>
>Another approach: choose your battleground. If the focus is on Jesus, e.g. by
>doing a Bible study in the book of John, then you can debate on a more
>familiar
>territory. "Jesus knew what is in man" -- John 2:25. Let Jesus do the
>claiming
>and the convincing. "By grace are ye saved" -- and by grace do ye save
>others.
>Note that it is not our job to convince people of sin; that is the job of the
>Holy Spirit.
This brings up an interesting point for me - if people only come to Christ
through grace and the Holy Spirit, then what is the role of an individual
Christian as an evangelist? The popular (though not always accurate
conception) of evangelism is of sidewalk preachers - or someone who
continually harangues others about his faith. But I can't help but wonder
if, particularly for engineers and scientists, people who are by profession
dedicated to thought and reason, if it is not also effective to simply show
by example what it means to live one's life in Christ. This is not meant
as a criticism of anyone, just a comment that quiet evangelism might also
be effective. Admittedly I'm biased because what eventually brought my
path back around to Christianity was knowing and working with particular
people who, while they would never think of pushing their faith on anyone
else, are steadfast in their faith and show by example what it means to
live a Christian life.
Janet Rice
rice@mcc.com
Janet Rice
512-338-3266
rice@mcc.com