After hearing of the June 26, 2002, ruling by 9^th Circuit Court in San Francisco that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional due to the words "under God," anger knotted my stomach. How could one atheist—Michael Newdow—and two liberal judges in the city notorious for homosexuality, remove the name of God from our nation's pledge? I nearly sheared my tongue off while thinking, "This is another reason why that whole city should fall into the Pacific."

Then I realized how much I sounded like Jesus' disciples, James and John, when they wanted to call down fire from Heaven to consume a city that wouldn't receive God's truth. I knew I deserved the same response they got from Jesus who "turned and rebuked them, and said, 'You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them'" (Luke 9:55-56).

That caused me to think how I should—and not just how I should not—respond to this event. To put it in terms of the 2,000-year-old question, what would Jesus do? And that turned into this sobering self-confrontation: "What would Jesus have me do if godless Michael Newdow (or someone who became similarly disreputable) lived in my neighborhood?"

Many Christians suffer with unnecessary fears about sharing their faith. Once they finally get a conversation turned to the subject of the Gospel, however, most believers find that they're able to manage quite well. Much of the time the biggest problem is simply moving a conversation from small talk to "big" talk, the biggest subject of all—the Gospel. Here's a list of questions that can help. Some of them aren't original with me, though I don't recall where years ago I first heard the ones I've borrowed. I've found that the last one opens more doors for the Gospel in the widest variety of situations.

1. When you die, if God says to you, "Why should I let you into Heaven?", what would you say? Are you interested in what the Bible says about your answer?
2. If you were to die tonight, where do you think you would spend eternity? Why? Are you interested in what the Bible says about this?
3. Do you think much about spiritual things?
4. How is God involved in your life?
5. How important is your faith to you?
6. What has been your most meaningful spiritual experience?
7. Do you find that your religious heritage answers your questions about life?
8. Do you have any kind of spiritual beliefs? If what you believe were not true, would you want to know it? Well, the Bible says . . . .
9. To you, who is Jesus?
10. I often like to pray for people I meet; how can I pray for you?

Why don't we witness more actively? As mentioned earlier, some say it's primarily because many Christians aren't adequately trained to share their faith. There is some truth to this. There are worthwhile advantages to going through some guided thinking about the specifics of sharing the gospel. But as we think again about the blind man Jesus healed in John 9:25 it should become evident that we cannot attribute out failure to witness to a lack of training. Though he had been a believer in Jesus only a few minutes and obviously had no evangelism training at all, he was willing to tell others what Jesus had done for him ("One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"). Moreover, any Christian who has heard biblical preaching, participated in Bible studies, and has read the Scriptures and Christian literature for any time at all should have at least enough understanding of the basic message of Christianity to share it with someone else. Surely if we have understood the gospel well enough ourselves to be converted, we should know it well enough (even if as yet we know nothing else about the faith) to tell someone else how to be converted.

[Taken from pages 106-107 of Don's book, Spiritual Disciplines For the Christian Life. Read a chapter from this book]

Or order by phone: 800-405-3788