Thomas Umstattd Jr.

Photo by wili_hybrid .

An old man and a boy were fishing on the shore of a great lake. As they listened to the sound of the birds and the whispers of the wind the old man started to tell the boy stories. He talked of how he had grown up and how some things had changed and some stayed the same. He talked of how he had seen the land on the other side of the lake.

“What are you talking about Grandfather?” The boy interjected. “There is no land on the other side of the lake.”

“There surly is for I have seen it.” The old man replied with a smile. “Even though I have never set sail on this lake I have seen the land with my own eyes.”

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Here is a talk I gave at the 2007 Christmas Evangelism Boot Camp. You may recognize the first few minutes as from my blog. The audio quality improves dramatically after about five minutes.

Summary

Learn the principles that ground good evangelical methods. Learn to balance your presentation of the Gospel between Spirit Truth and Love. In this talk we discuss the challenges to balanced evangelism and how to overcome them. You can get the Balance in Evangelism Handout from here .

Watch

• GodTube
• Google Video
• Quick Time (High resolution, big download)

Transcript
Before we get started, I would like to share a story. A family once had a pool party at their house. They had friends from all over filling their backyard.
While no one was looking a young boy creep ed over to the pool and fell in. "That kid can’t swim!" One of the ladies said. Then a man replied; "Why don’t you go and help him?" (more…)

A family once had a pool party at their home. Friends from all over filled their back yard, laughing and talking as they mingled around the grill.

While no one was looking, a two year old boy toddled over to the pool and fell in. Soon a lady pointed the child out to the group.

“That kid can’t swim.” She said.

“Then help him?” a guests replied.

“Oh no,” the lady responded. “I am just the eyes of this party. I don’t have the gift for saving people.” She then turned back to eating her food while the child gasped for breath.

One guest thought about saving the boy but then decided he might offend someone by implying that children shouldn’t swim.

Another guest felt sorry for the boy, so he ate his food at the edge of the pool. He hoped to make the dry ground look so good that the child would ask to leave the water.

The man behind the grill was so busy serving the guests that he never even noticed the drowning child.

“I will call my father about this.” A man hesitant to get wet said. “He lives just in the next town and loves children. I am sure he would love to come and do this for us.”

Finally, a teenage girl saw the baby, now floating face down in the water. She jumped in, grabbed the boy, and tossed him out of the pool. She listened for any breathing. Hearing none she then started roughly pressing on the baby’s stomach. Green water and bile flowed from the boy’s mouth.

As the girl tried to administer CPR the guests gathered around and started criticizing her feeble efforts. “You are being much too rough with that poor child” one man said “you really should be more gentle.”

“You’re not pushing hard enough” an elderly man commented, “and you’re pushing in the wrong place.”

Finally, in desperation the young girl cried out. “Will one of you just call 911!” The guests, offended at her brashness, at first did nothing. But finally, one of the women sighed and walked inside to find a phone. Soon, the air filled with the colorful lights from rescue vehicles as paramedics quickly whisked the baby away.

As the sirens faded into the distance the guests turned on the teenager. “Who are you to order us to call 911?” Said one. “Did you see how you rudely splashed water all over those guests when you jumped in? You are going to scare visitors away from this party.”

These comments hurt deeply. She didn’t intend to be rude or scare anyone. All she wanted to do was save the baby’s life. But, the guests continued.

“You should be ashamed of yourself for how insensitive you were to that child.” one man remarked. “You just grabbed him and tossed him out of the water. You should be more loving.”

“He didn’t even ask to get saved” said another “Who are you to jump in and force your dry ground on someone else? You should never shove your own air down someone’s throat.”

Finally, the girl could take it no more and ran from the party weeping bitterly. The guests never did find out if the baby survived or not. But, they reassured each other that they really did… care.

Spring planting would begin soon and it was time to make the yearly sacrifice. Pagiel’s father had died so it was now his job to make the pilgrimage to the Temple. At age 19 he had never been to Jerusalem, but he had heard the stories. He took a donkey loaded with grain offerings and led a lamb by a rope fastened around its neck.

After several days, Pagiel joined several other pilgrims who were also on their way to Jerusalem.

“What is your name young traveler?” A large man asked.

“Pagiel, son of Tola” Pagiel replied.

“Tola?” The man’s eyes brightened. “Of the Shelah clan?”

“Yes! Do you know him?”

“We fought in the war together. My name is Elizur” the man smiled.

“God asks little of us Pagiel son of Tola. He pours blessings on those who know how to make the right sacrifices. I have gone to Jerusalem every year and never has my family gone without food. Ba’al brings the rain and The Lord God keeps the Philistines away.”

“You sacrifice to Ba’al?” Pagiel asked, surprised.

“Of course young man as did your father. Ba’al is the king of the winds and the rain. If you want a fertile soil you sacrifice to him, everyone does.” An awkward silence followed. Pagiel expected someone to confront Elizur but no one did.
Elizer had never seen as many people as he did on Mount Zion. He followed Elizur through the city to the temple.

“That is an Asheroth Poll” Elizur said pointing to a tall wooden poll that stood outside the temple walls. “That’s where we make sacrifices to Ba’al.” Pagiel stared at the intricate carvings that covered the length of the poll. The people around it were smiling and seemed to be having a great time.

“Welcome to the sacred meeting place, would you like to make an offering?” Pagiel turned to see a young veiled woman. Pagiel stammered not knowing how to respond. “Have you ever offered a sacrifice to Ba’al before?” The girl asked with a smile in her eyes.

“Uh, no” Pagiel replied, not wanting to appear ignorant.

“We ask Ba’al for blessing though both offerings and a demonstration of what we wish him to do for us.” The girl looked Pagiel in the eyes. “What would you like Ba’al to do for you?”

“Can he really bring rain and make the soil fertile?” Pagiel asked. The girl laughed.

“Of course! Why else is everyone here? Give me your lamb and we will ask Ba’al together.” She led him through the crowds to a tent attached to the outside of the temple wall. Come, lay with me and we will show Ba’al what we want him to do for your farm. Let us drink our fill of love and fulfill all righteousness. She took off her veil revealing to Pagiel one of the prettiest faces he had ever seen. He wanted to say “no” but everything in him cried “yes.” His field needed rain and this was just too easy not to try.

The next morning Pagiel felt nothing but a cold numbness. The girl gave him a wooden figurine that she said would allow Ba’al to find him for blessing. Pagiel tucked it into his saddlebag as he led his donkey into the temple courtyard. He gave the grain offering to the Levites who looked somewhat surprised that he didn’t have a lamb but they didn’t say anything about it. “I guess I can please both gods.” He thought as he headed for home.

As he headed for home he passed a disheveled man shouting in the streets about idolatry, the wickedness of temple prostitutes and a coming judgment. Everyone ignored him and Pagiel decided to do the same.