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The simple purpose of this broadcast is to encourage you, exhort you, and motivate you to share your faith in Jesus Christ with those who are lost around you. Even though we will share some instructions on how to witness for the Lord from time to time, we believe that most Christians do not need to learn how to witness for the Lord, they just need to go and do it; so our aim is more motivational than instructional.
Our soul winning passage from the Word of God today is John 11:35 which reads: “Jesus wept.”
Allow me to share with you some important insights regarding this Scripture from David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible:
This shows that Jesus is not unfeeling, nor stoic, but with strong feeling He prepares to strike a blow against death, the enemy of God and man. Jesus is a passionate enemy of death.
To the mind of the ancient Greek, the primary characteristic of God was apatheia: the total inability to feel any emotion whatsoever. The Greeks believed in an isolated, passionless, and compassionless God. That isn’t the God of the Bible. That isn’t the God who is really there.
Our soul winning devotional is part 72 of our series titled “What Evangelism Is” from Dave Earley and David Wheeler.
Evangelism Is…Empathy with Action (Part 1)
Definitions of Empathy
Empathy is a powerful perspective and tool in the tool kit of any effective evangelist. But what is it?
Merriam-Webster defines empathy as “The action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.”
Answers.com defines empathy as “Identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives; the attribution of one’s own feelings to an object; sympathetic, sad concern for someone in misfortune. Synonym is also pity.”
The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia defines empathy as “Ability to imagine oneself in another’s place and understand the other’s feelings, desires, ideas, and actions. The empathic actor or singer is one who genuinely feels the part he or she is performing. The spectator of a work of art or the reader of a piece of literature may similarly become involved in what he or she observes or contemplates. The use of empathy was an important part of the psychological counseling technique developed by Carl R. Rodgers.”
According to Wikipedia, empathy (from the Greek empatheia (em-pa-thea), “to suffer with”) is commonly defined as one’s ability to recognize, perceive, and directly and experientially feel the emotion of another. As the states of mind, beliefs, and desires of others are intertwined with their emotions, one with empathy for another may often be able to define more effectively another’s modes of thought and mood. Empathy is often characterized as the ability to ‘put oneself into another’s shoes’ or experiencing the outlook or emotions of another being within oneself, a sort of emotional resonance.”
Empathy is essential in evangelism. If you want to reach people for Christ, do not just view them as potential church members or preverbal notches on your Bible. Put yourself in their shoes, be patient and walk with them, and then tell them about the One who understands their pain and will save their souls.
In our next broadcast, we will continue looking at why evangelism is…Empathy with Action.
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Dear friend, if you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, may I encourage you to get to know Him today. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Just believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose from the dead by the power of God for you so that you can be a part of the church in this life and in the life to come. Pray and ask Him to come into your heart today, and He will. Romans 10:13 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Until next time,
Keep the soul winner’s fire!
Daniel Whyte III has spoken in meetings across the United States and in over twenty-five foreign countries. He is the author of over forty books. He is also the president of Gospel Light Society International, a worldwide evangelistic ministry that reaches thousands with the Gospel each week, as well as president of Torch Ministries International, a Christian literature ministry which publishes a monthly magazine called The Torch Leader. He is heard by thousands each week on his radio broadcasts/podcasts, which include: The Prayer Motivator Devotional, The Prayer Motivator Minute, as well as Gospel Light Minute X, the Gospel Light Minute, the Sunday Evening Evangelistic Message, the Prophet Daniel’s Report, the Second Coming Watch Update and the Soul-Winning Motivator, among others. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from Bethany Divinity College, a Bachelor’s degree in Religion from Texas Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in Religion, a Master of Divinity degree, and a Master of Theology degree from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. He has been married to the former Meriqua Althea Dixon, of Christiana, Jamaica for over twenty-seven years. God has blessed their union with seven children. Find out more at www.danielwhyte3.com. Follow Daniel Whyte III on Twitter @prophetdaniel3 or on Facebook.
