How to Know Someone's Relationship to Christ

I heard a message on the car radio last week that offered some diagnostic questions to help discern someone's relationship to the gospel message, and to help address stumbling blocks.

These questions would be most useful with someone to whom you know the gospel has been preached--someone who has been recently attending church, for example, but whose response to the gospel is unclear.

The phraseology and sequence of the questions is intentional. Below are the questions from my notes:

1. Have you ever personally trusted Christ, or are you still on the way?

2. How far along the way are you?

3. Would you like to become a real Christian and be sure of it?

In response to question #3, the speaker suggested walking the person through the key verbs in John 1:12

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name,

Lord willing, I will use these questions with a tollbooth operator to whom I gave a gospel tract this weekend, and who asked me to follow up with her. (We had a long line of cars behind us..not really enough time to preach the gospel, but enough to learn that she had heard it, and wanted to know how to be assured of salvation for herself, and her children). I'll report how the Lord uses these questions in our conversation.

Aim for Repentance Rather than a Decision

"As you witness, divorce yourself from the thought that you are merely seeking “decisions for Christ.” What we should be seeking is repentance within the heart. This is the purpose of the Law, to bring the knowledge of sin. How can a man repent if he doesn’t know what sin is? If there is no repentance, there is no salvation. Jesus said, “Unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Many don’t understand that the salvation of a soul is not a resolution to change a way of life, but “repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” The modern concept of success in evangelism is to relate how many people were “saved” (that is, how many prayed the “sinner’s prayer”). This produces a “no decisions, no success” mentality. This shouldn’t be, because Christians who seek decisions in evangelism become discouraged after a time of witnessing if “no one came to the Lord.” The Bible tells us that as we sow the good seed of the gospel, one sows and another reaps. If you faithfully sow the seed, someone will reap. If you reap, it is because someone has sown in the past, but it is God who causes the seed to grow. If His hand is not on the person you are leading in a prayer of committal, if there is not God-given repentance, then you will end up with a stillbirth on your hands, and that is nothing to rejoice about. We should measure our success by how faithfully we sowed the seed. In that way, we will avoid becoming discouraged."

From "Tools for Witnessing" at http://www.livingwaters.com/witnessingtool/aimforrepentance.shtml

Delivering God's Message

A.W. Tozer said,

"We who preach the Gospel must not think of ourselves as public relations agents sent to establish good will between Christ and the world. We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum."

Who Thinks About Heaven and Hell? Witnessing Clip with Ray Comfort

Praise the Savior

Praise the Lord! He is mighty and faithful to save. Today He used brother Scott and I to preach the gospel to a woman in Green Bay, Wisconsin, who received the Lord as her savior. We will pray that our new sister can find a solid church home and grow strong in the Lord

The Torch of Christ

The Underground Church in Vietnam

Come to Christ. He is mighty to Save - Paul Washer

"Be Assured" - Paul Washer (Dutch subtitles)