by Niranjan Fernando

Created on: December 13, 2006   Last Updated: May 16, 2007

Trying to introduce the faith of Christianity with out the grace of God first creating a predisposition within the individual to receive it is similar to hitting one's head against a rock. The more you try to talk or offer your knowledge of the faith to an unbeliever the more you will find your self rejected and even abused to the point that you would find yourself drained in the process.

As I reflect on my experiences of being a source of Christ's love, and also His Good news, the lesson learned is that God has to take the initiative of introducing Himself to the individual or opening his/her eyes to the ultimate truth, which is Christ. You or I can be the sower but in the end it depends on God on how the word would be nourished or in-fact if the individual is equipped with fruitful soil for the seed to grow and bare abundant fruit. Then we come to individuals who have fruitful soil in the heart but they have the rock of fear of change or fear of the unknown blocking the path to the heart.
When dealing with a rock that one needs out of the way, there are two ways of handling it, one method quick but dangerous, is using an explosive, but in that sense you face the danger of destroying the individual as well. For example, you can create so much fear in the individual that he or she would change from an unbeliever to a believer, but the emotional scar might destroy the personality or even end up creating a altered ego or psychopath who believes in destroying or killing in the name of religion.
The second method would be to be a source of Christ's love and peace and as water wares away the rock or at least softens it to the point of it being easy to break it with the minimum of force, in time the individual would be susceptible to the word of God entering within and baring fruit, sometimes sixty fold and sometimes a hundred.
In both cases, it is the wisdom of God that could guide you to use either of the two methods, but since true and active faith essentially becomes the driving force that would also mould the individual, one should be very careful on how to deal with each individual. Being too complacent could make the person being offered the word of God immune to the Good news, and on the other extreme being too enthusiastic to the point of giving the impression that what one's offers as the Good news is more of an illusion to compensate for the illusion of the world could make the individual more obstinate and weary of it.
The truest and most effective method of introducing Christ on a mass scale and to do it without even one's knowledge of having done so, is to live the Gospel and be a source of Christ's love to all we meet. Not only would it bring others to Christ, but in turn we too would be nourished by the eternal presence of the Son of God constantly in our lives. May the Peace of Christ remain with you always!

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