God loves you. Jesus died for you.

As many of you know, it has become a common practice for me to make this challenge in every church where I preach:
Find one person this week and share this simple message:

God loves you.
Jesus died for you.

I'll be back to the same church next week and I look forward to hearing the stories of those that accepted the challenge. To be fair, I'm also a part of the challenge.

I've found that my contacts with people have greatly diminished over the past couple of years. There are many days when the only person I have any contact with is my wife, Chris. This week I'll be spending more time on the road as I make my way to and from Grand Oaks Camp for another kids' camp.

Since the idea behind the challenge is to share the Good News with people that may not have heard it before, church people don't count. And to be fair to the others, I don't consider that preaching or presenting a program at camp counts as fulfilling the challenge on my part.
I no longer have co-workers and I talk to very few people during the week. This (as always) will prove to be challenging; but I guess that's the point, isn't it?

One of the downfalls of the church is that we often tend to stay to ourselves and focus our social circles inward. Mingling with the great unwashed is often frowned upon by other members of the church and we worry about what members will think. At some point, we need to be more concerned with the eternal status of those outside of the church than with the opinions of those within the church.

The week has begun and the challenge is on.
Anyone of you is welcome to join us.
Just find one person in the coming week that needs to hear the simple message:
God loves you.
Jesus died for you.

At your 4th of July gathering, tell someone that you accepted a challenge from a blog you read. Tell them the challenge is to share a simple message with one person and you have chosen them as the lucky person. Then tell them -- God loves you. Jesus died for you.

I don't know where the conversation may take you. If you get to a point where you're stuck, just ask them to come to church with you. Invite them to "Come and see" for themselves.
If you need some help, you can send them my way. My contact info is in the About Me (full web version) section.

John <><