Salty seasonings :-)

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach The Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage- with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry." (2 Timothy 4:1-5)

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven." (Matthew 5:13-16)

      I feel like (or at least hope) this is one area that I have really seen The Lord build up in me. It's kind of a funny phenomenon. When we first come to faith in Jesus as Savior, we come in with a lot of excitement and are fired up to tell everyone we can about our experience and our newfound relationship with the God of the universe. And while this passion lasts for a while, it seems like it dies down over time. Soon we settle into the grooves of the "normal" Christian life (which is probably more like what we settle for as the "normal" Christian life) and somehow we suddenly become sedentary in sharing our Savior with sinners just as we once were at a time. (The only difference now is that we are forgiven sinners.)
      This slide is certainly a common one for many longtime Christians for sure. We can never settle for the status quo though. We can't just shrug, sit back and hope for the best for everyone else out there. Jesus Himself gave us a clear command to be His witness to everyone in The Great Commission. (Matthew 28:18-20). There is no getting around that. That is the primary reason God leaves us here to live our lives after receiving Christ as Savior rather than immediately lifting us up to Heaven on the spot. Therefore, if we are not seeking to share Christ and taking advantage of the numerous opportunities God gives us in which to do so, then we are sinning against God.
      As I was saying earlier, I feel like this is an area that God has helped me improve on over the years. I remember when I was in middle school or so I used to struggle a good bit with witnessing. I knew it was the right thing to do and it's what I wanted to do- but it seemed hard sometimes to find the right way to go about it and to have the right words to say and all like that. (There are always excuses to be found of course. We seem to find what are to ourselves perfectly valid reasons for ignoring and excusing ourselves from all of God's commands at any given time that we deem it convenient for us.)
      So I always would feel that I never was doing quite enough for witnessing for Christ- that I should be doing more. In retrospect, I think I would say that was The Holy Spirit's conviction, guiding me toward more and more obedience to God's Word. (He's still doing that in every area of course, whether we realize it or not.) And I do remember specific times of trying to encourage friends toward Jesus and sharing what The Bible teaches, especially around my junior and senior year of high school.
       I think it's continued to grow throughout college and graduate school and embarking into the whole pseudo-adult real-life take responsibility type professional job type thing... (It's still a very murky and sometimes scary world- lol. As long as it takes the faith of a child to enter the kingdom of Heaven [Matthew 18:3], I figure I'll keep my mental capacities about on that level too.)
And I don't write all this to brag by any means. I still have so far to go, but Jesus is getting me there in His time. (Philippians 1:6) Don't take this to mean that I'm anything- but Jesus is everything. Keep following Him closely- and I trust I could say as Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ."
       So here we come to the crux of the matter. We know that Jesus has told us to preach The Gospel as we go into all the world. Now keep in mind that God uses many different methods to accomplish this and they are all valid. I don't mean to knock any particular method- if people are brought to faith in Jesus by them, then I just say, "Praise God!"
        I am going to just try to briefly outline some things I think have worked well for me. First of all, and this is true for every Christian, we must move according to The Spirit's leading. As Psalms 127:1 says, unless The Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. The good thing with this particular activity is that you never have to question whether this is God's will. It's definitely God's will for none to perish and all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) However, while we know we have that imperative to witness, we also need to be sensitive to the leading of The Holy Spirit to know when and how to broach the topic and at what point we are no longer really witnessing per se, but more like badgering the witness, if you will. ;-) For a really good example of this, check Acts 13:1-5. The Holy Spirit singled out Paul and Barnabas and directed them to go to different areas to preach The Gospel.
(Now keep in mind that way back in Acts 9 Paul had already been out speaking in the Name of The Lord and sharing the Truth that Jesus is the only Way to Heaven- that He is The Life and we can only have real life through a relationship with Him. He died on the cross to pay for all our sins and rose again to give us salvation when we put our faith and trust in Him and follow Him. So Paul jumped right into witnessing right where he was when he got saved.) But then Paul got a specific mandate from The Holy Spirit to go elsewhere with Barnabas and so he did- and they continued preaching The Gospel in other areas.
