Category Archives: Evangelism

Billy Graham: “Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant”

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BillyGraham-Tallahasee-Florida

Having grown up Catholic, I was aware of Billy Graham, but I always thought it was one of those “born again” people and it wasn’t for me. How wrong I was!

It took his death on Feb. 21, 2018, for me to really get to know him. I’ve watched several of his biographical movies and even watched the movie that Kathie Lee Gifford watched that led her to Jesus. (It’s embedded below).

I can’t claim that I came to Jesus through a Billy Graham Crusade, but I know someone who did. For me, it was reading “Left Behind(ad)”.

However, in recent years, with the outbreak of social media in the world, I use the medium to help spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (Follow me on Twitter). I know there’s only one way into Heaven and that’s through believing in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I can’t imagine what it’s like for a believer and a servant like Billy Graham the moment he died, he entered Heaven and was greeted by Jesus himself as well as his wife Ruth, his parents and many of the people that he helped lead to Christ. He used to say that,

“Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

I love how his children spoke of him and especially the vow of Anne Graham Lotz to keep preaching the Gospel.

I guess watching all this has inspired me to come back to blogging here. It’s been a while. I’ve thought about it, but then good intentions are fine, but if action doesn’t happen, then nothing gets done.

I was blown away by Kathie Lee Gifford’s amazing response to Billy Graham’s death.

I pray that I and all Born Again Christians will be so bold and have the courage to proclaim the Good News of the salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ. That when it’s our turn to meet Jesus in person, that He will say,

Well done, good and faithful servant! (Matthew 25:21)

This is the movie, The Restless Ones, that Kathie Lee Gifford watched that convinced her to turn to Jesus.

If you want to have peace and joy in your life, click here.

And I do recommend reading Billy Graham’s Biography, “Just As I Am(ad)”. What an amazing life!

Top picture by “Florida Memory” of Billy Graham at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida, February 11, 1961.

 

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Using Social Media to Evangelize

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Marketing for Jesus!

Jesus commanded us to do it!

“…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: 19-20

Back then it wasn’t easy. The disciples had to do a lot of walking and letter writing.

Today, we have the Internet.

social media icons

Christians must embrace social media to further God’s Kingdom.

We have at our fingertips the most incredible medium for evangelizing, for spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, not just in our neighborhoods, but all over the world! The Televangelists had the right idea when they embraced the medium of television to help spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Now everyone that wants it has access to the Internet at home, at work, on their cell phones or iPads. The new phenomenon is Social Media and we as Christian need to embrace it and take advantage of it to further God’s Kingdom.

Right now, Satan has control of the world and is also using Social Media to tempt, attack, create doubt, and deceive. We need to fight back! And we can ride the coattails of the Social Media Revolution.

Watch this video:

 

Think of it as the parable of the sower…Matthew 13: 1-23

Understanding the last passage is crucial:

“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” ~Matthew 13:23

Jesus's Great CommissionYou never know when or if that seed will be planted and when or if later on, someone in their lives will help them come to Christ.

You must not discriminate.

I got into a discussion with @GodlessAtheist on Twitter not too long ago. He’ll post to the #TeamJesus hashtag just to get our goat. In our back and forth conversation, he was asking questions – and that’s what’s important. And I replied with scripture. Today he wrote something like “football is better than religion,” then I replied to him with a video from the 700 Club (CBN.org) featuring the players of the Super Bowl talking about how Christ is foremost in their lives.

We have the Armor of God and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) – which is the only offensive piece of the armor. We have Truth on our side and we must speak the Truth and spread the Truth, using the FREE tools called Social Media.

Social Media tools are free and easy to use and can be very power if you know how to use them properly.

“But I have no time!” 

I bet you said that when emails came out. What’s the first thing you do in the morning when you sit in front of your computer? Check email. And you probably do that a few times a day. Well, monitoring social media needs to be added to your schedule. Just 15-30 minutes a day and blogging once a week. There are some great tools to help you automate and schedule postings to save time.

I can show you how to easy it is to use Social Media to evangelize and it’s not just for pastors! Any Christian can do this!

