I am currently preaching through the book of Acts in our Sunday AM worship. Last week I preached on 3:19-21 that says:
19 Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, 20that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, 21 whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
WOW! As I was preparing it hit me that probably the reason that most Christians, including myself, do not experience “times of refreshing” in their spiritual lives is because of their lack of repentance.
I have been a Christian for 17 years and I am just now learning about what true repentance is…
MM
Means, i love the title of your blog "restoring worship". repentance is one of the greatest ways that God restores our worship of him. if only we did it more often...
ReplyDeleteI have had to counsel too many so called Christians who have not felt the need of repentance.
ReplyDeleteOne of strong suits of teaching through Acts is to see how evangelism has to take on many forms, depending on the audience of the people that you are talking to.
Carol Ruvolo has written an excellent Bible study on the book of acts which emphasizes Repentance and Evangelism called "His Witnesses to the World." It was meant for a women's study, but is easily adaptable.
Matthew, et al:
ReplyDeleteCovenant PCA is going through a time of transition. With a new pastor in his second year in the pulpit there can be a little sifting out.
But one thing about Tom Myers is that he is a Pastor-evangelist while the prior pastor was a pastor teacher. One thing this means is that Tom is quite outgoing and will easily walk up to someone and will ask how he can pray for them.
We see the need for 2009 to be a year of prayer, evangelism and finding out what the member's spiritual gifts are and Tom's enthusiasm for walking up to people and praying with and for them is rubbing off. Therefore, we are going to use Campus Crusade's Prayer on the Porch to go door to door, asking people if they have need and if we could pray for them.
http://www.campuscrusade.com/prayerontheporch/
I am not enthused about Campus Crusade literature, so we are passing out a brochure on Covenant along with information on our DVBS and the Roman Road.
http://www.fishthe.net/digitracts/roman.htm
We are getting good response from the church members.
If your church is not showing much interest about going door to door, the following link might be helpful
http://www.plymouthbrethren.org/article/410
While the preached word is the best form of evangelism, there are times when it is necessary to proclaim the gospel where you are.
One member of our church brought his father-in-law to repentance when he was dying.
Here is a Reformed version of The Bridge
http://www.cocharlotte.org/upload/resources/bridgediagram_3_2.pdf
Here is one with better artwork, but does not lead to repentance. http://www.navigators.org/us/resources/illustrations/items/One%20Verse%20Evangelism