Insiders & Outsiders

John 17:18

Insider Outside

Monk
Chameleon
Protestor
Tourist
The White Rabbit
Missionary ( Luke 19:10 , Luke 5:31-32 )

Hurry is a form of violence practiced on time. But time is sacred.”

Eugene peterson

If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself. You will be whispering it into your child’s ear. You will be telling it to your husband. You will be earnestly imparting it to your friend. Without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent: your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of His sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom of Christ, or else you do not love Him at all. It cannot be that there is a high appreciation of Jesus and a totally silent tongue about Him.”

Charles Spurgeon

Communication with God
Colossians 4:2
Luke 11:11-13
Colossians 4:3-4

Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of His willingness.”

Richard Trench

I have two lists of names in my prayers, those for whose conversion I pray, and those for whose conversion I give thanks. The little trickle of transferences from List A to List B is a great comfort.”

C.S. Lewis

Communication with Outsiders
Colossians 4:5
Colossians 4:3
Colossians 4:6

I like your Christ I just don’t like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

Gandhi

I love a minister whose face invites me to make him my friend – a man upon whose doorstep you read “Welcome”; and feel that there is no need of the warning, “Beware of the dog.” Give me the man around whom children come… a man who has no geniality about him had better be an undertaker and bury the dead, for he will never succeed in influencing the living.”

Charles Spurgeon

When food is not salted, its taste is bland. People don’t want to eat it. It’s unappetizing. Our speech is not supposed to be like that.”

John Piper

Seasoned with salt refers to witty, amusing, clever, even humorous speech. Their saltiness will prevent them from being ignored as irrelevant bores. Godliness is not to be equated with stodginess. Flat formulas or lifeless platitude do not capture the gospels excitement. It must be palatable with a savory combination of charm and wit”

David Garland

Share the Gospel with Yourself
Talk to God and Outsiders

From time to time in the life of the church there needs to be a wake up call to some simple and central and basic things. One of these is: Christianity is a converting religion. It is evangelistic. It is persuasive and expansive and missionary. It is not coercive. It does not use the sword, manipulation, or brainwashing. But it does proclaim, and persuade and plead and pray. And where this is not believed and practiced, Christianity ceases to be Christianity and starts to become another religion with another king who no longer says, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply.” When we lose a passion to see people won over to Jesus, we lose Jesus.
Christianity is a soul-winning, out-reaching, mind-persuading, heart-entreating, rescuing, missionary faith, or it is not true Christianity. We need to be reminded of this, because it is almost incredible how listless we can become while calling ourselves Christians. Little by little our whole orientation can become inward. We can go for months and years and not think about those who perish. We become so dull and spiritually callous that we don’t even ask if we believe in hell or lostness or the preciousness of Christ and the power of the cross and the freeness of the gospel and the command of Jesus. We just go about our in-house religious business like a medical clinic that sees fewer and fewer patients and has more and more staff meetings, until there is nothing left but a smooth running program for the doctors and nurses and their families. That is what happens to many churches.”

John Piper

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