Yesterday, I read something I found convicting in my study on our responsibility in evangelism. Consider the words of R.B. Kuiper, in his book, God-Centered Evangelism:
1. One must have a clear understanding of the gospel for the simple reason that vagueness and confusion can neither convey truth nor command respect.
2. He must have a strong conviction as to the truth of the gospel so that he can say: ‘I believe, and therefore have I spoken’ (2 Cor. 4:13) and ‘I have delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third according to the scriptures’ (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
3. He must have a lively sense of the supreme importance of the gospel, one’s attitude to it being a matter of life or death, even eternal life or eternal death.
4. He must himself have experienced the saving power of the gospel so that he can testify: ‘I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day’ (2 Tim. 1:12).
5. He must have a passion for lost souls which compels him to beseech them as though God were beseeching and to pray them in Christ’s stead: ‘Be ye reconciled to God’ (2 Cor. 5:20).
6. He must have an overwhelming love for the Saviour, who first loved him, and therefore exclaim:
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.Himself being a sinner saved by grace, he ought to proclaim the love of God more eloquently than can the angels. Such communication of the evangel God is wont to bless and to use.
—R.B. Kuiper
God-Centered Evangelism, 217-18
Via: Timmy Brister