December 13, 2023
Sharing Our Beliefs with Others
Sharing our beliefs with others is commanded in the Great Commission by Jesus.
Why I Believe
Why do we sometimes find it difficult to tell others why Jesus is our Lord and Savior? Or why do we believe God inspired the Bible? If the scriptures are on trial in the public arena, we are not called to be lawyers, prosecutors, or judges; we are called to be witnesses.
When it comes to sharing the gospel, you have to know the Bible. Most Christians haven’t even read the Bible all the way through. Media reports say that only 20% of adult Christians in the US have read the entire Bible even once. That alone demonstrates the lack of confidence in sharing the gospel because most Christians lack a deep conviction to share something they know so little about.
Let us start with some basics. What is the Bible? It is a Biblioteka (Greek word), a collection of books, or more precisely a library. It was shortened to Bible. However, it is more than a collection of books written by forty authors from all walks of life in a span of about 1,500 years. It is a story. We have overlooked the grand story of the Bible. We can no longer see the forest for the trees.
Do You Believe?
Do you believe the Bible is true? I believe the Bible is true because it gave me the experience it claimed it would provide (now take a moment to write down some of your experiences). The Bible promises a peace that goes beyond understanding, and multiple times I have gone through some very dark places, and each time I have experienced peace through the extremes of that adversity. I have seen God faithfully answer prayer, heal people, strengthen people, and carry people again and again. I will see many of my loved ones again as promised in scripture.
I believe the Bible is true because of science. A belief in God motivated the advancement of science and the development of the scientific method. Early giants of science expected to find laws in nature because they believed in a lawgiver. One must believe that the universe is intelligible in order to do science. (Isaiah 51:13, Hebrews 11:3)
I believe the Bible is true because archaeology confirms it. This list is long, but here are a few facts. Scholars once thought that the Hittites never existed and that they were a fabricated, made-up people, and even if they existed, they were not a significant political power. All this changed in 1906 when Hattusha, the capital city of the Hittites, was discovered in Turkey, along with a library of 10,000 tablets attesting to who they were. Other documents from ancient Syria and Egypt also attest to the powerful Hittite kingdom of the Bronze Age. Before the discovery of the Pilate Stone in 1961, scholars considered Pontius Pilate a fictitious figure. Many scholars thought King David to be as historical as King Arthur, with many stories but no hard evidence until the discovery of the Tel Dan inscription. The broken and fragmentary inscription commemorates the victory of an Aramean king over the “king of Israel” and the “king of the House of David.” Three other stones attesting to Israel, the House of David, and the House of Omri, have since been discovered. They are the Mesha Stele (Moab), Merneptah Stele (Egypt) and Kurkh Monolith (Assyria). No archaeological study has contradicted the Bible.
I believe in the Bible because it is the one book that dares to predict the future—hundreds of times. It was the Bible that told us the Jews would be scattered and gathered again. It also predicts that Jerusalem would be at the center of world conflict and the end times. Take some time to think about why you believe the Bible and make them a part of your conversation with others. Add your testimony because it has the most impact. All the facts listed above don’t prove the Bible or God. They are good evidence, but people want to know if Jesus changed your life. How did he change your life? Why do you trust him?
The Three Circles
Have you ever been in a situation where a coworker or colleague shares something with you, and you feel like it is an excellent time to talk about Jesus but don’t know where to begin? Here is a straightforward method that anyone can do. It takes some practice, and you can do that on your own, but a friend who can give you feedback will make it even better. It is called The Three Circles method. When the conversation turns to the problems in the world, you can start sharing, and it goes like this.
We all know there are many problems in this world. Just watch the news and see there are wars, murders, muggings, thieving, cheating, lying, and all sorts of wicked things happening everywhere. Just look around you and see that this world is a mess. We didn’t choose to live in this world, but we are born here, and all of us are affected by this brokenness. It wasn’t supposed to be like this (Draw your first circle with a heart in the middle).
In the beginning, God didn’t create a broken world like this. God created a good world; in this good world, he made a garden that the Bible calls Eden. In it, he placed a man and woman, and it didn’t matter that they were naked because God fulfilled them in everything. God said they could eat any fruit in the garden except for one tree, but they disobeyed, and because they disobeyed, they had to leave God’s presence because of their sin. Sin separated them from God, and they had to leave the garden. From that moment, everything would be difficult (draw your second circle). The Bible says all of us continue to choose to do wrong, and this separates us from God.
We find ourselves now, in this world, a place of brokenness and sin (draw the second circle to the right of the first circle with various squiggly lines). We know it can be a terrible place filled with pain and suffering much of the time. We all feel the brokenness of this world at one point or another. We long for a place where we can find fulfillment. People try many different things to fill this empty longing and escape this broken world. Nobody likes to be here, and we all are looking for ways out. So we turn to partying, alcohol, drugs, sex, power, money, or hobbies to fix it. Some people turn to religion and do good deeds or withdraw entirely from the world. Or if I am successful in my job or career, maybe that will take me out of this brokenness (draw four or five squiggly arrows escaping the circle). Many of us believe that doing good deeds or religion will save us. However, the reality is that all these things never get us out of our brokenness. They are like springs; they look like they will launch us out but always pull us back into the brokenness.
God sees this, and he doesn’t want us to stay in this brokenness because he loves us. He made a solution for this world to make it possible for us to get out of our broken state and return to him (draw a door on the second circle, draw a third circle below the first two). He did so through Jesus. God came down into the world as the man Jesus (draw an arrow pointing down). If you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. He lived a perfect life. He never sinned, even though he experienced all the temptations, pain, and suffering found in this world. He told everyone to repent and turn to God. But the government and religious leaders did not like his message, and they had him killed. He was crucified, nailed to a cross to die (draw a cross in the circle), and buried in a grave. He didn’t deserve to die on the cross. And to prove that what he said was true, he arose from the grave three days later, and his message was simple. He said if anybody repents and believes in him and makes Him their Lord (draw a person kneeling and draw a crown on the circle), they will be saved, and God will forgive all of their sins. This is why he came into this world, “so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (Draw the happy person) He is now reigning in Heaven at the right hand of God and He promises to return to judge the world one day. (draw an up arrow)
Should we choose to follow Jesus and make him Lord of our life, God promises to give us all of himself and heal us from our brokenness by restoring his original design. Our salvation is not the end; it is just the beginning. God expects us to go out into the world, find other broken people, and tell them about Jesus(draw a person running from the first circle to the second circle). He wants them to find salvation too. That is why I am telling you this story of good news. I want you to be a part of restoring God’s design for this world. Will you repent, make Jesus your Lord and Savior, and join me in building His Kingdom?
This brief gospel story is just one example of The Three Circles Method of Sharing the Gospel. All of the versions outline the gospel with slightly different emphases on the various particulars in the story. I first saw this demonstrated in a bar by a fellow soldier to another soldier who was a professed atheist and wanted to know why we still believed in superstitions. He did not accept Jesus, but he stated he better understood our motivations and respected why we believed in Jesus Christ and wanted others to believe in him too. Who knows? My colleague may have planted a seed that will come to fruition someday.
Author: Jon-Roy Sloan is the Chief Communications Officer for NationsUniversity and the author of Anastasia Smiles: Love Needs No Translation. Disclaimer statement: Please note that the opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and are based on his personal understanding of scripture and how God works in our lives and do not necessarily reflect the views of NationsUniversity®.