Evangelism

David Zadok was born in Iran, rose to the rank of Major in the Israeli Defense Forces, went to Seminary in the U.S., and now shares the gospel throughout Israel. In today’s episode of the Great Stories podcast, Charles Morris returns to two fascinating conversations he had with David in 2010 and 2014 that tells the story behind the violence he experienced early in life and what it’s like now to minister the gospel in Israel.

As the pastor of Grace and Truth church and the director of HaGefen Publishing, we are confident that David’s story will give you a new appreciation for how God is at work in Israel’s growing Christian community.


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Evangelism. There are few words in the English language that have sparked as much fear — in the hearts those on the giving and receiving end — than this common Christian practice. And yet Jesus calls all believers to share the good news.

But what if it didn’t have to be so intimidating?

On today’s episode of the Great Stories Podcast, Charles Morris returns to a conversation he had at Regent College with Dr. John Dickson, a scholar and an author from Australia with a heart to engage unbelievers with God’s Word. In this interview originally recorded in 2015, Dickson shares what he believes is the best kept secret of Christian mission.

If you’ve ever wanted to share your faith with others but have been too intimidated to start, then you’re not going to want to miss this podcast on how you can share the gospel with more than your lips.


More from John Dickson


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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published here on June 22, 2015 shortly after Elisabeth Elliot went home to be with the Lord. 

Jesus can be intense. And following Him is a serious business.

Take this story from the book of Luke: “To another he [Jesus] said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’” Luke 9:59-60

Jesus says that spreading the Word, the key to the door of eternal life, is more urgent than anything else: friends, home, money, safety, and even family. This man’s father was probably still alive, so the man is saying he needed to take care of his family before he followed Jesus. Jesus’s response? It’s me or him. Now or never.

Last week, a woman who followed Jesus with this kind of importance and urgency and whole-heartedness, fell asleep and woke up wearing a crown at Jesus’ throne. This woman was Elisabeth Elliot, 88, famous for being the wife of one of the five missionary men killed in Ecuador in 1956 by a hostile Indian tribe.
jim-elliotAs she wrote in Through Gates of Splendor, the 1957 account of the massacre, “I’m taking the Lord at His word, and I’m trusting Him to prove His Word. It’s kind of like putting all your eggs in one basket, but we’ve already put our trust in Him for salvation, so why not do it as far as our life is concerned?”

Born in 1926 to missionary parents, Elliot grew up in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, then studied Greek at Wheaton College in Illinois with the hope of translating the Bible into unreached languages. She went to Ecuador and then married Jim Elliot in 1953. Together they worked to reach the Ecuadorean Quichua Indians as well as the Auca tribe, a stone-age people, with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When Elliot and four other women heard that their husbands were speared to death by the Aucas, they met the news with serenity: “No tears could rise from the depth of trust which supported the wives.” These wives met their widow status with unfaltering faith in the Lord and His ways—and even, amazingly, with joy that their husbands were deserving of their entrance into glory.
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Elliot returned to the tribe with her infant daughter, Valerie, to live among them for two years and continue the mission work to the Aucas, now known as the Waodani. She then worked with the Quichua people of Ecuador before returning to the United States, where she spoke and wrote more than 20 books. Through Gates of Splendor has become a bestseller and seminal Christian work, having seen five editions with translations in many other languages.

Later, Elliot married Addison Leitch, professor of theology at Gordon Conwell Seminary, who died in 1973 of cancer. She then married Lars Gren, who survives her along with her daughter, son-in-law, and eight grandchildren.

Many became believers because of the story of the five missionaries who thought it worth their lives to save the Aucas. And many more have spent their own lives in mission work, inspired by the story. Does that mean that their deaths were worth it? While it’s true that, as the theologian Tertullian wrote, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church,” Elliot challenged her readers to not seek a quid pro quo from the Lord of the universe.

God is God. If He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere but in His will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.

What matters in the end is that we accept Jesus’ love and salvation. We will never find true joy outside of God and His will for our lives. As Elliot opened her radio program for 13 years, “You are loved with an everlasting love. That’s what the Bible says. And underneath are the everlasting arms.”

