Sharing God's Love (Ephesians 2)

Pathway Points

Stepping Up for Jesus

I don’t know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with social media. I love being able to keep in touch with family and friends that are far away, but I hate the tense, sometimes downright mean, conversations that can happen. Often, I wonder how different things would be if we were talking to the person face-to-face.

Pastor Eric’s message this past Sunday got me thinking about a couple of different conversations that I’ve had on Facebook. I have several cousins that, while they don’t say it this way, are very concerned about the “walking dead,” people that are dead because of their sins, separated from God (See Ephesians 2 NLT). One of my cousins is so excited about his relationship with Jesus that he wants to tell everyone! However, he’s incredibly frustrated because the people he tells turn away from him and never talk to him again.

I so wish that I could talk to him face-to-face. I want to encourage him (and you, too!) to not give up! But, I also want to encourage him to change his tactics just a bit. You see, he’s forgotten to include God and the Holy Spirit in his rush to share Jesus. I want to encourage him to build relationships with people first--praying for them by name, talking to God about their needs and their joys--then, to listen to the Holy Spirit for how and when to talk to them about Jesus. God’s timing is perfect and working with him is always better than striking out on our own.

Stepping up with you in His strength!

Monica Lebsack

Creative Ministries Director

At Grace, one of my responsibilities is to publish a weekly article in our e-newsletter, GraceNotes, about discipleship. Specifically, about the various components of our Discipleship Pathway and how a person could journey along it. This is my most recent article.