Don’t Block the Doorway to God

“We should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.”

– Acts 15:19

You might find this hard to believe, but up until the early 1800s, most Christian leaders in Europe believed that missionary work was a waste of time. That was before God raised up a young shoemaker named William Carey, who grew up in an obscure, rural town in England. From a young age, William Carey felt a burden for sharing the gospel with people in other countries who had never heard the name of Jesus. One day he took some shoe leather and thread and made a crude little globe. He would often hold that globe in his hands and pray and weep over it. It broke his heart to think of millions of people around the world going to Hell without anyone ever having shared the gospel with them.

Carey attended a minister’s meeting one day, and he stood up and urged the church leaders to prioritize missions. But one of the older pastors shouted him down, saying, “Young man, sit down! When God pleases to convert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine.” Sadly, William Carey heard comments like these all the time. It was discouraging, but he pressed on. Not long afterward he preached a sermon which included the now-famous words: “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”

Within a year of first speaking those words, William Carey moved with his family to India, where they spent the next 40 years bringing about 700 people to a saving knowledge of Christ. His inspiring example sparked the modern missions movement. Over the past 200 years, millions of Christians around the world have been inspired to do what William Carey challenged us to do. Despite the opposition, despite the criticism and despite the naysayers, they decided to “Expect great things from God [and] attempt great things for God.” 

These words could have been the motto of the Christian Church in Antioch—the first church to share the gospel with Greeks who didn’t have a drop of Jewish blood in their veins. Thousands were being saved, and everything was going so well … until we get to Acts 15:1: “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’” We’re not given the names of these men, but verse 5 makes it clear that they were “believers” in Christ. They were saved. They were Christians. They were just very misguided Christians—the kind who could do more damage to the church from the inside than unbelievers could ever do from the outside.

When it came to following Christ, the new Christians in Antioch had been ALL IN. Then, suddenly, some brothers came along and told them: “You aren’t really saved. Believing in Jesus as Lord and Savior isn’t enough. Repenting of your sins and getting baptized isn’t enough. Walking in obedience to Christ’s commands isn’t enough. Unless your men undergo a circumcision surgery and you all start obeying all of the Old Testament laws, you’re all going to Hell.” Now the new Greek Christians were utterly confused in their new faith. Centuries later, Warren Wiersbe shared this great insight: “The progress of the gospel has often been hindered by people with closed minds who stand in front of open doors and block the way for others.” We pray for open doors. But just because God opens a door, it doesn’t mean that someone won’t block the doorway.

So, the church acted quickly. They sent Christian leaders, including Paul and Barnabas, to Jerusalem so that the apostles and church elders could render a final verdict. Once they were assembled together, Peter, Paul and Barnabas all made the case for rejecting the notion of circumcision and law-keeping being necessary for salvation. Then James made this great point in verse 19: “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.” The Jews themselves had not been able to follow the Old Testament laws to the letter—why should they expect it of the new Greek believers?

Jesus said in Matthew 11:30, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” But so often Christians have made Jesus’ yoke out to be hard and his burden to be heavy. Many Christians, unknowingly, make the same mistake as the circumcision preachers in Acts 15. While trying to promote righteousness in the church, we heap burdens on new believers that do more harm than good.

Many of us hold strong opinions about matters of our faith and worship. We may hold strong beliefs about speaking in tongues, about free will, about end times prophecies, and about how a worship service should look on a Sunday morning—what kind of songs should be sung, how long the sermon should be, whether or not communion should be taken every week. These opinions can all be fine and good. But we have to be very careful about taking our personal convictions about areas that are not essential to salvation and requiring new believers to believe the same way. Because when we do that, we can muddy the simple message of grace in Christ. May we always pray for open doors of ministry and keep ourselves and others from blocking the doorway once God opens it.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Join us for our Grand Opening at 10 am Sunday, October 6^th at the new Ralph Baker School in Victorville. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

How to Live Up to the Name “Christian”

“The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.”

– Acts 11:26

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is in 1 Samuel 17: the story of David and Goliath.

