’ (Acts 20:21).
‘Solemnly testifying’ is from diamarturomai,
which means to give a thorough and complete testimony. The gospel should be proclaimed clearly,
boldly (Eph. 6:19(, wisely (Pro. 25:11), and graciously (Eph. 4:15).” Once again remember that Paul, even though
writing this letter from prison is most concerned about the cause of Christ,
and the gospel message given out.
When we give out the gospel MacArthur writes that we
should avoid “Experience-centered evangelism” and this speaks of the means
which you came to know the Lord, as you may leave out something from the Word
of God and thus emotions can play into a person’s decision and they truly not
saved. Best to stick to the Word of
God. Now when I give out the I’am
usually drawn to people who want to hear about the end times, as that is how
the Lord got my attention and then I heard the gospel message and was saved, so
that is how I usually talk to people, but make sure that they hear the whole gospel
message.
Second kind of evangelism we are to avoid is “ego-forced
evangelism.” This kind of evangelism
tells people that Jesus will care for all of their troubles, however even
though He does care for the biggest problem He is not going to take care of all
life’s problems for when trouble comes He can use it to cause believers to
grow.
Third form of evangelism to avoid is “expedience
evangelism. “This wrong method of
evangelism uses high-pressure tactics, manipulation, cleverness, emotional
stimulation, or technique to force commitments.
It, too, often results in false professions of faith (Matt. 13:19-22;
cf. James 2:14-26).”
Paul’s prayer was that the people would pray that he
would speak as he ought to speak, in a way God wanted him to speak. This should be our prayer for everyone who
proclaims Christ.
6/6/2017 8:49 PM
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