Sometimes being mad pissed is enough motivation for a post.
Right now, I am mad pissed. OK well I admit I am a lil less pissed than I was like an hour ago. Thank God for the meal of rice, plantain and gizzard courtesy my Sapphire’s kitchen… Ah I could marry Eniola sha…
OK now what got me pissed?
My business with the Island was up today so right after I left the Local Government, I called a cab to get me away from my temporary Lekki residence to my Sapphire’s place where I will be till I check out. The cab man was OK. I sat in front and he had this rather loud Christian music playing from his phone. I wasn’t quite feeling the songs so I whipped out my headphones and got me on some Eben groove and I was pretty tired so I was drifting in and outta sleep.
We got to the estate and dude gives me a not too friendly jab. I gave him a near evil eye especially as he hadn’t gotten to the place yet. Anyways, he motioned for me to get my ear piece off and I obliged to hear what he had to say. Lemme present this conversation style…
Him: Are you a Christian?
Me: Yes ( I love when people try to evangelize so I kinda loosened up a bit)
Him: Are you sure?
Me: (eye brows raised ever so slightly) Yeeeeeeesssssssss
Him: What church do you attend?
Me: David’s Christian Centre
Him: OK. Jesus is coming soon… Jesus is coming soon…. Jesus is coming soon… *with increasing tempo and in a rather eerie voice* Be careful!!! Be careful!!! BE VERY CAREFUL!!! Look at this… (And then proceeds to show me something on his phone)
Me: (interrupts him, ignores whatever he wanted to show me on his phone and speaks with a VERY stern voice) Look, this is NOT how to evangelize!!! The gospel we preach is one of love and not of fear.
Tell people how much Jesus loves them and totally wants only the very best for them if only they would port to His camp and not try to scare them with our message. You certainly would not be winning souls this way. Preach love not fear. Don’t scare people away from the kingdom… Which one is ‘…Be careful…’ and attempting to show me some stupid video.
Him: Noooo ooooo. You have to put FEAR in people ooo so that they know hell is real and then they would give their lives to Christ. (And he went on and on and on…)
Now I am not sure I made a right or wrong decision with this but with the way dude was going on and on, he was spoiling for an argument and frankly I was too tired and pissed for that so I got out my bags, paid him and walked away.
Then I came in and called my hubby to fume. Then I called two others. I mean, is this what we wanna reduce our gospel to? That of fear… Ugh!!!
OK going forward…
This is my take on evangelism. If you are going to preach Christ, the message has to be one of LOVE and reconciliation. Beyond what you say, show people God’s love. Treat people right. Live like an Ambassador of His kingdom wherever you find yourself. People should see Christ (Love) oozing so much out of you that they are drawn to you cos they also want what you have.
This tin no hard ooo. E no hard at all.
We can’t be scaring people out of this kingdom ooo.
Can we who call ourselves Christians ditch our halos and be a lil more like Jesus. The One who loved and preached to Sinners not condemning them.
Can we shine our ‘little light’ a bit more brighter? Or even make the ‘little light of ours’ BIGGER?
Can we be the ones to lead a worldwide LOVE REVOLUTION?
Yes?
Thank you!!!
E’
Going forward… Still Testifying
E… I totally agree with your take on a evangelism. It should be done in love…I came across a similar situations. A lady who saw me on a pair of jeans concluded, I was on my way to hell…according to her, a pair of trouser earned me a ticket to hell if I do not repent…
I was lost for words, and I knew a discussion was out of the question..I wondered what happened to love, and reaching out? So I picked my jaw from the floor and left the room…I was shocked, and mad at her for being judgmental. like you I walked away…
Cos frankly such people are ready to argue for ever with you quoting warped scriptures. Next time tho I will say a short word of prayer to thier hearing before I walk away… ‘I pray that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened that you may truly understand that this is a LOVE not fear-motivated Kingdom…’ or something like that…
Hopefully that should give them something to think about while the holy spirit does His thing
Too much emphasis on The God of judgement so little on His love. the very thing that He is;love.
E, don’t blame him too much his understanding is warpped.
That’s why I didn’t lash out at him when he was arguing….
I can imagine. I had a friend in school who used to scream at us. Trousers is a sin, makeup is a sin, boyfriend sin. She had her sin filter on and just seemed to thrive on pointing out where you were wrong. This totally disgusted me and till today I cringe when I hear her name.
Let’s put on our love, peace and reconciliation filters on and see the opportunities to witness. God’s strength for us all o.