You know the basic details of the story. The Philistines were the archenemies of the Israelites, and their greatest warrior, Goliath, stood over nine feet tall. He was one tough hombre.

As the Philistine and Israelite armies met on the battlefield, Goliath offered the Israelites a proposal: “Instead of our armies killing each other, just choose one Israelite warrior to fight me one-on-one. If he kills me, we will become your slaves, but if I kill him, you all will become our slaves. What do you say?” Well, all of the Israelite soldiers said in unison, “No way, Jose! I’m not fighting that guy. He’s huge! He’ll squash me like a bug.” No Israelite soldier had the guts–or the faith—to face Goliath … except for a wet-behind-the ears teenager named David. David alone stepped up and accepted the challenge to fight Goliath.

David had guts. David had great faith in God. But something else I love about David is that he thought outside the box. Every Israelite soldier thought the only way to fight Goliath was in hand-to-hand combat. And they knew they were no match for Goliath. But David refused to think the way every soldier in that army thought. When fighting Goliath, he wouldn’t need a sword. He wouldn’t need a spear. He wouldn’t even need armor, because he wasn’t going to use them. With God’s help, all he needed was his trusty old sling and a smooth stone. Who says he had to have a sword fight with Goliath? He would just stand back—out of arm’s reach--and chuck a rock at his forehead. And afterwards, if he needed a sword, he would just borrow Goliath’s, since he wouldn’t be needing it anymore.

You know who won that battle. And just as David walked in faith and thought outside the box, so did Christ’s followers in the city of Antioch (see Acts 11:19-30). With a population of half a million people, the city of Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman Empire. It had a very diverse population and a booming economy. But sadly, its citizens had a penchant for drinking, gambling and playing cat and mouse with temple prostitutes outside the city. 

Antioch was the Roman Empire’s “Sin City.” Yet it was there, in that Roman Sin City, that Jesus’ followers initiated the Church’s mission to take the gospel of Jesus Christ beyond Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, to every group of people on earth. And it was there in that Roman Sin City that Jesus’ followers were first called “Christians.” Now, Christ’s followers in Antioch didn’t receive this glorious nickname overnight. There were three distinct, out-of-the-box steps that the believers in Antioch took on the road to being called “Christians.”

Step 1: They reached out to share the message of salvation (vs19-21). In the months and years leading up to the founding of the Antioch Church, churches only shared the Gospel with people of Jewish descent. But, in God’s view, that just wasn’t going to cut it. Why? Because when Jesus told his followers that they would be his witnesses in the uttermost parts of the earth, he didn’t mean they would be his witnesses only to the Jews. He meant they would be his witnesses to everyone. The Antioch Church reached out to witness to the “Greeks” who knew next to nothing about God, Jesus, or biblical morality. And the results of their bold outreach are plain to see in verse 21: “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”

Step 2: They reached out to encourage new believers (vs22-24). The Antioch Church was very good at out-of-the-box witnessing. But that by itself wasn’t going to make them into a great church. Next they needed to reach out to encourage. And Barnabas—whose nickname means “son of encouragement”—was just the man for the job! In verse 23 we read that when Barnabas arrived at the Antioch Church, he “encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.” Don’t forget: It’s one thing to see lots of people come to the Lord once. It’s quite another for large numbers of people to continue coming to the Lord day after day, week after week, month after month. I believe that without Barnabas’ encouragement and faith, the out-of-the-box evangelistic impact would not have lasted very long.

