Advancing the Word

(This is a mini speech I had to write for my education class, so dont let the references to a skit and "we" confuse you) :-)

"There was a traveling evangelist who was aboard a flight one September. During his flight he noticed that a flight attendant seemed to be having some trouble breaking ice for passengers’ drinks. He offered to help and struck up a short conversation with her about God. Before returning to his seat, he gave her some evangelistic literature to read.

Later in the flight she stopped by his seat and told him he was the sixth person in the past few days to talk to her about God or give her tracts about salvation. She confided that she was beginning to wonder what God was trying to tell her and what he wanted from her.

The evangelist replied simply that God wanted her life. As a result of their conversation, the flight attendant became a Christian."

We are here on this earth for many reasons. One of those reasons is to serve God. He wants us to serve Him in and through everything we do. (In the skit you just watched, Bob served through standing up for Billy and going to sit with him) Check out Philippians 1:12-14, 21-24.

From this passage, we saw two major ways we can serve God. One way we can serve God is by advancing the gospel. Paul is in jail when he is writing this. He has been beaten, spit on, and chained up. Yet, he still focuses on how the gospel is advanced through his persecution. People see the joy and hope he has even while in jail, and that speaks loudly to their hearts.

Paul did a lot of "advancing" when he was in tough situations. That is a great example for us, however we do not HAVE to be in a tough situation to advance the Gospel. Every where we go there are opportunities to seize in which we can share God's love. This is what we are called to do. There are all kinds of different ways we can advance the gospel. One example would be standing up for someone, as in the skit we performed. That may not be a direct form of advancing, but you may build a relationship that will give you an opportunity to share.

"A few weeks after that evangelist's flight, the names were released of the people who were on the airlines that crashed on September 11. The evangelist found that flight attendant’s name on the list. She had been on American Airlines Flight #11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center that Tuesday morning.

That Christian man was not in the midst of a crisis when he spoke to the flight attendant about the love of Jesus Christ. His life was not in imminent danger that day, and neither was the flight attendant’s. And yet he knew that, just as Paul was in chains for Christ, he was on that airliner for Christ, and took advantage of the opportunity to advance the gospel."

What are you doing to advance the gospel?

In Christ <><

**Story taken from "The Best of Times, the Worst of Times" article by T. R. Robertson.** VIEW ARTICLE