Chapter 8: The Outreach (Freshman 15 Snippet)

Here’s a snippet from Chapter 8: The Outreach:

That episode in college made me realize something: casual Christianity causes casualties.  When we are casual about our Christianity, when we are apathetic about others’ spiritual stages, that indifference causes casualties.  If you are going to believe the Bible and hold that there is no way to a relationship with God outside of a saving encounter with Jesus (John 14:6), you cannot be casual about that.  If we honestly lived like we said we believed as Christians, we would not be casual about the things that determined eternity.

I can’t think of many items in the Christian life that cause more shame in the hearts of believers than the area of personal evangelism.  Every time I hear a message about evangelism, an ambush of guilt just rushes over me.  When I read in the Bible the commands to share the gospel, I make promises that last as long as when they are uttered.  I pray for open doors, God delivers the opportunities, and I neglect them more often than not.

The fact of the matter is that I am simply too casual about other people’s spirituality.  I urgently want to be in the place in my life where I can say what Paul said when he claimed: “I am not ashamed of the gospel” (Rom. 1:16).  And I want to love people enough that I will undergo personal uneasiness if it means telling them the changes that Jesus has done in my life.  The area of the outreach, intentionally reaching out to someone who does not know Jesus in a personal way, is one of the items that you can give weight to Christ in your life at college.

Leading up to the time around when I get to release Freshman 15, I wanted to provide you a snippet every day for 15 days at 15:00 in the afternoon.