Amen ooo
I love how you used filters… totally cool
Hmmmm I totally luv ur post darln,pple tend to b judgemental n make it look like God is a wicked God who would kill all of us every time we sin.we serve a merciful God who’s luv is amazing.imagine I get pple judging me bcuz I have natural dreads,my mum says my hair is irresponsible lol msweeeee.
lets all preach GOd’s divine luv n quit condemning others.
God bless u E
Ah don’t let me get started on dreads.
That has to fall into unpardonable sins category loool
You won’t believe what some certain someone told me about mine.
Tz well. Thanks hun
For me, the one thing I feared most in Christendom is evangelism – I still do – I never know how or when to start especially b/c I have my own imperfections to deal with. Still, it is God’s command to obey. I have since learnt that there are different ways of telling people about God. I pray for wisdom each day & I pray that the love of God would permeate thru me to others – and that my life would be an epistle in itself.
Good thing is no one is perfect
So if we are waiting for perfect people the gospel will never be preached. For me tz even the fact that imperfect me is so perfectly loved that makes me wanna evangelise. I mean His love is too good to be true. Let God work through our imperfections. The best way for me remains ‘let your light so shine that men may see and be drawn to His Kingdom. ..’
I have since learnt that tz not about me but God.
So my darling take the pressure off and just shine your light daily…
Btw I love your name 🙂
Nne na so we see am o. Its depressing to see pple dat oughta be preachin the gospel preaching condemnation! I mean its supposed to be good news naw. I hrd one woman preachin and said somerin lyk ‘i saw a guy that tattooed a bible verse and i tot hmmm, u’ll rot in hell’. Boy! I didnt know what to say. God help us o. Those pple need the gospel demselves. U definitely can’t giv wat u don’t have
I am telling you oooo
Ironic but na them need the gospel sef
Thank you E’ for this post. Loving you even more…. I had this conversation a few days ago. Fear will only send people away and keep people away from the kingdom. We can accomplish so much of we walk on love and that’s what most Christians are unaware of.
Tz funny ooo. Cos the Christ we emulate is all love… so where do we pick up otherwise?
Btw you do a totally fab work on your blog. You make me wanna visit canada
🙂
Thanks alot for this post. I have been longing to have a one-on-one ₩ɪ̣̝̇†̥ ♈υ̲̣̥ on issues like this. I grew up ₩ɪ̣̝̇†̥ the teachings that trouser,makeup,weaveon, and fixing of nails is a sin. That all those who do this will go to hell. It has really affected my walk ₩ɪ̣̝̇†̥ God and how i see some people. I wonder how this people that wear trousers and makeup live better, show more love and are happier than those who don’t. I find it difficult to preach to a person for fear of been looked down on, as not being a Christian because ┈̥-̶̯͡»̶̥A̶̲̥̅♏ on jeans or makeup. After reading Tanni’s testimony about winning soul, I knew right that minute that I need to make that a goal this year. The fear of been insulted keeps ♏ε̲̣̣̣̥ away from preaching. Pls FABer’s do pray for ♏ε̲̣̣̣̥ for the fruit of the womb. I need my twins this year(boy and girl). This issue of childlessness is really getting on ♏ε̲̣̣̣̥ and ┈̥-̶̯͡»̶̥A̶̲̥̅♏ beginning to loose my self worth because I feel very worthyless.thank ♈υ̲̣̥ very much for your prayers because I know ♈υ̲̣̥ will surely pray for ♏ε̲̣̣̣̥. God bless ♈υ̲̣̥ all richly.
Darling I did you a mail.
🙂
You will testify dear. Don’t let your self worth be determined by kids or anything else. Let it be determined by how much God loves you. You know that our human minds can’t even comprehend how much that is, so you are worth quite a bundle. Keep the faith dear.
Aww darling. Ul definitely get them. You have Christ in you. You CANNOT be fruitless. Just keep confessing God’s word. I’ll keep praying. I quite agree wiv Tomiwa. Having kids shouldn’t be ur source of self worth. God’s word is. But darling u’ll have those twins this year. You will testify
Amen amen
Babes, you hear?
I want to say so much about this but can’t find the words…I sincerely pray that I will understand fully the LOVE God has for us. its truly the key to sowing the right seeds in the heart when reaching out! God bless you.
ps this post stirred me to pray!!!
Amen amen amen darling.
Thank God for you and the post.
Hugs
E’
Need I say more? Evangelism is potent when you live from the inside out! Turn up the lights&love! They are absolutely perfect baits to hook&rein in souls for Christ. Chikena!
Thank you for sharing a message this intricate in a forthright, no-holds-barred manner.
Blessings!
Turn up the light and love yo!!!!!!!!!
