Yes, you can talk people into being Christian.
Quite honestly, that’s the only way it ever happens.
One might nitpick about the power of prayer, the movements of the Spirit, the regeneration of baptism, or the love by which the world ought know we are Christians. But none of that does any good to the perishing. As much as our love might prompt the world’s inquiry, or our prayers may bend God’s sovereign ear, or the Spirit might prepare men’s hearts, no saint of the heights nor sinner of the depths comes to be a Christian without hearing the life and the deeds of Jesus, the Nazarene.
Decide that you are ready to talk. Decide that you want your Christianity to come out of your mouth. Decide that you are finished settling for a lukewarm version of your religion. Decide to know what you believe and why you believe it for all that it is worth. Emblazon it on your conscience. Cry out for it like a man starving.
Seek, and you will find.
The great folly of modern Christianity is hoping that others will convert to a religion which we ourselves barley know hardly practice. Religious identity has been relegated to a branding battle, with little more skin in the game than following the local sports team during the playoffs. In fact, most people are significantly more religious about their fandom than about their inner life.
As a result, we look to the world less like suffering servants and more like fools overeager to speak our hearts and plug our ears. We have not so much witnessed as boasted. We have not so much understood as apologized. We have dreamed rather than believed.
So stop it right now. Choose the heritage of your immortality and strap it on like a sword. Embrace the death of vain glory and claim the illumination of that glory which is to come. Declare to yourself that your most precious identity is your adoption into the bloodline of Jesus. Let your daily, morning ritual be remembering that you cannot die.
This is worth immeasurably more than rubies. This will satisfy you far more than a pot of stew. It will not still all of life’s storms but will embolden you with the power to walk on the raging water as one who journeys with the calm of eternal things gratifying your heart.
“Oh, you of little faith….” (Matt. 14:31).
You do not have to convert the unbeliever. You do not have the power to repent for someone else. But you can insist that the grace of God is a free gift for you, and you can stand upon that foundation even amid the ruins of the world.
A Christian imitates the Christ because a Christian is one with his body. Christ is the God who speaks. Jesus is the King who reigns by his words. This is the discipline of the Testaments. This is the martial life of warfare against demons. This is the true religion, and it has been given to you in order for you to give it away. The more it goes out from you, the more you will find its inspiration within.
To be continued…