JESUS AND HIS EVANGELISTS

JESUS AND HIS EVANGELISTS

BY DR. MERVYN ABREO

SAMARITAN WOMAN AT THE WELL:

          She was one of three harlots of the New Testament who was convicted, and saved to by Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 55:11. ‘’......so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

     It achieves conviction which leads to repentance, and salvation.

     Or, it brings about rejection, which leads to condemnation.

THE REAPING HARLOT: It was her new title because she turned from a harlot into an evangelist (John 4: 4-30).

          Initially the dialogue between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is about water. But, while Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, she is still thinking in the natural.

          It is only when Jesus speaks of her multiple sexual partners that she realizes that He is no mere man. And while on the topic of worship, when Jesus reveals that He is the Christ, she is convinced, and rushing back to the town, testifies about Him.

          And many of the Samaritans from that town believe in Him. (John 4:39-42).

          She goes from a harlot to a believer to an evangelist.

DEMON—POSSESSED MAN: (Luke 8:26 – 39).

          After being delivered by Jesus, the man wanted to go with the Lord but was instructed to return home and evangelize.

LAZARUS -- THE BEGGAR: (Luke 16:19-31).

          There is nothing wrong with being rich, but one should be gracious to the poor. In Jesus’ story, the rich man becomes an evangelist after his death, wanting to go back and preach to his brothers, who were still back on earth.

US: Are we obeying the Lord’s command to “go forth and make disciples………”

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          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

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DO EVANGELISTS NEED TO BE PERFECT?

DO EVANGELISTS NEED TO BE PERFECT?

BY DR. MERVYN ABREO

          One day a young man was brought to me with a problem. His wanted to leave the Church because his pastor had been rude to him.

          There are many such people who have turned their back to the Church just because their priest or pastor has hurt their feelings.

                                        

          I asked him, ‘If you had to receive a phone call from America, and the caller informs you, “You dirty Indian pig, you have won just 10 million dollars in the sweep stake.” What will you do? Will you refuse to collect your winnings because he insulted you? Or would you run and collect what is rightfully yours?’

          Do what the cow does. It initially swallows everything, only to regurgitate and spit out what is useless and swallow the useful stuff

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REJECT THE MESSENGER TO REJECT THE MESSAGE:

          This is what usually happens in most cases when an evangelical message is delivered, either from the pulpit, or personally on a one to one basis.

          It happened even to the great evangelist Paul. In Acts we read how the Governor Felix was afraid when Paul spoke about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.

          So in order to appease his conscience, he sent for Paul on a number of occasions because he  “………was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.”           And this went on for two years. (Acts 24: 25 – 27).

THE EVANGELIST AND PERFECTIONISM:

The evangelist is under the scanner of three different persons!

1) THE PERSON BEING EVANGELIZED TO.                                                                                                                                                           

 

          
            As per ‘Isaiah 55:11. ‘’ so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

               It either achieves conviction in the one who is receiving the Gospel message, which leads to repentance and salvation.

          Or it brings about rejection which leads to condemnation.

2) THE EVANGELIST:

           He should boldly evangelize, unaffected by what people think or say, always keeping in mind and often reminding himself: “I am not a sinner, but a saint who sins occasionally!”

3) GOD:

           The evangelist is His child empowered by the Holy Spirit to do His bidding. And it is the sole responsibility of God, and God alone to evaluate and judge his or her performance!

          In God’s eyes he or she is perfect: ‘………..For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.’ (Ephesians 1:4).

          So who is anyone to pass judgment on His servants?!

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Dear friend,

          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

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HOLY SPIRIT EVANGELISM!

 HOLY SPIRIT EVANGELISM!

BY DR. MERVYN ABREO

          Whenever we evangelize to someone, we are addressing his mind. However, we should always remember, that evangelism is never on the intellectual level alone. His spirit has essentially to be involved.  Many people fail to be effective evangelists because of this very reason.

 TRIPARTITE MAN IN A THREE DIMENSIONAL WORLD

 MAN IS MADE UP OF: A body, a soul and a spirit.

 The soul in turn is made up of: an intellect, a will and emotions.                                                      

          Sometimes, only the intellect or mind may be involved. For example, a person may make up his mind to change his religion for financial gain.

          This is only a superficial change. Because the real change or conversion takes place only in the spirit- and effective and life changing transformation can only be done under the power of the Holy Spirit.

