Evangelize or Fossilize - Greg Laurie Daily Devotion - January 7, 2015
Evangelize or Fossilize
They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity—all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved. - (Acts 2:46–47)
If you’ve ever gone to Disneyland with only adults, then you know it’s kind of boring. First they’ll complain about how much it costs. Then they’ll complain about how the lines are too long. Then, after one or two rides, they’ll say, “Where can we go to eat?”
On the other hand, when you go to Disneyland with children, they want to go on the fastest or coolest ride. Then they’re ready to go on the next one, and then the next, and then the next. Experiencing it through a child’s eyes makes it more meaningful for you as well.
The same is true when it comes to someone who is new to the faith. When more mature believers take new believers into their lives and see them discover the truths of God for the first time, they rediscover those truths for themselves. A new believer gets excited about the fact that God has forgiven his or her sin, while a mature believer may have taken that for granted. A new believer gets excited about the fact that Christ could return at any moment, while a mature believer maybe has forgotten about the urgency of the Lord’s return. That is why mature believers need younger believers.
The problem with mature believers is they can start to stagnate. As a result, sometimes the best thing for them is to have new believers in their lives who ask them the hard questions.
Show me a church that doesn’t have a constant flow of new believers coming in, and I will show you a church that is stagnating. With the church of the first century, “each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). The church of today has a choice: either we evangelize or we fossilize.
Copyright © 2016 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
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