How to Tell Anyone About Jesus (and What He’s Done in Your Life)

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Hey everybody! Woo! Welcome. If you were not awake, you are now. I’m Christine Gordon, and this is Vera Smits, and we are here to talk about this right here: how to tell anyone about Jesus and what He’s done in your life. If you did not mean to be in that session, feel no shame. Quietly get up and exit. Find the right, or stay. There’s room. We’re glad to have you. Let me just introduce. We’re going to introduce ourselves just real quick before we get going. This is Vera. If you don’t know her, Vera Schmidt. If you’re from Indiana, though, you might say Vera. That’s common. Vera. This is Vera

Vera Schmitz
or Vera.

Christine Gordon
She and her sister Natalie Abbott are the co-founders of Dwell Differently, raise your hand if you know Dwell Differently. Yes, okay. She, which of course, as you know, exists for lots of good reasons. But one of the best thing that happens is you have these beautiful tattoos and jewelry that will teach you letter by letter, so that you can memorize scripture. So if you’re terrible like me at memorizing scripture, they will help you. She is the creative director, and she’s also wife to Matt, and she has three boys, so she has no free time. And we’re very lucky to have her right here. She’s also written multiple books. She and her sister wrote “Dwell Differently. Over, I’m going to get this right. Overcome negative thinking with the simple practice of memorizing God’s truth with her sister. Nailed it. Thank you. That’s Vera or Vera, depending on where you’re from.

Vera Schmitz
I’m Vera, and I’m so glad you guys are here. This is my friend Chris. We actually happen to live in the same city, which is kind of cool because they pair you up, and we just happen to kind of know each other before we got to do this session. Chris is the co-founder of At His Feet Studies, which they have a booth out there. If you want to check out their stuff, it’s beautiful, helpful, very approachable Bible studies for women. She’s an adjunct professor at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, and she is wife to Michael and mom to two college and one high school aged kiddo. She and Hope Blanton, her co-writer, she is her friend Hope is a licensed therapist. Have written 12 Bible studies together. She’s also contributed with Dan Doriani. Did I say Dorian? Is it? I nailed it to his book on the seven deadly sins, it’s called *The Death of the Deadly Sins* She is also co-author with Hope Lanton of BNH&H’s book that I’m excited about. It’s coming out in September. You can actually pre-order it. *Hope for the Anxious and Depressed: A Biblical and Practical Guide for Christians Walking Through the Darkness* Who doesn’t need that themselves, or have a friend who needs it? And like I said, it comes out in September. So this is my friend, and we can’t wait to talk about the thing we love the most, which is Jesus,

Christine Gordon
and how to share him. Yes, yes.

Vera Schmitz
So I’m going to start. We’re going to be pretty casual, I would say, because hopefully we can be conversational in talking with others about Jesus, so we decided a Q and A format made a lot of sense. And so my first question here for Chris is: Where might you be asked to share a testimony, and what does that even mean?

Christine Gordon
Yeah, I think I would have said a long time ago, sharing my testimony would have been like telling someone how I came to know Jesus, which it is. But what as I’ve become, I didn’t become a Christian until I was 20, and it was because people started doing exactly what we’re about to talk about. They started talking about Jesus in a way that they weren’t necessarily trying to convert me. They were just talking about how good he was, and I started to get to know them and see the beauty of him in their lives, and it just drew me in. So I was 20 years old, a very new Christian, and what I’ve learned in the last now I’m 51 over the last 31 years is that there’s so much opportunity to share a testimony about Jesus, because that’s all it is. It doesn’t have to be necessarily how you came to faith. It’s just talking about the goodness of God, the faithfulness of Jesus, His kindness, His His love for you, His tenderness, whatever it is. And so, it’s it’s anywhere that you are. The first time I was asked to share my testimony, I was in sub-Saharan Africa, in Malawi, in a market, and one of the missionaries just looked at me and said, “Go ahead, share. And I was like, “What? I was, I think I was 22. I said, “What do I say? He said, “Just talk about, you know, talk about the goodness of God. That’s sharing a testimony, and it can be on your neighbor’s yard, it can be in your church, it can be, it doesn’t have to be a narrow, a narrow thing, at all. And sometimes it’s it’s probably not going to sound like, as most of you know, hey, would you share your testimony with me? It’s going to come in a lot of different forms. For me, it’s been I happen to have had a lot of suffering in my life of various kinds over the years, and sometimes it. Will sound like, hey, how are you? How do you keep going? Because I know what happened. Or for my neighbors, who live near me, I have a I have three neurodivergent children. One use has used a wheelchair. One is a adopted drug baby who has been very violent. They see the police come to my house multiple times, and over the years, when finally my across the street neighbor, across the street neighbor who I love, just said, “How do you, how do you, how do you remain positive? Because I see, I don’t mean to be nosy, but I see what goes on at your house. Sometimes share your testimony with me sounds like that. That’s the invitation: is how do you X, or why haven’t you Y? Yeah,

