Who Told You?

Scripture Reading: "And how are they to hear without someone preaching? - Romans 10:14

Many Christians and Christian organizations seem to be walking away from proclaiming the Gospel verbally as they practice various ministries of compassion and Kingdom justice. This alarming trend not only runs counter to the teaching and models of New Testament ministry, it is also counter-intuitive. No one ever comes to faith in Christ without someone actually telling them the Gospel message and in some fashion calling for a decision. Even when people become Christians simply by reading the Bible on their own, their faith still involves the human agency of someone sharing the message. The Bible was written by human beings (as directed by God's Spirit).

For professing Christians to conclude they should stop sharing verbally not only runs contrary to their own experience, it breaks the chain of events leading up to the possibility of a decision in the hearts of those around them to begin trusting in the Lord. Paul describes this chain in Romans 10:13-17, ending with the declaration: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God."

So someone played the role of verbally proclaiming the Gospel to everyone who now professes faith in our Lord. Who told you?

For me, it was Pastor J. Howard Clayman. I was raised in a Christian home, so my parents and grandparents took me to church and talked with me about the Lord. I am extremely grateful for their influence. But the person who actually led me to faith in Christ was my pastor at the time.

How about you? I invite you to use the "comment" feature to share just the name or names of who told you about Jesus and encouraged you to believe on Him out of faith in your heart...Who told you?