Appendix 4. You Must Share the Gospel with Yourself First

Churches these days are pouring all their energy into gathering people. Churches print tracts and scatter them, believers are gripped by the idea that they can receive a reward from God only if they bring in lots of people, and at the end of the year whoever is named top evangelist struts about as if they had won a great victory in war. With these efforts the churches keep growing and people flock to them in huge numbers, so why is there no power in believers’ lives? They carry around the Bible, the word of life, without knowing who they are, or why they believe in Jesus and go to church. They carry the Bible, in which the word of life is written, as mere proof that they go to church, but how many times have they actually read it? Why is it that they go to church so diligently and are glad they can go to heaven, yet there is no laughter in them? Why do people who believe in the God of love fight over the things of the world, and why are believers’ homes so thirsty for love that husband and wife, and children, hate one another?

We think that evangelism is always something done to other people. Evangelism means first preaching the gospel to yourself, before you preach it to others. The very first evangelism we must do is to pass love on to ourselves, to tell ourselves to be patient, and to bring the word of life to ourselves so that we meet God first, overcome the world, and live our lives by the word. When I mature through the word, my husband or my wife changes, and my children can enjoy the peace of heaven in that faith. When my own home changes first, the neighbors around me will see how I live and naturally come to meet God. We must not forget that evangelism is not dragging people to church and sitting them down, but the believer changing first. Then the home will gain strength, the church will overflow with a heart that loves souls, and because of believers who live by the word of God, Christianity will gain all the more strength and overcome the world.

If my church, my home and everything I belong to revolve around me, the kingdom of God will in the end be ruined. The kingdom of God, God, a church made one by God’s word and love… only a faith that revolves around God is power and strength. When we fail to bring the whole gospel to people’s spirits, we can see souls lose their strength, trip over the world’s stumbling blocks, and easily give up their own lives. People who call themselves Christians and still take their own lives. People who pray to God and still say life in the world is so hard they want to die… They act this way because they do not know that believing in God, that is, rising above the world, is what faith is. Then we must think about who will take responsibility for this. I think pastors must take that responsibility. Please do not try to swell the outward appearance of the church; feed believers’ souls full with the truth and encourage them to grow fully through the word. If you hold them fast so that they do not go out into the world thirsting for the things of the world, Christianity, the church and believers will not become hollow shells.