Farming & Fishing for Men

How did Jesus connect with the lost?

 

He related with people through leisurely conversations and compassionate responses. Jesus looked for “echoes of a Voice” that pointed back to our Eden-design to connect others with His Father’s love through presence, power, and proclamation evangelism (1 Thess. 1:4-5). The NT uses the pictures of farming and fishing to convey this patient process. No pressure. No coercion. We can all patiently farm and fish today. In Colossians 4:2-6, Paul provided his window into how to touch our world of people around us with the life of Jesus. Touch the world with God’s heart in these three ways.

1. The Touch of our Prayer (4:2-4): Devote our lives to prayer because prayer knows no bounds of either time or place. This prayer is warfare prayer and takes intense effort and focus. With “one foot raised” in anticipation, pray relentlessly for God to open doors into hearts and give us words to share. Look for God’s fingerprints on the lives of the lost with tiptoe expectancy since God is here (John 5:17+19).

 

2. The Touch of our Lives (4:5): Although the touch of our prayer reaches the ends of the world in an instant, nothing impacts people more powerfully than our ministry of presence empowered by the Spirit. First, live wisely in all our responses, at work and at play, as we shop and do life. When we stand for Christ, people watch, especially when tough times hit. Second, make the most of our opportunities. These are the same ones for which we prayed in the “touch of prayer.” God has placed us in the exact right place. Think of our normal week. Where do we rub elbows with those who need Christ? Also, keep alert for key transition events like early marriage, pregnancy, raising children, a layoff or marital tensions. God often uses these to open the hearts of the lost.

 

3. The Touch of our Words (4:6): How do we answer those who ask about our faith (“answer everyone”)? First, initiate conversations with others, even strangers (this stretches me!) Second, learn to graciously turn conversations to spiritual connections with winsome words. Third, season our conversations with “salt” so they become thirsty for more spiritual Reality. Put a comma in every relationship, not a full stop.

 

God has given you a unique life-story to share with others. So truthfully tell those around you what has happened in you (develop your three-minute testimony using “Telling My Story” in the Appendix). Depend on the Holy Spirit to touch a sense of need in people, needs like an eagerness for caring relationship, longing for significant purpose, yearning for their intrinsic beauty to be noticed, and crying out for justice (all “echoes of God’s Voice,” God’s image, marred but not destroyed).

This is Reflection #26 in my book, Foundation Stones. I also have a web-site with tools, books and "more than Bible studies" that have helped me to live out of this spiritual DNA, www.JimFredericks.com