Sharing Your Faith Under Pressure

In my youth I knew an evangelist whose enthusiasm for the good news about Jesus was truly infectious. If you spent time with him, his excitement would rub off on you and you would be inspired to go off and do some crazy things in the name of the gospel. We certainly did some silly things - but they worked. They got people's attention and enabled him to share his message in a meaningful way without downplaying its importance or trivialising what becoming a Christian was about.

His training methods may have been unorthodox at times - but they got us thinking. One evening he produced a box of matches and gave us the scenario. "You have just met someone at a railway station and you don't have very long at all before their train leaves. You might never see them again, and you want to share something important with them. Maybe your testimony or a few scriptures to show them who Jesus is and why they need Him."

Then we found out what the box of matches was for. Our 'short' message would last only as long as the time it took for us to strike a match and hold it for as long as we felt comfortable. Some individuals' fingers got slightly warm that night.

He made his point though. Paul told Timothy to be prepred - in season and out of season. In other words, both when it's convenient and when it's not convenient. If we are prepared, then, we can be more effective when there are other pressures that might distract us from achieving our purpose.