Step 3: They reached out to teach new believers (vs25-26). Barnabas realized that as well as the church in Antioch was doing, it needed more than he alone could offer. In order to take the church to the next level, Barnabas humbly set out for Tarsus to find Saul, the murderer turned evangelist. That was a trip of some 100 miles. He convinced Saul to come back with him to Antioch, and together, Barnabas and Saul taught “large numbers of people.” It wasn’t once-a-week teaching. It wasn’t light teaching. It was out-of-the-box discipleship which included solid, meaty, daily teaching. And as a result, “great numbers of people” were taught the word of God. And then and only then do we read: “The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”

Like Christ’s followers in Antioch, Jesus calls us to reach out to share the Good News with those who are far from Christ, to lovingly encourage young Christians, and to teach God’s word to all who will listen. We are “Christians.” And these are things that Christians do.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of Impact Christian Church. Join us for our Grand Opening at 10 am Sunday, October 6^th at the new Ralph Baker School in Victorville. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

Well Done, Good and Faithful Servant

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” – Acts 2:42 & 47

There are certain things that people say to me every once in a while that make me light up on the inside: for instance, when one of my daughters says “I love you, Daddy!” Or when someone I admire says, “Dane, I really respect you.” Those words touch me deeply. But when it comes down to it, I live for six words: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Those words, spoken by Jesus at the end of my life, are the six greatest words my ears could ever hear. But how can you and I hope to hear them? This question has been on my mind lately as our church prepares to re-launch as Impact Christian Church the first week in October. And for answers, I’ve been turning to an inspiring example: the original Christian church in Jerusalem.

In Acts 2:42, we read about four of the Jerusalem church’s five top priorities: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” In a nutshell, that breaks down to: 1) studying scripture; 2) caring for and sharing with each other, or fellowship; 3) worship, including communion; and 4) prayer. A fifth priority is implied in verses 41 and 47. In verse 41, we’re told that 3,000 were added to their number in one day. And verse 47 says, “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” This reveals priority number 5: Witnessing to nonChristians.

These were the Top 5 priorities of the first church in Jerusalem, and I believe they are the top priorities for any church that aspires to impact a community for Jesus Christ. These five purposes can be summed up in three little words, which we’ve adopted as our church’s mission statement: Love. Learn. Serve.

God has called us to LOVE Him and love people. God has called us to LEARN His word and hide it in our hearts. And God has called us to SERVE Him and others. As we put those words into action at Impact Christian Church, here’s what it will look like.

Love. Most people who visit a church for the first time will visit on a Sunday morning. That’s our point of entry for people beginning their Christian walk. So the main purpose of a Sunday morning service can be summarized in that single word: Love. Sunday morning is about loving God and loving people. Every week as visitors come in, we must introduce them to the Savior who loves them, and we must give them an opportunity to accept him and begin loving him in return. For those of us who are already saved, Sunday mornings are about expressing our love to God through the worship service, as well as loving everyone who walks through the door—Christian and nonChristian alike.

Learn. The process of spiritual growth requires more than just love on Sunday mornings. It requires additional learning: learning God’s word better, learning how to be accountable to other Christians and learning how to care for others in their times of need. And this learning can best be done in a small group. So, it’s important for a church to build a small group ministry: groups of around eight to 12 people who study God’s word together each week. In the process, they will learn more about shouldering each others’ needs and ministering to other believers.

Serve. To take our spiritual growth to the next level, every Christian needs to be serving in an important ministry on a weekly basis. Examples include volunteering in the nursery, serving communion, visiting shut-ins, helping out at a food pantry, even participating in community clean-ups. Volunteer opportunities such as these are about serving. Christians can take part in a ministry area they enjoy and make a positive impact on others. And as you serve, you will grow.

At Impact Christian Church, this will be our clear path to spiritual growth. And I guarantee you this: If you follow this path, you will grow in your faith; you will develop deeper, more meaningful relationships with other Christians; and you will be used by God to serve in some very impactful ways. Best and most important of all, you will be well on your way to hearing those six words I so want Jesus to say to you one day: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of Impact Christian Church (formerly First Christian Church of Victorville). Join us for our Grand Opening at 10 am Sunday, October 6^th at the new Ralph Baker School in Victorville. For more information, visit www.GreaterImpact.cc.

4 Steps to Changing a Life

““When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” – Luke 10:8-9

In 1850, a gardener named John Gray moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. John was unable to find work as a gardener, so he took a job as a night watchman. To keep him company through the long winter nights, John found a watchdog: a little Skye Terrier named “Bobby.” Together John and Bobby became a familiar sight trudging through the old cobbled streets of Edinburgh. Through thick and thin, winter and summer, they were faithful friends … until John died of tuberculosis two years later.