Visit my Social Media Marketing Tips Blog

 

If you enjoyed this, you’ll love Giselle’s award-winning Christian novel: Deo Volente! (God Willing): Love in the First Century a historical novel about the early church check it out! $1 from the sale of each book – no matter what format, benefits StreetLight Phoenix to help eradicate child sex slavery. www.giselleaguiar.com/novel1

Great Blessings!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Giselle Aguiar
Christian, Award-Winning Author

Are You Ready to Evangelize?

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PreacherAs a young Christian (and I have to admit, my Christian growth journey has been very long), I didn’t understand evangelism. My impressions of evangelists were:

1. TV evangelists yelling at me from a pulpit in front of a congregation of thousands of people.

2. The folks knocking door to door asking, “Do you know if you’re going to heaven?”

I didn’t know that as a Christian, Jesus asked each and every one of His believers, who were now disciples also, to:

Jesus's Great Commission

“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 28:19-20

Ok, so we know what we have to do. How?

Scenario:

You get on a plane for 2-3 flight. You sit down and introduce yourself to the person sitting next to you. He sees the cross around your neck and immediately says, “I’m an atheist.”

Now, if you’re a pastor, you probably know how to handle this, but for the average Christian, our first thought would be to get on the defensive. Start defending God and Jesus and rattling about how we’ve been saved and the joy we have, etc.

Not the right strategy.

The Armor of GodRemember the armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-30? We have:

  1. The belt of Truth
  2. The breastplate of Righteousness
  3. The shoes of the Gospel of Peace
  4. The shield of Faith
  5. The helmet of Salvation

and lastly, “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Reading the Bible

Owning a Bible is no good if you don’t read it!

Do you realize that the sword is the only offensive weapon? Everything else is defensive – to protect you. The sword is meant to thrust to attack.

The only way to arm yourself is to READ THE BIBLE. And not just cover to cover. But methodically.

If you want to be prepared to converse with an atheist whether it be on a plane or on Twitter, you must be armed with the undeniable Truth of God’s Word. Take some time each day to read it. The best time is in the morning when your mind is fresh. Hey, read it in the bathroom. God has no rules as where you have to be when you read it! If you need a guide, use one or more of the millions of devotionals out there. One of my favorites is Our Daily Bread. It’s online or you can probably pick it up at your church.

So how do you converse with the atheist on the plane when he proudly informes you that he doesn’t believe there is a God? Here’s your reply:

“Really, why’s that?”

Then shut up and listen to his story. (Remember, you’ve got a couple of hours.) Then and only then, you reply with, “Well, did you know that Jesus said,…’Truly I tell you….'”

 

Great Blessings!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Giselle Aguiar
Award-Winning Christian Author

I you liked this, you’ll love Giselle’s award-winning Christian novel: Deo Volente! (God Willing): Love in the First Century a historical novel about the early church check it out! $1 from the sale of each book – no matter what format, benefits StreetLight Phoenix to help eradicate child sex slavery.

 

Seek Out the Lost

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This is from Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life Daily Hope devotional. This is such a WWJD topic that I had to repost it here.

Seek Out the Lost

“Be friendly with everyone. Don’t be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people.” (Romans 12:16 CEV)

In The Message paraphrase, 2 Corinthians 5:20b is rendered: “Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.” That’s the message we’re to take to the world, yet often we limit our influence by seeking and maintaining friendships exclusively among other believers.

Jesus, on the other hand, sought out the lost, deliberately becoming friends with those who needed a friend in God.

The Bible says that when the Pharisees saw Jesus keeping company with the community’s great unwashed, “they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. ‘What kind of example is this from your teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?’ Jesus, overhearing, shot back, ‘Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: “I’m after mercy, not religion.” I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders’” (Matthew 9:10-13 MSG).

Jesus knew who he was, according to God’s design; Jesus knew whose he was, according to God’s truth; and Jesus knew his purpose for being here on Earth. All this allowed him to relax and ignore what others thought or said about him.

