THE GREATEST!

Psalm 99
1 The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; He sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. 2 Great is the Lord in Zion; He is exalted over all the nations. 3 Let them praise Your great and awesome name--He is holy. 4 The King is mighty, He loves justice--You have established equity; in Jacob You have done what is just and right. 5 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His footstool; He is holy. 6 Moses and Aaron were among His priests, Samuel was among those who called on His name; they called on the Lord and He answered them. 7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud; they kept His statutes and the decrees He gave them. 8 O Lord our God, You answered them; You were to Israel a forgiving God, though You punished their misdeeds. 9 Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.

Who's the greatest, most effective evangelist ever? Billy Graham?
George Whitefield? Paul?

Nope. The best evangelist ever is God Himself.

Okay, half the readers of this article may be thinking, "Trick question!" The other half are dealing with the concept of God as self-evangelist. I'll help the second group.

Check out how Psalm 99:3-4 describes God: He is holy, He loves justice, He established equity, and He has done what is just and right. God uses the truth about Himself in people's lives to change their hearts.

How can they learn about Him? Through our words. Too often, however, our evangelism is about us: our church, our biography, our personality. We evangelize the good news about ourselves more than about God.

We often think an effective speaker or a high-tech multimedia program wins people to Jesus Christ. Those are great tools, and we should strive for excellence in our gospel presentations. We should also recognize, though, that the power resides in the gospel, not in our presentation of it.

We should be thankful that God has done such a great job of demonstrating that His way is better. He is no silent evangelist either. In Psalm 99:6-7, we see that He talked with Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. He speaks to people today, sharing His good news--through the Bible and through His Holy Spirit. If we trust Him to do the "heavy lifting" of evangelism, the process is a lot easier and more effective.

Try this question: Who is the greatest, most effective evangelistic team ever? You and God, of course. Granted, He gets most of the credit for that, but that was always the plan. --John Carvalho

DESTINATION POINTS

* What evangelist do I enjoy listening to the most? Why?
* In what ways do I need to allow God to take the lead in evangelism?
* Lord, I want to spread Your gospel and make disciples wherever I am. I know that I can't do it on my own. You take the lead through Your Word and Your Spirit.

LINKS:
How Can I Break The Silence?
http://www.discoveryseries.org/q0706

bottom line: Evangelism is about God--not us.

soul journey