Vera Schmitz
yeah, that’s really good. I I feel like sometimes you can I can almost feel it in my spirit, where it’s like something will be said, and you can just feel this door is opening, and it’s an opportunity to not just be like, oh, you know, just just getting through. It’s it’s taking that pause and trusting that the the God of the universe, right, His Holy Spirit is living in you, and this moment matters, and that you are not alone, and it’s not even you doing anything, but the power of the Holy Spirit is in you to proclaim, “Hey, this comes from my hope in Jesus. And let me tell you a little bit. Okay, so Chris, what are the elements of a good testimony? Because, like you said, it’s not always going to be like. So, what’s your testimony? So, how do you think about sharing about Jesus? What are the things that if if you were going to have a bullet list of mapping this out, how would you map it out? Yeah.

Christine Gordon
So I think there’s there’s an over there’s an umbrella, and then I would say there are basically three things. So like if you think about the umbrella, is if you think about the word testimony, you are testifying, and you’re not testifying about yourself or your story, right? You’re testifying about God and His goodness. So, if you can think through that frame of like what you need them to know is not necessarily your story will help, but it’s just the medium, right, for talking about what God has done, His power, His glory. So, if that’s the umbrella, then I think number one is your need, and we don’t like to talk about, we don’t like to necessarily be vulnerable or for people to see how needy we are. But I will tell you, after years and years, I’m older than a lot of you. That is what they will resonate with, because they may not be saying exactly to you, “My husband is verbally abusive. We’ve run out of money. I just lost my job. My child just had this terrible diagnosis. Whatever it is, but they live in a broken world, which means they have pain in their lives, and you have pain in your life. So part of I would say number one under the umbrella of testifying about Jesus is being vulnerable about your need, what you have needed, and where where Jesus has met you, which is the second thing. Right? Is where did Jesus show? Where did God provide for you? So your need and His provision, and that’s that can be anywhere. That can be strength when I needed it. Money kept me awake when I needed to stay up. Kept my child going through finals. Whatever it is, and then third, what does that say about him? I think even just those three things. Here was my need. For me, one of my lifelong struggles has been with treat. I always get the name wrong. Treatment-resistant clinical depression. I’ve struggled my whole adult life, and so talking about God getting me through bouts of terrible depression where I literally could not get out of bed, couldn’t take care of my children, and talking about this is how bad it was. This is what God did: gave me a husband, gave me friends, helped my children get to school when I literally could not help them get dressed because He is, and that’s the end of it. Because He’s whatever to me He’s been faithful, He’s generous, He’s whatever. If you can remember your test of who you’re testifying about, and talk about your need, how he met you in that need, and who he is. I think that’s a helpful grid for helping us remember what we’re talking about.

Vera Schmitz
I love that because my next question is: I think for a lot of people who grew up in the church, their next thing that they feel maybe would be, well, my testimony is boring, right? I was saved when I was seven. So, what would you say to that person when that’s their reply?