It meant Jesus wasn’t worried when others accused him of being a friend of sinners (Luke 19:7) because he was doing exactly what the Father sent him to do: persuade men and women to make peace with God (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Likewise, we’re to represent Jesus, speaking on his behalf to those still on the “outside.” Yet some of us are so isolated and disconnected from unbelievers that we rarely have any meaningful conversations with them. The tendency is that the longer we’re believers, the more insulated we become from unbelievers and perhaps the more uncomfortable we become with them.

The result: We no longer have friends who are non-believers.

Jesus’ actions suggest that our witness to a non-believer starts with friendship: We earn the right to share the Gospel through relationship. The old cliché is a cliché because it’s true: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Those who have yet to become friends with God are just like you and me, looking for deep, true, supportive friendships, sometimes especially during the Christmas season.

The Apostle Paul encourages us to find common ground with non-believers: “I do this to get the Gospel to them and also for the blessing I myself receive when I see them come to Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:22-23 LB). Finding common ground is an act of friendship; it guides us to look for the positive instead of the negative in those outside the faith.

When Jesus met the woman at the well, he pointed to what they had in common rather than the things he could condemn (John 4). As a result, she not only became friends with God; she also brought her friends and family into the presence of Jesus.

What does this mean?

  • Do you know who you are? This is critical for you to become friends with non-believers. Otherwise, you may overly worry about what others believers think of you, or you may drift into sinful behaviors because you become concerned about what non-believers think about you. Jesus knew who he was and whose he was, and Jesus knew God’s purpose for his life. This allowed him to relax and ignore what others thought or said about him.
  • Love people, not their values. God loves people (John 3:16), but that doesn’t mean he loves the values of the world. The Apostle John warns us not to “love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father” (1 John 2:15 MSG).
  • Building friendships requires:
      • Courtesy: “Always talk pleasantly and with a flavor of wit but be sensitive to the kind of answer each one requires.” (Colossians 4:6 NJB)
      • Frequency: You have to spend time with non-believers in order to become friends with them.
      • Authenticity: “Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it.” (Romans 12:9a MSG)
  • Be friendly with everyone: “Don’t be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people.” (Romans 12:16 CEV)

Jon Walker is managing editor of Rick Warren’s Daily Hope Devotionals and senior editor atPastors.com. He was vice president of communications at Purpose Driven Ministries.
Jon’s new book, In Visible Fellowship: A Contemporary View of Bonhoeffer’s Classic Work “Life Together’’, explains why every believer needs to be involved in a small group and why small groups put flesh on the Body of Christ.

Great Blessings!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Giselle Aguiar
Award-Winning Christian Author

Check out Giselle’s award-winning Christian novel: Deo Volente! (God Willing): Love in the First Century a historical novel about the early church check it out! $1 from the sale of each book – no matter what format, benefits StreetLight Phoenix to help eradicate child sex slavery. www.giselleaguiar.com/novel1
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=singresoguid-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=1449718280&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Follow Giselle on Twitter
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Spread the Word

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Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.~2 Timothy 4:2

You can’t preach the word unless you read the word. When’s the last time you picked up a bible and read more than just a devotional or the lesson from Sunday’s sermon?

Many people own only a King James Version and when they start to read it, they put it down because it’s hard to understand. If that’s the only version you have at home, go online to either www.biblegateway.com or www.crosswalk.com and choose either the NIV – New International Version or the NLT – New Living Translation. Both the sites offer commentaries that explain the verses.

Read a chapter at a time, read it more than once, stop and think of what God’s trying to say to you and how you can apply that passage to your life.

Jesus calls His followers to spread the Good News. That’s not always easy to do and we’re labeled “bible thumpers” and “Jesus Freaks”. I say, let them. Yep, that’s what I am.

The best way to evangelize (spread the Word) is to get to know the person, their story, understand where they’re coming from, become a friend and talk. Other ways are by actions, deeds of kindness, loving your neighbor, stopping to think WWJD? before speaking or acting foolishly or harshly.

You carry Jesus’ light in you. The Holy Spirit gives you love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…(Galatians 5:22-25) and you can call on the Spirit to back you up whenever you need it. You, Christians, are the Light of the World.

Dedicate 2011 to God and read His Word daily so you can help Spread the Good News.

God Bless,
Giselle Aguiar
Soli Deo Gloria
www.giselleaguiar.com/wwjd
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