       This kind of gets to the second point. Coming from a MK (missionary's kid) background, I am definitely a big believer in the importance of missions, particularly foreign missions. And that's just the thing- people get the idea that "missions" must involve going to a foreign country and sharing Jesus there through Vacation Bible School programs, street evangelism, big tent revivals, etc. And that certainly is part of it and an important part of it. I definitely encourage that by all means. However, don't think that that's all there is to it or that that's the only venue for it. You must be a missionary right where you are right now. I've heard it said before that if you're not being a missionary right now right where you are- you won't be a missionary when you go to some different land. If you're not already sharing Christ with people around you now, why would you think you will magically start sharing Christ with others in a different country that may not even speak the same language? So here's the thing- yes, we need people desperately to go to different countries and share Jesus there. But we also desperately need people to share Jesus with others right now where they are as well. As Acts 17:26-27 tell us, "From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us."
        God had an important purpose in placing each one of us in the exact time and place that we are living and He is using us for His glory right now where we are- assuming we are letting Him do so. Keep in mind that you may be uniquely suited because of your life experiences and cultural understanding to reach some specific people in your vicinity that others may never be able to reach for Christ. (Though, yes, certainly God can use anyone He chooses to reach anyone.) But at the same time, I do believe He uniquely fashions us to reach certain people as He chooses- all the more reason to seek The Holy Spirit's leading.
        So the third point is pretty much encapsulated in those first few verses I posted at the start of this thing. "Preach The Gospel always- if necessary, use words." (as St. Francis of Assisi said.)
I believe he was meaning that the way we live our lives should loudly proclaim The Gospel just as much as our voices do with the things we say. And of course this is a great point. However, I do believe words are necessary at some points in order to explain to someone the reason for The Hope that we have. (1 Peter 3:15) And here is one key thing that addresses the concerns about knowing the right thing to say- just speak The Truth. Jesus said God's Word is Truth. So speak that- speak The Bible as much as you can. Remember what Isaiah 55:11 says- God's Word never returns to Him void but it accomplishes the purpose for which He sent it out. God always has a purpose in sending out His Word and He can and does use it to reach people with The Truth. Remember also that all Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, correcting and rebuking and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). So it's all important and all there for a reason. As I've said many times before, if God so desired, He could even use all those genealogies in 1 Chronicles and other places to bring people to Christ. From our perspective, we might find those passages boring and we might even be unsure of their purpose. But they are there for historical records and they do communicate at least one huge important characteristic of God- God cares about people! He loves people! He loves them so much that He found it important to list every single person there by name! God knows us all by name and loves us all so much. He showed that love for us by sending Jesus to die on the cross to pay for all of us, both collectively and individually. (i.e. Even if it was just you, God would still have gone through with it. :-)) And because Jesus lives again, so can we. (Romans 5:8)
         Anyway, one of my main approaches then is to just speak and share about The Bible and Jesus wherever I can. Sometimes I hear people already talking about a passage in The Bible or something related to Christianity in general and I chime in where appropriate to share what I know God says on the matter in Scriptures. Sometimes it's nothing more than that. And that in itself is still a good witness for Christ as it is spreading the Truth of God's Word and showing people that it is important and relevant for our lives today. Sometimes I can share a testimony with people about how I rely on Jesus to get me through each day (each work day particularly :-)) and I can tell them that God's mercies are new every morning; great is His faithfulness! Praise The Lord! (Lamentations 3:21-27).
And sometimes I can share with someone my personal testimony of how I came to put my faith in Jesus as a child and how I've continued to walk with Him and seek after Him and how I've continued to see His faithfulness as I've followed Him down this narrow straight road. And yes, God can also use nonverbal methods as well- a smile to someone feeling down; a kind hand to lift someone up when they literally are down and a compassionate arm holding the door open for someone. All these small acts of kindness and compassion are ways that can point people back to The One who is totally kind and compassionate all the time- to The One who is the source of all kindness and compassion. And the other big nonverbal witness is in the way we react to events. The way we keep our cool and do everything without complaining or arguing. (Philippians 2:14) The way we stay humble and think of others as better than ourselves. (Philippians 2:1-11). The way we work wholeheartedly as to The Lord and not to men. (Colossians 3:23) The way that we bear injustices done to us and remain faithful to do what's right anyway. (1 Peter 3:17) The way that we always speak kindly to one another with an encouraging word to build each other up and never to tear anyone down. (Ephesians 4:29). The way that we are always ready to forgive each other. (Ephesians 4:32)
Basically- the fruit of The Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23). These and more are extremely important witnesses as well- these must be coupled with all our verbal witness. Either one falls apart without the other. It's important for us to bear fruit and show ourselves to be Christ's disciples by our lives (John 15:8) And it's also important for us to let people know that the only good in us is from Jesus Himself and not from ourselves. (Romans 3:21-24).