Christine Gordon
Yeah, yeah, and that’s a lot of that’s hopefully that’s a lot of people’s story, right? Like we want that for our children. I think two things. One, if you. Do have a sexy testimony. Some of us have. I have a very sexy testimony. Here’s the downside of a sexy testimony: is usually that means blatant sin. It did in my case, and it means a whole lot of pain, which costs either a lot of money for counseling, a whole lot of help over the years, and a whole lot of work to get to a place where where it takes a long time to heal, and so it sounds really exciting. But what if on the on the backside of that is a whole lot of pain, and and habits that we make take time to change. So I would say that’s the downside. Here’s the other thing that I really want you to hear: the Bible. What the Bible says about us before we are saved, whether we are a five-year-old. Raise your hand, and I don’t mean to, you know, put anybody in box, but like homeschooled, Christian college, went to seminary, married a pastor. That person, or me, both of you were dead. That’s what the Bible says. There is no, there’s no deader than dead. I wasn’t more dead than she was. You know what I’m saying? The Bible it also says you were in chains, you were blind, you were deaf. So no matter where you started, and if you are a believer, what has happened is you have gone from death to life, you’ve gone from being an object of wrath of the God of the universe, which is terrifying, to an object of mercy. So there’s no boring. I think that has come about because we have used the wrong thing to judge what’s exciting, and salvation is exciting because you go from death to life. So I love

Vera Schmitz
that. I love it because I was a little girl. I was eight, and it could be seen as boring from the outside. But I think about my eight-year-old self and choosing Jesus and the weight that came off my shoulders as an eight-year-old-it was very, very real. And I think about her, and I’m like, “There’s nothing boring about that. There’s nothing boring about that. There was a there was a purpose for that. It also makes me think that a lot of times I don’t when I’m sharing with somebody about Jesus, I rarely talk about my eight-year-old testimony. Very rarely, I talk about what you said, my pain points, the moments where I was-I sometimes struggle with anxiety myself, and I talk about going through a year of such bad anxiety, same situation. I could hardly get out of bed for an entire year. I would have to listen to scripture to help get out of bed to go to the grocery store, and those those are those are hard things to talk about. I couldn’t even talk about those things when I was going through them. It was it was I was ashamed of it. But when you get to the point when the Lord has brought you out, you can’t not talk about it, and so those are the those are the things that connect you with people. Is hey, I dealt with I see you, I see what you’re experiencing. I’ve been there before, so it doesn’t always have to be I didn’t know Jesus and then He saved me, and it it can be his your testimony about him in your needs right now,

Christine Gordon
right? But let’s transition to that. Okay. What if it is? What if it? We talked some about you know you may you may be talking to a neighbor who does know him. We may be talking to each other. We were doing that just before we came talking about how Jesus got us through the last year, but what if it is? What if it’s outside of that? Like where and how, with people that we maybe have no idea where they are, what they think, how they grew up. How do we broach that?

Vera Schmitz
That’s a great question.

Christine Gordon
That’s why you’re here, Vera.