John was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, and in the days afterward, Bobby touched the hearts of the local residents when he refused to leave his master’s grave. Every morning Bobby could be found at John’s graveside, even in the worst weather conditions. Before long, Bobby’s fame spread throughout Edinburgh. Crowds would gather at the entrance of the Kirkyard waiting for the one o’clock gun that signaled Bobby’s appearance as he left the grave for his midday meal. Bobby would follow a local cabinet maker to the same coffee house where his master used to eat, and each day at the coffee house, Bobby was given a meal.

The kind residents of Edinburgh took good care of Bobby, but still he remained loyal to his master. For fourteen years the dead man’s faithful dog kept constant watch over his grave until his own death in 1872. Bobby has a headstone at Greyfriars Kirkyard that reads: “Greyfriars Bobby. Died 14th January 1872. Aged 16 years. Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all.”

In Luke 10, we’re given a close-up look at the loyalty and devotion of 72 of Jesus’ followers. The Lord hand-picked these men to go ahead of him into the towns of Judea to prepare the way for his coming. And in verses 5-9, he gave those faithful messengers—and you and me today—a four-step model for leading people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Step 1: Pray and speak kindness and peace into people’s lives.

In verse 5, Jesus tells the 72: “When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this home.’” The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom,” and over the centuries it became the common greeting among Jews. As Chuck Swindoll explains, “The meaning [of shalom] goes deeper than just the absence of war, battles, or arguments. It carries the idea of wholeness and prosperity in every aspect of life…. The term shalom described the quality of life promised in the kingdom of God.” So, how does that translate into our culture today? Well, for you and me, Step #1 of effective witnessing means that we pray for the person we are hoping to share Christ with and that we speak kind and edifying words into their lives.

Step 2: Build meaningful relationships with others. Jesus told his messengers, “Stay in that house, eating and drinking whatever they give you … Do not move around from house to house” (verse 7). Sitting down to a meal together was a sign of friendship and acceptance in Jesus’ day. So, is it a good idea to spend time getting to know someone before we tell him about his need for Jesus? Yes, it is. If you’re like most followers of Christ, the longer you’re a Christian, the fewer meaningful relationships you have with nonChristians. So, it takes some effort to shoot a text to a co-worker, and say, “Hey, would you like to grab lunch today?” It takes a little effort to reach out to your next-door neighbor and say, “Hey, would you and your family like to come over to my house for dinner on Sunday night?”

It takes some effort, but Christians who follow Jesus’ command to build relationships with nonChristians will be blessed with more opportunities to lead people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Step 3: Meet felt needs. When Jesus told his 72 messengers in verse 9 to heal the sick, I’m convinced that he was saying, “Before you address the person’s greatest spiritual need, first address the person’s felt need.” A drowning woman isn’t ready to hear how Jesus saves until someone throws her a life preserver. A starving man isn’t ready to hear the message of salvation until his belly is full. In the same way, if you and I are able to meet a physical need for someone we hope to lead to Christ, we should meet that need. As a wise man once said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Step 4: Tell them about Jesus. Finally, Jesus said, “After you heal the sick who are there, tell them: ‘The kingdom of God is near you’” (verse 9). In other words, “Jesus is coming. And since Jesus is coming, salvation is coming. So, you’d better decide today who you’re going to follow and serve. Are you going to follow Jesus, or are you going to follow someone or something else? I hope and pray that you choose to follow and serve Jesus.”

Sharing our faith and doing good ministry can bring us great joy. But nothing compares to the joy of knowing Christ personally as Lord and Savior. He is our greatest joy. So, why do we share him with others? We do so, in part, so that they too can experience life’s greatest joy.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church of Victorville and the author of "Holy Huldah! Lessons You'll Never Forget From Bible Characters You Never Heard Of." Visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com, and join us for our Worship Celebration Sundays at 10 a.m.

