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Your Friends are Trapped

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There's a Christmas/Holiday/Hanukah/Kwanza song that I think you're familiar with...it's called Let it Snow. If you didn't know this, I am writing to you from Denver, Colorado - the city that Jack Frost dumped over 30" of the white stuff on last week. We know about that song as well. And now we hate it. We don't care about corn for popping or the fire slowly dying. We're not still goodbying because we're shoveling and shoveling and shoveling. When we're through shoveling, we're shoveling some more.

Perhaps it's hard for you to imagine what it's like to get hammered with 3 feet of snow over every square inch of your city. Picture angry and evil little snowmen - the Anti-Frosty if you will - lying in menacing wait on your porch, your yard, your driveway, your streets, and yes, even in the parking lot of Starbucks.

So last week I opened the door to a virtual winter wonderland. No streets were plowed, and some folks couldn't even open their door without first clearing a path. When that sight entered into my brain, something else entered my heart. No, it wasn't a desire to move to So Cal or buy a Hummer (actually an H2 got stuck in our neighborhood...that's what we call a $50,000 OOPS.)

The feeling that rose to the top of my emotions was a sense of mission. Me, my family, and my neighbor friends were trapped and stuck, and I needed to do something about it. So I wrapped up, stretched out, grabbed my shovel and started plowing my way out like the Abominable Snowman on steroids. And when I was done with my house, I helped my neighbor. And when we were done, we helped our other neighbors - and then we cleared out the street so we could get out of our neighborhood. In the end, I lifted my shovel around 150 times. At 40+ pounds per load, my internal sense of mission overcame my out-of-shape-Pastor body and allowed me to clear over 6000 pounds of evil little snowmen.

So you are probably reading this thinking - 'wow - I'm sure glad I'm not in a blizzard right now.'

But you are. Look out your window. Your neighbors and friends are trapped - not by snow - but by sin. They are weighed down by bad choices, bad situations, and bad friends. They are buried under emotional struggles so deep that they can hardly make it out of the front door.

And you have a shovel. A really good one...it's called the Gospel. It's the good news that clears a path for people to get out of their traps and live life the way it's supposed to be lived. It removes the heavy burdens from hearts and opens the way to heaven.

I'd like you to be filled with the same sense of mission that I was when I looked out and saw the mess around me. Here's the thing...God wants you to feel that way as well. Here are Jesus' last words:

Then Jesus came to them and said,

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)

This is called The Great Commission - which is a big fancy title for Jesus' command to every believer to wrap up, stretch out, grab your shovel and start plowing your way out like a disciple on steroids. This is why God left us on earth - to help clear a path for people who are stuck just like you used to be before you trusted Christ.

Be careful, though. Some people take their shovel and use it recklessly. They get into other people's faces and make them feel bad for letting the snow pile up so high. Then there are others who think it is someone else's job to clear the path for others. So they look out the window while their shovels sit in the garage doing nothing. The sad part is that these folks don't know what they are missing. I can't describe for you the face of someone who hears the good news and sees the path to heaven wide open before their eyes. The look of freedom after being trapped is worth shoveling a million pounds of sin out of the way.

So what are you waiting for? Jesus gave you the shovel, the people, and best of all His very own power to help others through the blizzard of life -

Bring it Jack Frost!

Head: What you need to know about this truth

The Great Commission is a title given to Jesus' last words in Matthew 28:18-20, where He commands every believer to go out into all the world and make disciples. The first step in this process is telling people how they can have eternal life by trusting in Christ as their only hope of salvation.

Heart: What you need to feel about this truth

Last week we got an amazing letter from a conference alumni who most definitely knows how to 'shovel'. God gave her an amazing opportunity to share the gospel with a friend who attempted suicide and was in the hospital. Her friend trusted Christ that very day, and the change in her life was so miraculous that she was released the next day! Here's the most amazing part - the hospital staff and family were so stunned by the change in her friend that they asked her what she shared that was so life changing. Here's her account of what happened:

"When I told them what I had told her inside her room, they were all very interested! In the end, my friend, 4 doctors, 2 nurses, and 6 of the family members devoted their lives to Christ! Thank you so much Greg, for teaching me (the GOSPEL Journey) - I'll never forget that day! Now I'm working with the PTA of my high school to try to find some sort of way to be able to get the word out that someone does in fact love these teens that believe they're so alone..."

Hands: What you need to do about this truth

Sharing Christ with others should be a natural and personal thing that comes from your own unique style...but...it is always good to have in your mind the basic elements of a gospel presentation that you build your story around. Take some time and memorize the very simple plan we put together to help you: dare2share.org/gospeljourney.