Awesome. I wish I used this as the title…
Hehhehehe, ur encounter was very funny. I had a customer that wld always come 2my ofyce 2pay in and wld say 2my face that I was hell bound cos I always put ‘attach’ on my hair (lol), used jewelry, wore ‘male garment’ (trouser), fixed ma nails and rubbed ‘blood’ (lipstick) on ma lips. He claimed all these items were 4rm d marine world and d jewelries 4rm d golden calf *rollin ma eyes*. The thing is I was never upset, I jst used 2laff @him and waive him aside. One day a lady came 2pay in and didn’t wear all d afore mentioned items and he jst looked @her and said “this woman is a good christian” witout even knowin anytin abt her character. To cut the story short, dat same lady duped her boss of a large sum of money. It got me thinkin is it d outward appearance dat makes us gOod christians? Enuf said
Ifu go… Nuff said indeed Bless you my sister
Thumbs up E’
I am so loving this post.
Thanks darling
God bless you and take all the glory
Lol….@Ezi and her driver…lmao. I can imagine the looks u both must have been giving each other…lol. The sum of Christianity is love. Nothing else. So everything must be done in love…there is no other way. Gbammmm. Lovely post Darling E!
@Mercy…is anything to hard for my God? Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
Gbam!!!
Pele dear. Something very similar happened to me in a cab as well. What I try to keep in mind though is this…when the missionaries came to Africa, many came and did things that should ordinarily have made us kick them and all of Christianity out of the continent! Yet the gospel still prevailed. Somehow somehow, despite all the missteps made by Christians, God finds a way to enter the hearts of those who need him.
Another E’ star comment.
Yes, the gospel will spread no matter what the devil tries to do…
God bless you ma for this
on point E! let Christ’s love shine! let it glow and flow through us.
and miss Mercy, I love love things like this, why? cuz God will will sooo show forth His glory through you this year by and with your testimony, men cant help but shout His praise on your behalf.
you shall testify this year, in fact, your testimony shall be a blogimony on this blog soon-this year.
I have already added you in prayers. you will testify!
twins abi? Numbers 14;28- as surely as I live declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say…
stay strong dear, keep speaking it, we shall testify.
notice the ‘shall’?
that’s you ‘must’ testify, no two ways about it, I believe
Amen amen
Mercy you getting plenty prayers here
You MUST testify. Too late for devil
I agree with you E.. I prefer the message of love rather than the message of fear. I think that was very clear in Jesus’ approach to people. The bible says perfect love casts out fear so you cannot have both on the same side.. I pray that the love of God will indeed cast out all forms of fear – including the fear of not being worthy enough to be saved by Christ. I also pray that our relationship with Jesus is motivated by love rather than fear… It’s a much better experience 🙂 xx
This comment gets an E’star
Thanks babe
“It’s true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they’ll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I’m out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them. So how am I to respond? I’ve decided that I really don’t care about their motives, whether mixed, bad, or indifferent. Every time one of them opens his mouth, Christ is proclaimed, so I just cheer them on! (Philippians 1:15-17 MSG)
I recall it was tunde bakare that opened my eyes to this scripture when our darling pastor bimbo died and he had come to preach/console us at fountain then but that is story for another day…
Now this is an amazing scripture but I doubt it works in this context. They preached THE TRUTH with an ulterior motive. Tz like I am preaching the message of love to for example show that ‘…ehen no be only Paul know how to preach o made. We too can preach. Notice us. Respect us. We too have the word…’ So they learnt the truth and preached it yup but with very ulterior motives.
So Paul is saying, ‘…whatever!!! Good thing is you are preaching the word whether you think you are spiting or persecuting me too…’
In this case, dude was NOT preaching the Word. It had very little potential of getting people to the kingdom…
Like 1+ said, our coming to God is better motivated by love rather than fear…
🙂
If you read up a preacher named DL Moody, you’d understand that cab driver.
DL would preach about hell and people would hold on to the pillars in fear lest the ground open and swallow them straight to hell. And out of fear they gave their lives because fear was the emotion they understood, not love.
I know it’s hard to swallow, but I’d rather have a person who came to heaven because he was too afraid to go to hell than not have them at all. Even Paul tells Timothy to openly rebuke those who persist in sin into that the others may stand in fear. It’s a sad but sure fact that some people will never respond to love but to fear, just as it is a sad but sure fact that there will always be poor Christians…Christians who don’t know their rights in Christ.
So in the same way some preach the gospel out of envy or strife, some preach it out of fear. Maybe they were converted because they had a dream about hell. Hence their disposition. But in all these things, the gospel is still being preached.
At the expense of back and forthing which I try to avoid on my blog, I will let this slide.
And settle this one-on-one 🙂
where is the like button jare? I just wanna click away! permission 2 reblog this 2 my blog ma?
Feel free to hun…
Thanks