Diary of the evangelist
Acts 1:1 In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach
Hymn for scheduled worship: Korean/English Hymnal #80 There is No Name So Sweet (#101 in previous version) In Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne documents her life and her thoughts in her diary, which she names Kitty, while in hiding for two years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Just like this, even if it is a small record, after time passes, it is left behind as a great masterpiece. We are evangelists. It is important to record all the Word, incidents, answers, hardships, and all things that the evangelists experience. If that is the case, concretely speaking, what would be good to record in the diary of the evangelist?
1. Today’s Word, prayer and evangelism
It does not even take ten minutes to organize the message through the Prayer Journal and start your day. If we are looking at the Word as we go about with our Prayer Journal, we will experience our life being put in proper order. In reality, it is not difficult to receive the guidance of God. With the Word we hold on to, all we need to do is pray with the Word like Daniel on a scheduled basis and like Paul in the field on a continuous basis. Lastly, as we organize our schedule in the morning, the works will arise if we just ask the question, ‘What is today’s evangelism?’ When we organize our day, the works will happen even if we just ask the questions, ‘Who will I meet tomorrow? In this precious meeting, what evangelism materials must I prepare?’ Even if we just do this, we can experience the evangelism that God Himself will do.
2. Recording our lifestyle
The physician, Luke, who recorded the book of Acts and the evangelist, Paul, who recorded the epistles, recorded the picture of the evangelism field of that age and every part of the life of the evangelist. Not only that, they even left behind short records of people who appeared trivial and people who needed to receive assistance. (While it may not seem important from one perspective, what is important is that it was left behind as a precious record.) They recorded in detail the evangelism works that arose in the field, and the unceasing recording they did about the things that arose in their lives have been relayed all the way to us. How important is this? If we record our life in the form of the diary of the evangelist, that itself remains as a meaningful masterpiece.
3. Record-keeping for important notes
We must leave behind important things as memos, or notes. The notes that the physician, Luke, left behind are the books of Luke and Acts, and the record that Paul left behind for Philemon is the book of Philemon. Apostle John left behind the book of John for Gaius. In this way, small records were gathered together over time and received the blessing of being left behind as the Bible. Make a challenge to utilize the Prayer Journal and record the diary of the evangelist.
- Organize today’s Word, prayer and evangelism, and rise to the challenge for the blessing of recording the important daily works.
Study of Evangelism Lecture 6 / 2010.10.16