          Or a person may change their religion because he or she may have fallen in love with a person of another religion. Here the decision is based mainly on emotions.                                                        

          Yet again, a change may be forced on someone because of religious persecution. Here the will overshadows the intellect and the emotions.
                                                     

ACTION/REACTION: When you give the Gospel message, one of two reactions have to take place:

          Conviction or condemnation, i.e. either the person accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior, and is saved.

          Or the message is outright rejected, and the person condemned for all eternity.

THERE IS NO THIRD POSSIBILITY:

 THE LORD SPEAKS “so is My word that goes out from My mouth: It will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it,” (Isaiah 55:11).

 HOLY SPIRIT GUIDED EVANGELISM:
                                                   

          This is the most effective and best type of evangelism.

          The Holy Spirit leads you to a particular person, puts the right words in your mouth, and literally does everything, except appear to that person and speak to him or her personally.

          For this type of evangelism, you need to spend prime time with the Lord. But the results are fantastic, and you truly become one with the Lord, and enter His core group, along with Moses and Elijah, and the three disciples, as it happened on the Mount of Transfiguration.

‘DEATH BED EVANGELISM’:                                                            

            Whenever you evangelize to someone, do so as though the person you are evangelizing to is going to drop dead the very next moment. This gives a depth and feeling to your words, and your sincerity and seriousness will greatly help.

(To gain more knowledge read, “Seventh on the Mount with Jesus”).

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Dear friend,

          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

                                        drmervynabreo@gmail.com

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DEAD CHRIST 'REVIVED' IN TOMB?

DEAD CHRIST 'REVIVED' IN TOMB?

BY DR. MERVYN ABREO

          After the death of Jesus on the cross, His body was entombed. But because He had prophesied that He would rise again on the third day, Pilate, on the behest of the Pharisees, had the tomb sealed, and a guard, comprising of Roman soldiers, posted outside the tomb. (Mathew 27: 62 – 65).

          However, the Lord resurrected on the third day! (Mathew 28:6).

          What happened was Jesus, a human being like you and me, was crucified. And He died on the cross. And His body was entombed.

          But unlike any other person, He rose from the dead, and came back to life!

          But the Pharisees, not wanting the Jews to believe that He was God, bribed the soldiers to say, that while they were sleeping, His disciples came during the night, and stole the body. (Mathew 28: 11-15).

          The result: the Jews do not believe in His resurrection. While others, although accepting Him as a prophet, do not accept Him as God, claiming that He had been revived when placed on the cold floor of the tomb. And had lived to  die many years later.

          When confronted by a non-Christian about this latter claim, I told the person two facts.

          One, that had that had happened, and His disciples were aware of this, since they had been part to this ‘subterfuge’, they would not have been willing to give their life to support this falsehood.

          History has documented that most of them died as martyrs!

          The second, why not ask God Himself! If Jesus is the Christ and the one true living God, He will definitely answer you, that is, if you are a true seeker!

           I have personally experienced this! In fact this whole blog is a direct result of the personal guidance of the Holy Spirit!

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Dear friend,

          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

                                        drmervynabreo@gmail.com

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GOD BECOMING MAN

GOD BECOMING MAN

BY DR MERVYN ABREO

         

          Many people find it difficult, and in some cases even impossible, to accept the fact that God ‘came down’ on earth, and became a Man, in the Person of Jesus Christ.

          Their argument is that God, Who is so infinitely great, would never leave His exalted position and ‘cheapen’ Himself by becoming a mere human being!

          In truth God has to ‘cheapen’ Himself and come down to our level, or else we would never be able to communicate with Him.

          Because it’s all about COMMUNICATION!!

          And weather He came down and become a man, or only spoke to the prophets, He had to ‘cheapen’ Himself and come down to our level!

          COMMUNICATION requires two items: a transmitter and a receiver.

          When we speak to one another our vocal cords, which produce a sound, acts as the transmitter. And the auditory organs (the ear), act as the receiver.

          COMMUNICATION with God also essentially requires these two elements.

          We say that God is a Spirit Being. This is not fully true! He is infinitely ‘more’ than that. He is unfathomable!

           He has created us with a body, a soul and a spirit. And He can communicate with us using any of these as receptors. We may hear Him when He ‘speaks’ to us. Or we may see Him when He ‘shows’ Himself to us in visions called Theophany.

  

                                  

         

          But usually when He communicates with us, we are able to spiritually discern, what He is ‘saying’ to us.

