Crossing Over Into Life

There's a passage of Scripture that lays out the importance of our being obedient to share our faith and give people the opportunity to receive Jesus as Lord.  It begins in 2nd Corinthians 5 and crosses over into chapter 6:
20Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.21For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain.2For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Now is the day - today could be the day that someone whom you engage in conversation or for whom you prayed, enters into eternal life with Jesus Christ through salvation.   You have been called; you have been sent - to share the message, to radiate His love, to be a shining and compelling example of what God can do, because He has done it in your life.  Sin has brought about brokenness, a departure from God's design, but through accepting the gospel and believing on Jesus, a person can change the course of his or her life and begin to recover and pursue God's design.  (That's based on a new guide and app called, the "3 Circles: Life Conversation Guide.")

In Romans 10, we see the prescription for salvation, the method by which a person can enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ:
9...if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.11For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."12For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him.13For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."

Today, the Southern Baptist Convention kicks off in Baltimore.  Traditionally, a pastors' conference precedes the opening of the convention, and the weekend prior to the start, a "Crossover" event is held, joining together churches from the host city, along with volunteers from numerous churches across the nation.

This year's Crossover event featured some 36 Baltimore-area Baptist churches that joined arms with nearly 2,000 volunteers from 18 states and Canada to serve the Baltimore community and share Christ with its residents, according to a report on the Baptist Press website.

One event was a block party hosted by Northeast Baptist Church, encompassing volunteers from churches from Mississippi and Virginia, as well as Baltimore.  That event included a presentation by a group of professional Christian athletes called the Strength Team and drew residents from the surrounding row houses.

Crossover Baltimore mobilization and logistics director Cindy Irizarry witnessed a mother and son give their lives to Jesus through the Strength Team's witness. She described the effect on the volunteers: "It was glorious to see so many of our church members and pastors so enthusiastic...You could see the hope and the excitement in their faces. To see volunteers, both local and from everywhere, come to serve -- it was exciting."

Captivate Christian Church, a Southern Baptist church plant, hosted Community Day in Patterson Park drawing about 8,000 neighbors and netting 1,700 new perspective families for the church.

One of the venues where seminary students served was the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware's Collegiate Ministry beach volleyball tournament held at Baltimore's Inner Harbor.

Bob Mackey, Embrace Baltimore executive director, said, "It was a marvelous day on so many fronts...One of my favorite highlights this week is having over 200 students from six seminaries volunteering the equivalent man hours of one person working 5.4 years full-time in Baltimore and sharing Christ with compassion, grace and determination."

At many of the Crossover Baltimore sites seminary students were putting into practice what they had received training for earlier in the week -- the "3 Circles: Life Conversation Guide." The guide is a new resource from the North American Mission Board. An app version can be found at sendnetwork.com or namb.net/3circles. 

Recognize that if we are doing the work of Christ and following His Great Commission, we can experience incredible excitement as the result of seeing people come to know the Lord.  As one of the Crossover leaders said, volunteers were joyful at their participation in spreading the gospel.   And, God has given us a variety of tools that can help us as we can share our faith.  One is the "3 Circles" guide I mentioned earlier.   There is a printed guide and a phone app that can help lead someone into a conversation about spiritual things.   It begins with God's Design, the first circle. Through sin we depart from God's design and experience Brokenness, which is represented by the second circle.  But the good news is that we can escape brokenness by repenting of sin and believing in - the Gospel, through which we can recover and pursue God's Design.  

Perhaps you have recognized that you are not walking in God's design for your life.  Your life is represented by brokenness because of sin.  You want to be free.  You can follow His path to salvation - confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe that God has raised Him from the dead.  You pray a simple prayer and ask Jesus to become the Lord of your life.