Vera Schmitz
Okay, so one one thing. So, like, if you’re sitting here and you’re like, “I signed up for the session because I wanted, I want to tell people about Jesus, but maybe you’re nervous or you’ve never done it before, or maybe you’ve only done it in a church setting. The cool thing is that there’s always an opportunity. My favorite opportunity to share about Jesus is when when it seems like all of the pressure is off. So when I remember, whenever I went to college, I was like, “This is awesome. Nobody knows me. I can be whoever I want to be, and I had it mapped out in my mind. I’m going to go to college, and I’m going to tell everybody about Jesus because they don’t know that I didn’t really talk about him to my high school friends that much. So now I get to go and and be new, and I can I can do it as big and as bold as I want. And so I got to college, and I had there was another I ran track in college, and there was another guy on the team. And he was a super hardcore, like self-proclaimed, tell everybody I’m an atheist. And he kind of always was kind of poking at me a little bit, like, why do you believe that? What about this? What about that? Like 1000 questions and all the reasons why I shouldn’t believe. And I would just engage him. I didn’t have all the answers, and I remember calling my brother-in-law, who was a pastor, and be like, “I don’t have the answer to this, and he’d send me another book to read. So I learned a lot because I was like, you know, used to just being like, “Well, you just believe because you have faith, you know. And he had all these really smart questions and rebuttals, and and so my first question to you might be: Is there a new space for you to to share your faith? Did your kid just join a new soccer team, and there is a group of people who don’t really know you yet? Like this is a really cool opportunity for you to be the person you’ve always wanted to be. Think about that Christian in your life. You’re like, man, they’re just so stinking bold. I just love the way they talk about Jesus. They’re always talking about Him. It’s not offensive. It’s not like in your face. Like, close your eyes, imagine how they are, and and in your own version of who you are. Like, be that person. You have the again. You have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, empowering you to do God’s will, right? And what is His will that we would believe in the Christ? Okay, so you have everything you need, and so my first challenge would be like, okay, be brave in the new situations. That’s like very low-hanging fruit in my mind. I can go talk to this mom who I’m meeting at soccer practice for the first time because she has no idea if I talk about Jesus or if I don’t. And then two is just praying and listening. The number of times I have I have like actually paused and thought. You know what? I’m just gonna. I’m just gonna ask that the Lord would show me. I have 10 spare minutes. I’m waiting for kids at X, Y, or Z. I’m just gonna ask the Holy Spirit if He wants me to do something. Like I’m gonna have ears to hear and eyes to see. He will do things. He will do things. He will bring people, and it doesn’t always have to be like. So I feel like the Lord wants me to tell you about Jesus, but there are ways to connect. And actually, I was listening as I was listening to Melissa Kruger out there talking about that fruit, right? She’s talking about the tree by the water, and all this fruit is on the tree. I would hate. This is kind of going in and out. So, oh, there we go. I would hate for my tree that has all this wonderful fruit. Right, I’m filled with the Holy Spirit. I know God. I know His love. I know Jesus’s comfort. I know the peace He brings. I know the rest He brings. I know my salvation.

Vera Schmitz
I have this full tree of fruit, and it’s falling off the branches and rotting on the ground. What a shame! And so I love that she brought that up. I was like, yes. I was like, yes. You got to let the let let feed the people, right? And so there, like I said, there’s been these moments where I have asked the Lord to give me that opportunity, and you’re just giving people a taste. It’s just a taste. It’s a taste, and he will use that. It’s it is the seed you’re giving the seed and the taste of. That’s right. And it

Christine Gordon
doesn’t have to be the whole story at once. It can just be a taste. And I think too, in those situations, sometimes we think if I don’t get this right, this is my one shot. If I don’t get if I don’t say it right. If I don’t do it right, and someone said something to me once that I’ve thought about so many times, I thought that’s so helpful. They were like, you know what, Chris? God actually is after them more than you are, huh? He actually loves them more than you do. He’s actually, you know, about C.S. Lewis and the the Hound of Heaven coming after people. He actually runs faster than you do, and to think like the spirit who is alive in us is more motivated than I am to to go after the person that I’m that I’m looking at. We have a really great team, so if you are intimidated, I think like she’s saying when you stop and say, even if you tell him this is really intimidating, I don’t know what to say. But there, but you made this person. You knit them together. Would you help? Would you show up? And like she says, he will. He’ll go. He’ll give you opportunities. Tell us specifically, Vera, about you have a group of moms in your neighborhood, would you just talk about that

Vera Schmitz
in the hood

Christine Gordon
a little bit? In your hood,

Vera Schmitz
in their hood.

Christine Gordon
That’s right.