        And of course, it cannot be emphasized enough that we must constantly be in prayer. We must pray and ask and trust God to work. God takes our obedience and runs with it and does wonderful things. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 simply says, "Pray continually". Prayer helps immensely in the very real spiritual battle that rages on for the souls of people. (Daniel 10 gives us a powerful illustration of this truth.) For another good example of the power of prayer, note Acts 4:23-31 and see the result of the believers' prayers. They prayed that God would enable them to speak His Word with boldness despite the threats made upon them. Verse 31 says, "After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were filled with The Holy Spirit and spoke the Word of God boldly." And throughout the book of Acts, we see the early church continuing to stay faithful to Christ and seeking Him in prayer- and seeing God answer by bringing many to salvation. (Note also again that the believers were filled with The Holy Spirit- and this came after prayer. Of course, I do believe that we get all of The Holy Spirit that we're going to get when we get saved- but the question is, "Does The Holy Spirit have all of us?" We must continue to give ourselves over to Him in prayer each day.)
       One more thing I want to emphasize and I think this is one of the most key things out of everything. In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus told us that the Greatest Commandment is to "Love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." And then He said the second is like it- "Love your neighbor as yourself." I try to keep these two commands that Jesus specified foremost in my mind. I always want to be doing these two things above all else. Of course, in keeping God above all- and then others before myself, I find myself keeping all the other commands too. And I also try to remember Ephesians 4:15, which instructs us to be "speaking The Truth in Love". I think this is extremely key. As 1 Corinthians 13:1 tells us, "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." And if that's the case, then I should heed the sounding of the gong and get off the stage, just like on The Gong Show! Spouting off The Law and the teachings of The Bible to people without genuine Love in our hearts really doesn't do much for people. In many cases, it actually becomes more harmful than helpful. We share The Truth of The Bible with people out of respect and love for Jesus, in obedience to His commands and hopefully- out of genuine love and concern for people. If any of those reasons are not really in place- and particularly that last one- then people quickly see through it and us and become turned off to us and to Christianity in general. Remember that people are not prizes or projects- they are people. They are people loved immensely and infinitely by God and we are called to love them too. Love must always be our motivating factor and grace must always temper all we do. I know I have been guilty of lacking in that department of love and grace and it's something I've had to repent of and ask God to fill me with and help me in showing this to others. I trust He's still working to help me get better with that.
           I know there are many other things that could be addressed on this topic, but these are the key things I wanted to focus on with this. Share all that you can anywhere that you can with everyone you can and trust God to use it and work as He will. One last key thing to remember in all this is that we are not responsible for the outcome! God alone is responsible for that. He alone is responsible for convicting and bringing people to repentance. Remember that no one has ever been argued or insulted into Heaven. We must always keep our cool and be polite and respectful and gentle. But all we can do is share what The Bible says in a loving manner and respectfully share our experiences- and trust for God to work as He will from there. And certainly we must keep praying for those we are sharing Christ with and trust Him to work.
          2 Timothy 1:7 says that we haven't been given a spirit of fear, but rather one of power and love and of a sound mind. So don't let fear get in the way. Don't let apathy get in the way. Don't let worry get in the way. Just share as The Holy Spirit leads you and pray for Him to work. And pray for Him to give you opportunities as well. And pray that He will continue to light a fire in us to continually be more concerned about the eternal destiny of people, knowing that there are many dying every day who are headed to either Hell or Heaven- and we may be the ones God has put in their path to let them know about Jesus and His love so that they can avoid Hell and go to Heaven instead. For Heaven's sake- we don't have a moment to waste. Work, for the night is coming. God's building His church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.
        Lord Jesus, may Your Name be lifted up in us through our lives- both words and deeds. Use us as Your vessels to show people The Truth of Your Love and work mightily in people's lives to bring into Your kingdom of Love.