Be a Faithful Messenger

“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” – Matthew 28:19

Recently I came across a true story that appeared in Our Daily Bread devotional. One morning an outdoorsman had some work to do in the woods. As always, he took his trusty dog with him. But on this particular day, because of the danger of his work, he left his dog in a clearing. The man placed his lunch bucket on a tree stump and ordered his dog to sit next to the stump and guard his lunch until he returned from work. The dog understood his orders and faithfully guarded his master's lunch bucket...even after a forest fire erupted later that morning and crept closer and closer to the clearing. 

Later that evening after the fire was contained, the man quickly returned to the clearing where he discovered his melted lunch bucket right where he had left it. And next to the bucket was his trusty canine, who had been consumed by the flames. In perfect obedience, he stayed right where his master had left him and did what his master had told him to do. With tears in his eyes, the dog’s owner said, “I always had to be careful what I told him to do, because I knew he would do it.” Do you suppose that Jesus ever says the same thing about you or me?

Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave his apostles marching orders. And he gives his Church—you and me—the same marching orders today. We find them in Matthew 28:19-20: “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.” Jesus commands us to go out and lead people to a saving knowledge of him and teach them to obey Christ’s commands.

Well, that’s great and all, but how do we do it? What should we expect to happen as we go? How will we know if we’re saying the right thing? What if we try to share the good news with people but they don’t want to hear it? When it comes to carrying out Jesus’ marching orders, we have 100 questions, don’t we? But Jesus answers the most important of these questions in Luke 10 as he sends out 72 of his followers to shard his message of salvation.

Insight #1: This is the game of our lives, but our team is too small. So, we need to pray for our Coach to put more players on the field. With 7.7 billion people living on our planet today, the scope of Jesus' marching orders is mind-boggling. He didn’t just say, “Go into your neighborhood and make disciples of everyone on your street.” He said, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Bottom line: We need some help! We need more messengers for Jesus. 

Insight #2: The stakes are too high for any of us to sit in the bleachers. Jesus is telling you to get onto the field. It’s been 2,000 years since Jesus gave us our marching orders. That should have been plenty of time to complete our task—to go into all the world and make Jesus followers of all people groups on earth. So, why isn’t the job completed? Well, part of the reason it’s not completed is because you and I haven’t completed reaching our part of the world. The world isn’t fully reached, in part, because we haven’t fully reached Victorville. We haven’t fully reached Adelanto or Apple Valley. Shoot! You haven’t fully reached your own neighborhood yet. And neither have I. Chuck Swindoll says it well: “It is laborers, not spectators, who pray for more laborers! Too many Christians are praying for somebody else to do a job they are unwilling to do themselves.”

Insight #3: The competition is as fierce as wolves. If it wasn’t scary enough for Jesus to say, “Go! I am sending you!” he raised our anxiety even more by saying in verse 3: “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." Jesus was warning his 72 messengers then and he is warning you and me today that there will be no shortage of human and demonic attacks as we carry out his marching orders. When we go into all the world and share the life-saving message of Jesus Christ, some people get really, really nasty. Don’t say that Jesus didn’t warn you! 

Insight #4: The travel amenities aren’t great. This summer our church's Children’s Director (Christie) and I will be taking fourteen of our teens to Colorado Springs for a one-week mission trip. If all goes as planned, we’ll be helping to renovate some transitional housing units so that some homeless families can get off the streets. I hope and pray that this will be a life-changing mission trip for all of us AND for the families that we serve. But do you know what? The accommodations won’t be great. We’ll be sleeping on air mattresses on the floor, showering in trailers, and the food won't be great. But, ultimately, who cares? The mission is much more important than the menu. Right?

Insight #5: The time is short. Regardless of your age, your days are numbered. Your days in your current neighborhood are numbered. Your days in your workplace are numbered. Your days in your church are numbered. So, please don’t squander the time and opportunities that you’ve been given. 

Your Lord and Savior has asked you to go and do his work and prepare people for his coming. So, get out there and do it! If a faithful dog could sacrifice his life obeying his master’s orders to watch his lunch box, certainly you and I should be able to sacrifice a few comforts while obeying our Master’s orders to seek and save the lost.