Vera Schmitz
So I felt this was probably two summers ago. I just felt this like kind of what am I doing? What am I doing? Am I telling people about Jesus? This kind of press on my life. And I had a few. I have a few friends in the neighborhood. Maybe should I use yours? Is it kind of going in and out? Am I making that up? Yeah. Okay. There we go. I I felt this press, and I’m like, Lord, I don’t have any time. I you know I run a business with my sister. I’m I’m hardly doing the things, but I feel this press of like I need I need to tell I need to tell people about Jesus, and so I sent a text. My sister-in-law also lives in the neighborhood, and so I was like, you know what? I’m and she’s a believer. Like I’m just gonna. I feel like women carry a lot, don’t have anywhere to share it, and need a place. So I sent this text message out. I probably knew four of the women, and there were about six that I was like, “Hi! Like I could I could tell you what their name was, but I did not know them. And so I sent out a text, and I was like, “Hey, my name’s Fira. For those of you don’t know me, I got your name from Kayla, and Kayla and I are gonna do a night at my house, food and drink, and I just put out the felt need. I was like, “Listen, if you’re a mom and you all are, if you’re a woman and you all are, like you carry a lot, and a lot of times we don’t have a place to take that, and a lot of the time we don’t have a place to connect and be loved. And so I’m just going to have a space at my house for anybody who wants to come, and we’re going to share about what’s going on in our lives. And at the end, I’m going to pray for everybody. And I specifically said, you don’t have to pray. That’s not at all gonna happen. I will pray just to kind of close us out, and I’m like, I’m just gonna send this text, and I’m kind of sweating. I’m like, well, feels like a lot to the people I don’t know, and some of them I know, or a few of them, I’m like, yeah, I think they’re church goers. Some of them definitely are not church goers. Send the text, and it was bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. All 11 of them said yes. They all came, and they ate food, and we sat in a room that is too small for 11 people, very close to one another, and everybody shared, and some people cried, and these are this was not a Bible study. This was this was just neighbors, and I I said we’re all going to kind of share. I’m going to finish. I’m going to share a thought, and then I’ll pray for everybody. And so it got to me, and I ended up just sharing a scripture about how, for me, my testimony on carrying a burden is that in Christ all things hold together. So there’s this promise for me that I don’t have to hold it all together because everything is in the hand of Christ. And so I just share this. One woman is like weeping. She and she literally said this, and I’m certain she does not follow Jesus, she said that is the most beautiful thing I have ever heard, and she’s crying, and I’m like, okay, and then I’m just gonna pray for everybody. So I pray for everybody, and then it was literally like, when’s the next one? When are we doing this again? When are we doing this again? And so we, I waited, and I just kind of again, it was I, I don’t have much to offer, right? I’m my my schedule is like your schedule, right? And I’m tired like you’re tired, and so I was just like waiting for like, okay, Lord, it feels like maybe the right time. Are you asking me to do this again? Okay, and it’s not scheduled or anything.

Vera Schmitz
It’s like I literally send us I send a text on Sunday night, be at my house Tuesday at eight. This is how it works every time, and I’ve just decided, like, as the Lord moves me, I’m going to invite, and we’re going to just-I’m going to give them a taste every time. And so every time it’s a new topic. So we did a one question I asked was very simple: What do you want? You want to know about somebody? Ask them what they want. What do you? So it said. What do you want? What are you longing for? Is it peace, rest, connection with a spouse or a kid? And left it open. I was like, I’ll see you guys at eight. They all show up, and everybody shares. And then I talked to them. I I told them about John 1010 that I’ve come to give you life and life to the full, and how I was saying that’s what I want. I want this full life, and that’s what Jesus gives to me. And then I think back. Actually, it was maybe even that that time we got together. There was a gal, and she comes in, and she’s a sailor, so she is swearing left and right. This was the first time she’d ever come in, and she’s dropping f bombs, and I’m like, “That’s so loud! My kids are still waiting down in the basement. No, I didn’t say anything. I just let her be. And so finally, she’s like, “Oh wait, this is kind of like a churchy thing. She’s like, “Should I not say that in your house? And I, I just looked at her. I said, “Hey, you come in here, and you be all of you, exactly as you are.” As long as I can be exactly who I am, and she’s like, okay, and so it just it like allowed her to be herself, but it also allowed me to say the whole thing, right? Because then I can I can give her my whole truth about who Jesus is. Don’t

Christine Gordon
you think we forget too? Before you go on, we forget because we get used to as believers, I think we get so used to the fact that we have comfort. You have the answer to those questions of what do you want and where are you going to get it. And I think sometimes when we become believer, when we’ve been believers for a while, we forget how rich we actually are, and what that means is that all those women on our street, they are not, and so when she, it’s like she’s holding out gold, and they’re like, really, really, you’re you’re gonna give this to us? So that’s I would say that’s another encouragement about what she’s doing is, don’t forget what you’re holding, and that it is actually what everybody needs, and it’s it feels scary, and you have to get up. But she is very. What I do know about Vera is she she is ready to hear yes or no, and that’s the scary thing, right? Because we’re all afraid we’re going to be rejected, we’re going to be annoying, we’re going to be that like Bible thumping whatever, and you do have to be ready to hear no, but you also might need to be ready to hear yes, and how many yeses might there be in your workplace, in your street, in your family, in lots of places? Go on.