          And it is exclusively for this reason that He has created in us a spirit (the receiver) and ‘come down’ in the form of a Spirit (the transmitter) so that He can communicate with us.
             And therefore, in order to facilitate even better communication, He came down to our level, and became Man!

          This is for those who find it difficult to believe that God can become a human being.

          But we Christians know that God came down as Jesus to communicate with us So that we can identify with Him, and also to be a role model for us. And ultimately, to die for us, so that He can take our place, and we, who actually deserve death, can live for all eternity with Him.

P.S. In eternity we will only perceive Him to the extent He will reveal Himself to us!

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Dear friend,

          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

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NO FAVORITISM TO THE POOR

NO FAVORITISM TO THE POOR

BY DR. MERVYN ABREO

          You would expect the benevolent God of the Bible to bend backwards to champion the cause of the poor.

          But in the same chapter, when God exonerates us not to help a wicked man by being a malicious witness, and not to pervert justice by siding with the crowd, He goes ahead and says: “….do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.” (Exodus 23: 1-3).

GOD: BOTH MERCIFUL AND JUST!

          Man needs to clearly understand the difference between mercy and justice. These two can, and do go hand in hand.But we have somehow jumbled the two and this can be clearly be seen in the example of Robin Hood.

Robin Hood! The prince of thieves! He robs the rich and gives to the poor. Everybody’s hero! And in a Christian country too.

          The seventh commandment clearly says: “Thou shall not steal!”

 

          Biblically he has broken one of the Ten Commandments, and there is no other way to look at it!

GOD THE MERCIFUL: The Lord orders His people not to be hard hearted or tightfisted towards their poor brethren (under penalty of sin), but commands them to be openhanded and lend freely to their brothers, and also to the poor and needy. (Deuteronomy 15: 7 – 11).

           He exonerates them not to deprive the aliens or the fatherless of justice, or harass the widow, but to be charitable to the underprivileged. (Deuteronomy 15: 17 – 22).

          Prophet Nehemiah says: “………But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love……” (9:11).

Rich Man – Poor Man

          Unlike man, in God’s eyes, both should be, and are treated equally!

                                        

          But knowing man’s heart, God warns us not to show favoritism to the rich. He elucidates this with an example; that if a rich and a poor man come to a meeting, no special attention should be given to the rich man by offering him a good seat while making the poor man sit on the floor. (James 2: 1-7).

Poor man and justice: Though God has a soft corner for the poor, He is very clear when justice has to be done. There is absolutely no compromise.

           And in a lawsuit, even if judgment has to go against a poor man, so be it. When justice has to be doled out, it should be given irrespective of the financial standing of the two contestants. But, at the same time, one should never lose sight of mercy!

GOD -- THE JUST GOD: Although God is a merciful God, He is simultaneously and uncompromisingly a just God.

          The Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:17).              

          And because of this Jesus landed on the cross!!

          Man sinned. He should have been eternally damned. That’s God’s law. And it had to be upheld.

          And there was only one way out.

          God came down and became man. He died on the cross to pay for our sins. He died in our place. If we humble ourselves and accept His provision for us we are saved.

          If instead, we prefer to go by the law and work our way to salvation, by good works, then we are eternally damned! (Ephesians 2:8).

          That’s why God has given us a provision in Jesus Christ.

          “Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4).

          It’s simple. It’s easy. And it’s foolproof!

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Dear friend,

          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

                                        drmervynabreo@gmail.com

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LORD JESUS CHRIST -- THE OVERCOMER

       LORD JESUS CHRIST – THE OVERCOMER

BY DR. MERVYN ABREO

          The Lord, before His death, had promised us, that we can do greater things than Him. (John 14:21).

          So if we can truly appreciate just one of the things that He had achieved, then we too can, by claiming the above promise, rise higher from the level that we already are at!

          And one of His greatest achievements was to be an overcomer!

          He was the sinless One. The perfect sacrifice for our sins. And it was only because of this position, that He had to continuously hold on to, that He was able to achieve what He had come here in the first place to do – and that was to save us.

          So imagine the tension He was continuously under. One slip, and death. No second chance.  

                                                           

          The result: Jesus would cease to be God!

                 Satan, the god of this earth, would become God.

                 And we would be eternally damned.

         

          But He never slipped!

          And so we too, emulating Him, can climb from any situation, and become over comers!

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Dear friend,

          I look forward to getting your feedback. Do write in to me at:

                                        drmervynabreo@gmail.com

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