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For more about Elisabeth Elliot visit elisabethelliot.org. Cover image courtesy of B&H Publishing Group

Lindsey M. Roberts spent years writing exclusively for secular journalism, including such outlets as The Washington Post, Architect, and Gray magazine, before she first tried to write about Jesus. She’s thrilled to explore in words how everything from cleaning the kitchen three times a day to delighting in the maritime history of Nantucket is an opportunity to meet and glorify God. Lindsey lives with her husband, a pastor and U.S. Army Reserve chaplain, and two children in Virginia.

Many Christians think the task of mission is a verbal activity. But perhaps the best kept secret of New Testament teaching about mission is that it involves a whole range of activities that explicitly promote Christ to the world and draw others to Him. And only a few of them involve speaking!

The reality is that the Lord wants our whole life, not just our lips, to be intsruments that bring the gospel to the world. Every facet of our lives can be used by God to promote the news of His power and mercy.

Watch Dr. John Dickson give a short answer for how all Christians, even those who aren’t extroverts, can share their faith.

The Best Kept Secret of Christian MissionThe Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission

This is a practical guide to the biblical art of sharing your faith. John Dickson offers refreshing insights into the ways that all Christians can and should be involved in spreading the good news of Jesus. As you read this book, you will be inspired to see the whole of life as significant for bringing the gospel to the world. You will be liberated from guilt and self-consciousness in evangelism and learn to become a perfectly natural promoter of Jesus Christ.

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Maybe, to you, evangelism looks like standing out on a street corner or knocking on someone’s door with a gospel tract. So you don’t do it. Because after all, you’re introverted and not as studied in apologetics as you’d like. (Maybe a little bit scared of man? Proverbs 29:25.)

You might be surprised that we’re not here to beat you up about this. In fact, we’re going to tell you that it’s A-OK.

We are all called to share the gospel with words, but some people are specifically called to evangelism—we’re looking at you, pastor and missionary. Others are called to broader gospel-promoting work.

“For Christians in general—as opposed to evangelists in particular—telling the gospel to others (evangelism) could be described as the icing on the cake of mission,” writes John Dickson in The Best Kept-Secret of Christian Mission: Promoting the Gospel with More Than Our Lips. “It is certainly the most conspicuous part, and, once tasted, it will often be the sweetest part too, but for the typical Christian it is not the bulk of the task. It is not where most of our opportunities to promote Christ to others will be found.”

Instead of standing on the street corner or standing in front of a stranger’s door, more effective gospel-promoting work often looks like standing in your own kitchen. Often, the best precursor to actual evangelism is simply inviting people into your home, your life. Eventually, you get to that icing on the cake, as Dickson puts it, talking about your favorite thing in the world: Jesus.

Most of our everyday opportunities to promote Christ can be found in the realm of hospitality. Being hospitable, as opposed to being entertaining, means that even though you’re a homebody, you open the door when your neighbor drops off your mail and you invite her in for tea. It means that when your teenage daughter brings over a friend, you graciously serve that friend dinner—even though you hadn’t made enough for five. That kind of hospitality opens up further opportunities. When your other neighbor has to take her husband to the emergency room, she asks you to watch her children.

This hospitality says, “Come in and see my mess, be a part of my mess, and know that you are safe to share your mess as well.”

When people see your real life, they will want to know where your joy comes from, where your freedom to repent and be changed comes from.

This hospitality says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8).

Let’s win people over to something better: real truth, beauty, love, and joy. Even better if you’re doing it over grilled cheese sandwiches while your toddler throws a tantrum.

About the Author

Lindsey M. Roberts spent years writing exclusively for secular journalism, including such outlets as The Washington Post, Architect, and Gray magazine, before she first tried to write about Jesus. She’s thrilled to explore in words how everything from cleaning the kitchen three times a day to delighting in the maritime history of Nantucket is an opportunity to meet and glorify God. Lindsey lives with her husband, a pastor and U.S. Army Reserve chaplain, and two children in Wisconsin.