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Friday October 10, 2008

Category: Living with Grander Vision

Bill Hybels Day 4: Above My Fears

Welcome back to Beliefnet's exclusive Bill Hybels devotional, "Living with Grander Vision." This feed will appear in your profile every day for three full weeks. Did you miss any entries? Just stay subscribed, and the feed will begin again at the end of its cycle.

Most people get freaked out when they hear the word evangelism. To them, it's a fear-drenched and formidable challenge they could never rise to because they think they have to master a massive amount of apologetic information or have to somehow morph into a different person than the person God originally wired them to be.

But so often, I find that evangelism really is just about taking short, accessible steps toward a person and then pointing them toward God in ways that are natural for you. It's doing a good deed rather than delivering a long speech, extending friendship to someone rather than backing them into a corner.

If more people would do the small thing they can do--stretch out an arm here, take a walk there, speak a word of encouragement to this person or that one--they might just find they would touch a lot more lives than they ever thought possible.

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What key experiences throughout your life have shaped how you view evangelism? What fears tend to show up when you sense an opportunity to say a word for God? The fear of rejection? Or of saying the wrong thing? The fear of being misunderstood? Something else entirely?

Read aloud 1 John 4:17-18, (noted below), and pay special attention to the line, "There is no room in love for fear." What do these words mean to you? Think of one, small, loving step you might take today toward someone lacking faith, trusting that God will banish your fears as you're faithful to say a word for him.

"God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day--our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life--fear of death, fear of judgment--is one not yet fully formed in love." 1 John 4:17-18 (MSG)

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