Dane Davis is the Lead Pastor of First Christian Church of Victorville and the author of "Holy Huldah! Lessons You'll Never Forget From Bible Characters You Never Heard Of." Visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com, and join us for our Worship Celebration Sundays at 10 a.m.

Our Words Matter

"Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversations be always full of grace … so that you may know how to answer everyone.”

 – Colossians 4:5-6

About 10 years ago, I was officiating a funeral for an older widow who had attended my church for many years. (To protect the innocent, I’ll call her Martha.) There I was at the mortuary, standing 12 feet or so from her casket as I spoke at the service. I wasn’t sure I was really connecting with her grieving family, so I thought I would share something about Martha that demonstrated that I had known her personally. So I said, “One thing that stands out to me about Martha is how she used to always wear white gloves to church during the winter. I appreciated that because, like her, my hands get cold during the winter. In fact, my hands have two settings: They’re either hot and clammy or cadaver cold.”

And then it hit me. I had just used the word “cadaver” in a funeral message while standing just a few feet from the poor lady’s casket. For some reason Martha’s family never contacted me again after that service.

Do words matter? Absolutely, words matter. A judge says a few words, and a defendant’s life is either spared or condemned. A doctor says a few words, and a patient will either throw a party or start finalizing her will. And as followers of Jesus Christ, our words can either lead to many unbelievers turning to Christ—or many unbelievers running as fast as they can in the opposite direction. Words matter. As Paul writes to the Colossians, he gives his Christian readers some powerful insights about how we should use our words for good.

1) We should be praying. Too many of us pray only at certain times: for 15 seconds before a meal, for 30 seconds before bed, or in a church service. But God’s word says, “Devote yourselves to prayer.” As followers of Jesus we should be in constant fellowship with God so that we maintain an open line of communication and talk with Him naturally throughout the day. Our prayers should also be thankful. When we focus our minds and tongues on praising God for who He is and thanking Him for what He’s done, it gets our prayers moving in the right direction. And our praying must be purposeful.  In verses 3-4, Paul asks his readers to pray for him and his ministry team so that God will “open a door for our message, so that we may [clearly] proclaim the mystery of Christ.” And that leads us to the second thing that our words should be doing every day….
 

2) We should be proclaiming God’s Word. Paul wrote most of his letters from a prison cell. Now, if you or I were in prison, our instinctive prayer would probably be, “Please, God, GET ME OUTTA HERE!” But Paul didn’t submit that prayer request, did he? He simply wants the Colossian Christians to pray that he and his companions will be able to proclaim God’s word clearly and effectively—even though that was what put him in prison in the first place. Whenever Paul was arrested or beaten or imprisoned, it was either because people didn’t like the plain truth he shared about Jesus, or it was because far too many people were accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, and that ticked a lot of people off. Which leads us to Paul’s third point…

3) We should be witnessing to the lost. Every day Paul tried to make the most of every opportunity to point people to Christ with his words and with his actions. As followers of Jesus Christ, we live in a culture that has become downright hostile to biblical Christianity. Every day there are people around us who are just waiting for us to screw up. We’re accused of being hypocrites, narrow-minded, judgmental, hateful, intolerant and homophobic. Now, I’ve been around thousands of Christians in my lifetime, and in my experience, Christians who truly love the Lord and are hiding His word in their hearts and are following Him faithfully are NOT these things. But it’s an uphill battle to prove this to many who Paul calls “outsiders.” He advises us: “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversations be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone (vs. 5-6).”

We need to be wise in the way we act and in the way that we speak. When we do, guess what happens. People who desperately need to hear the truth about their sin and Jesus’ salvation begin to listen to the truth that we speak. And many who begin as “outsiders” end up repenting of their sin, getting saved and becoming Christ-following “insiders.” That’s exactly what the Lord has called us to do.

Dane Davis is the Pastor of First Christian Church in Victorville. For more information, visit www.YourVictorvilleChurch.com  and join us for worship Sundays at 10 am.