Vera Schmitz
Anyway, it’s true. It’s true. So it’s just I’m not I’m not asking anybody. I’m not altar calling them every every time at the end, and and maybe one day there will be a moment where whether it’s one on one with one of the women that they want to go further. Like I have one gal, I’m like I love her so much. I love her so much, and it’s like all I want him to do is to know the hope of Jesus, right? And I pray. I’m like, Lord, what do you want me to do next? Because I I do sometimes feel this pressure of like I want to give him Jesus right now, you know. And there might be that moment, and I pray that it will, and he will have he will I will have everything I need. Or maybe it won’t be me. Maybe it’ll be somebody else. But it’s just trusting and and feeding them, I’m I’m actually feeding them with really good snacks. I go to Trader Joe’s, and I have all the yummy things as I like the yummy things. And but I’m giving them my best bread. I’m giving them the bread of life. I’m giving them everything. I’m giving them everything, and they can feel that. And so they keep coming because they’re hungry, because they want to be satisfied. So you know, maybe this is something that you can do. You can ask that question. People like to be asked questions. People want to go deeper. We just we just had him. I just had him over to my house a couple weeks ago, and I asked him, “What are you unlearning right now? What are you unlearning? You know, and then I I got to confess how I’m hurried, and I’m trying to unlearn my my hurried spirit that I learned during the pandemic. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry! You know, it’s like I wake up in the morning. I told him, I was like, I wake up in the morning and I’m unloading the dishwasher like it is the Indy 500. I am in the pit crew of the dishwasher, and I’m like, “What am I doing this for? Who am I hurrying for? So, like that confession to them of like, “No, like I’m not perfect. The Lord’s working on me all the time. It just is relatable, and they want they want to they want to know, so and be known.

Christine Gordon
Yeah, I would say too that part of what they they I’m just going to use you as my example all the time. Part of what they are drawn to is you are the aroma of Christ, and it’s like we forget that too, right? That the spirit is alive, and we live in this world where there’s so much. I mean, death in the sense of like decay, right, and sad and distortion, and when you walk into a room and she is offering herself as a as a welcome to care, that goes further than you might think. Like she’s at she’s not she’s not offering Bible verses, but even just offering yourself and your ear,

Vera Schmitz
yeah,

Christine Gordon
and asking questions can go can really like that’s that resonance of the brokenness that then you get to eventually talk about just the kindness of God and His mercy.

Vera Schmitz
Yeah, that’s really good, really really good. Yeah,

Christine Gordon
I would say too. I would love to hear. So, what do you? What would you do? I’m totally thrown around the spot. What would you do if one of them would have just said, “No, thank you” Would it have intimidated you, scared you? What if one would have like come to your house and said, “I don’t think I’ll be back” What do you do with that? What do you do with the nose when they come? Because they’re gonna come.

Vera Schmitz
Because they do come. Yeah. Like sometimes people come for a while. Like some one gal, she’s come, and then now she hasn’t been for like three, and I’m like, that’s okay.

Christine Gordon
Yeah,

Vera Schmitz
that’s okay. It’s totally okay. The the the. Let’s go. Okay. Actually, I think you did that. Yeah.

Christine Gordon
You can take that

Vera Schmitz
one.

Christine Gordon
Hold it like this.

Vera Schmitz
I’m holding it like

Christine Gordon
there. Yes, that’s right.

Vera Schmitz
Okay, what gives me so much peace is one. It’s not in my control. I’m not saving anybody. Thank God, it’s not my job.

Christine Gordon
That’s right.

Vera Schmitz
You are tossing seeds. That’s all you’re doing. In Matthew 13, he talks about this the parable of the seed, and these seeds get tossed out, right? And some of them take root and they spring up fast, and then they wither away because the sun was hot, or weeds grow up and choke it out, right? There’s all there’s all these different situations in that parable. Your job is not to do anything but to toss the seed. It’s like what Melissa said. It’s like the seed is in the fruit, right? So it takes all the pressure off.

