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The Most Important
Bible Word in Conversion
A friend of mine shared an all important
secret the other night. I want to share it with you. This man is a
personal worker extraordinaire. I doubt we can even count the
number of people in whose conversions this man has been
instrumental.
So, I
ask, “What is the secret of your success at personal work.”
He
responds, “Do you know what the most important Bible word for
conversion is?”
“No.
What?” I reply.
“Open.”
The
phone is silent for a moment as I expect him to go on. He waits
for me to respond.
“Why?”
“Acts
8:35 says, ‘Then Philip opened
his mouth and preached Jesus to him.’ Did you hear that? If
Philip hadn’t opened his mouth, the eunuch would have never
heard about Jesus.”
How
true this is. “Open” really is the most important word in
conversion. Sadly, far too many of us keep our mouths closed. We
mean to talk about Jesus, but we never can find the right time. We
intend to invite people to our assemblies and classes, we just
can’t seem to get an opening. We want to teach the gospel, we
just aren’t really sure how we should go about doing it.
Who
knows what will happen if we start talking? One thing is certain.
If we don’t open our mouths, there will be no conversions.
In Ephesians
6:19, Paul asked the Ephesians to pray for him that he
might have boldness in opening his mouth to teach the gospel.
Perhaps we should be praying this. We too often seem afraid to
open our mouths. We need the boldness that can only come from God.
In Acts
10:34, Peter opened his mouth and explained that he now
understood God is impartial. We must not prejudge with whom we
will open our mouths. God is impartial. He doesn’t care if we
open our mouths with white people or black people, rich people or
poor people, male people or female people, southern people or
northern people. In fact, He wants us to open our mouths with all
people.
Again, the most important word in conversion is “open.”
May we open our mouths and tell someone about Jesus this week.
Edwin L. Crozier
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