Jesus gives his altar call

Scripture:

Matthew 16:24-26  "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."

Observation:

Wow! Jesus' evangelism is way different from mine! In this verse he calls for 3 things if someone wants to be a follower of Christ, here they are:

1. Deny yourself
   
2. Take up your cross
   
3. Follow him

This is a lot different from the old "Just repeat this prayer", or "Ask Jesus to come into your heart". I notice that Jesus never uses a "Sinner's Prayer" or asks someone to make a "decision", it's more like, turn your back on your own life and your own desires and be ready to give up your life if you have to. I know that Jesus is not suggesting salvation by works, but he is obviously making a commandment that his true followers will joyfully obey.

Application:

I try to share the Gospel with everyone I come into contact with. 20 years of being a fake Christian has probably given me a different perspective than most people. When I was 8 yrs old I repeated the "Sinner's Prayer", not having any idea what that meant. I'm not even sure why we use a sinner's prayer since it's not found in the Bible. I'ts funny because as a baby I was baptized Catholic, and I didn't know what was going on then, anymore than I knew what was going on when I asked Jesus to come into my heart at 8 yrs old. So I spent the next 20 yrs of my life thinking I was a Christian not even being born again. It wasn't until I read the Bible that I realized that I had been deceived. Maybe Jesus knows something we don't know. Maybe he knows how to call his own followers better than we do.

When I tell people about the grace of God through Jesus, sometimes I'm scarred to use the words of Jesus because they're hard words. Sometimes I think I should just tell people God has a wonderful plan for their lives, and Just have them repeat a prayer. Sometimes I think I should just tell them all the positive things and how their lives will be so much better with Jesus. But then I read the book of Matthew, and I see that Jesus didn't evangelize that way.

Prayer:

Dear Lord, I'm just trying to make sense of all this in my head, You command us to share the good news with every creature. I just want to share the gospel and have someone be born again. I just want to be a tree that bears fruit. In Jesus name Amen!