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All Have Sinned Published in the late 1680s, The New England Primer was the standard textbook for schoolchildren in the American colonies during the eighteenth century. To teach the alphabet, the Primer used short, rhyming couplets. Perhaps the most famous of these was the verse for the letter A: “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” For the next...

New Life in Christ In the 1950s, believers in the Wolaitta district of Ethiopia adopted a saying to describe their conversion. “With two hands,” they would say. “With this hand I renounce the devil and all his works! With this hand I surrender to Jesus Christ! All I am and all I have.” We come today to the final part of our evangelistic message.

An Evangelist’s Heart: Conviction In 1521, the Diet of Worms demanded that Martin Luther retract his teachings. He courageously answered: “My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. I cannot do otherwise. May God help me.” In today’s passage,...

Doing Good and Evangelism In 1865, Londoners William and Catherine Booth had a goal to serve the poor of their city: “First, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation.” Their ministry, The Salvation Army, now serves over 25 million people in 127 countries every year with its mission to “preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human...

Giving and Evangelism When institutions and organizations want to construct a new building, they often invite their supporters to purchase a single brick. The bricks are inscribed with the supporters’ names, and they serve as a reminder that many people contributed a small part to make a larger project possible. Today we will consider how...

Christian Love and Evangelism In Charles Dickens’s story, A Christmas Carol, the miserly and miserable Ebenezer Scrooge lives a solitary, stingy life. But a series of ghosts visit his dreams to show him a different life—one filled with the love of family and friends. In response, Scrooge awakens from his dream and immediately embarks on a...

We Are Weak, but He Is Strong Since 1862, children around the world have been singing the words of Anna Bartlett Warner’s hymn, “Jesus Loves Me.” Its first stanza contains a line that is true for children and adults alike: “Little ones to Him belong—they are weak but He is strong.” At this point in our study of evangelism, you may be feeling...

Press On and Press In In the documentary series Dispatches from the Front, director Tim Keesee tells the story of David, a gospel worker in the Southeastern European nation of Albania. Though the challenges for missions in Albania are immense, David persists with a simple approach: “Pray. Meet people. Tell them about Jesus.” And, little by...

The End of Evangelism At the end of John Bunyan’s classic book, Pilgrim’s Progress, the characters Christian and Hopeful meet two angels as they reach the Celestial City, or heaven. The angels tell them what to expect: “You must there receive the comfort of all your toil, and have joy for all your sorrow; you must reap what you have sown,...

Israel: The Working Prostitute The film Pretty Woman grossed $463 million and made a star of Julia Roberts. Roberts plays the role of Vivian, a prostitute hired by a man named Edward, and unexpectedly their assignation leads them to fall in love. But the popular romantic comedy glosses over the gritty and tragic realities of women engaged...