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The Importance of Your Lifestyle

One of the greatest impacts you can have on the world around you is the life that you lead.  Living Christ at the same time you are sharing Him, will give your Words greater meaning and impact.  Holiness is beautiful and the joy of the Lord is our strength.  There is nothing more attractive than beauty and joy and when you exude these two attributes people will be attracted to you.  This attraction is a prelude to the sharing of the Gospel. 

2 Cor. 5:20 says that we are ambassadors of Christ.  You are called to be an ambassador to the greatest King. The Lord doesn’t change His ambassadors like our government does. This is a lifetime commission. And that commission is to make Jesus Christ known.  A day in your life can be more important than all the lives of the king’s and president’s put together.  Everyday of your life has potential and value. 

An ambassador doesn’t talk about himself, but to talk about the ruler he represents.  An ambassador is a witness. You are an ambassador whether you feel like you are or not.  You are endowed with it the moment you are born-again, like being born into royalty. 

A witness is not something we do.  A witness is someone we are. Ambassadors are ambassadors when they sleep, wake, work, etc.  They don’t clock in and out.  If an ambassador does clock in and out from 8-5, and only acts like one during that time and is seen doing things that he ought not be doing, it doesn’t mean he isn’t an ambassador, it means he’s a lousy ambassador.  We either witness for the Lord or against the Lord by our actions.  If God intended for us to be part-time Christians we would only have the Holy Spirit part-time.

I don't want to project an improper image of Jesus. Do you? I don't want to present a distorted image of God. God is a God of holiness, love, mercy, compassion, kindness, and goodness.  How will people know that we are God’s ambassador if we aren’t holy, loving, merciful, compassionate, kind and good?

We have to make sure that our light stays bright.  It can make our light dull, like when dust gets on a light bulb.  Our light can get clogged with things.

John the Baptist was a burning and shining man.  He was incandescent--white or glowing with great heat.

Being an effective witness must be born out of a growing, ongoing, living, vital relationship with Jesus.  If our relationship with Him is stale, then we won’t have much to offer others.  We need to maintain a fresh flow of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives.  True ministry is not what you try to be, it is what you are.  Evangelism is simply an outward expression of our inward relationship with Jesus.

However, someone can observe a dedicated Christian for 50 years and be impressed beyond description, but until somebody explains the gospel to that person, he or she has no idea how to come to Jesus.  To let our light shine is merely a matter of letting the love of God flow through us, rather than stop us. 

Preach the gospel everywhere you go, and if necessary, use words.

                                                  St. Francis of Assisi

I believe this quote has done more harm than good for the cause of evangelism.  Although I understand that it’s emphasis encourages us to live out the Christian life, it has shut the mouths of Christians. 

The words “lifestyle evangelism” have come to mean to many that we merely live a Christian life, in the hope that some day sinners will be drawn to us.  I believe more in “life-saving” evangelism.  Who could stand passively on a riverbank hoping a drowning person will be drawn to him so that he could then rescue him?  We don’t just sit there hoping that our light would draw sinners to us.  We have to make an effort to reach out. 

Some people think, I’ll lead a gloriously clean personal life and that’s witness enough. The Bible does say that our lives are read as epistles.  However, Jesus very clearly explains God’s blueprint of evangelism in Luke 14:23—“Go out into the highway and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.”

Which is more important in representing Christ—the life I live or the words I say?  It’s like asking which wing of an airplane is more important, the right or the left!  Obviously both are essential; likewise life and lip are inseparable to be an effective witness for Christ.