Christine Gordon
Yeah,

Vera Schmitz
I. It’s like, I mean, Jesus was-he was. People walked away from him all the time, and some some people followed for a little while and then they walked away. It’s like I can’t-I can’t do anything about that except for pray for them. That’s

Christine Gordon
right. And the other thing about that is, you know, some when we were talking before, I-I’m a writer and I care about words, and I’m always afraid I’m not going to use the right words, or use the best words, or explain it the right way. And if you think about who, if you think about who Jesus is, he’s the bet. He was the best teacher of the word ever. And how many people rejected him? So obviously, it is not the excellence of your teaching. It’s not how great of an apologist you are. It is the work of the Spirit that, because if they walked away from Him,

Vera Schmitz
you’re going to get rejected.

Christine Gordon
You’re going to get rejected.

Vera Schmitz
I have a very smart friend. She’s actually in attendance here. She, I can remember how she she taught me that when you say something, that to pray that the things that are true and right and good and pure and lovely, all of those things would stick with the person. That that would stay, and anything that was distracting or maybe not perfectly said would just float away in the wind. They’re just words in the wind, and that too gives me so much peace because again, it’s like I I could never be perfect, right? So don’t be afraid that you’re going to say the wrong thing. Trust that the Lord will use. He uses it all. He will use it all.

Christine Gordon
That’s right. He can use the police coming to my house. He exactly. He can use it all. That’s right. Okay, if we were to if we were to give everyone in this room say three minutes to think about who in your life could you start to pray for, starting there, of course. Who in your life who do you see regularly? Who is in your neighborhood, in your workplace, whatever it is, who could you start praying for regularly? Because of course, that’s where we have to start, right? We cannot change hearts; only He can. So, once you’re praying for them, how would you help them make the next move?

Vera Schmitz
That’s a good question. I think the first thing for me, at least in this stage of life, is just thinking about proximity. Who am I around? It’s like I could start something, have a grand idea, or I could just invite the people in my neighborhood, or invite the soccer moms, or my coworkers, or my dorm mates, there. It’s just proximity. It’s just like do the tiniest, easiest thing for you. What’s what’s the tiniest? At least for me in this season, it’s like what is manageable. What can I say yes to and keep saying yes to? And so that’s the first thing is proximity. My second thing when I think about this is like, what do I have to offer? It’s like, what are my my two fish and my loaves of bread? It’s like, okay, what do I have? Do I have any expertise? Do I have a large living room? Do I have an extra 45 minutes car ride that I go back and forward and back to, and I could see if somebody wants to ride along. Like literally, what what do you have to offer? Are you really good at making sourdough bread? Could you start a little sourdough making? She said no. She just shook her head. No, her sourdough is not good. No, but like, what do you have? What do you have? What if you offer God? I I just got an email. My name. As a like a little local swimming pool, and I got an email of this, or it started as a text on a on a text thread of all the the moms who have the pool membership to our neighborhood pool, and this mom was like, “Hey, if I started a yoga class on Sunday, would anybody come? It could be it’ll be free, or you can donate to the pool. And then one of the gals who’s on the pool board was like, “Hey, wait, let me handle this like officially. So then we get this email, and it’s this-they like turn it into this awesome event. And there’s going to be, you know, come and exercise, and then we’re going to have lemonade afterwards, and anybody can come. And I’m like, “Well, what if I threw an event at the pool? You know what I mean? It’s like just invite people. What what do I have to offer? Well, I have this pool that anybody can use. You know what I mean. So, like truly, take an inventory. What kind of time do you have? What kind of talents do you have? Do you have a cool space? Do you love coffee? What do you What do you have? And who can you invite in with you? And is there a way to then use that time with that that small group to say, hey, would it be fun if we like ask kind of deeper questions to one another? People love to connect; they really love to connect. So, what do you have to offer? What proximity, your expertise, and then I think the third thing is is truly like I said at the beginning is just this like ask ask God to show you in the random moments it could be an elevator moment like ask Him to reveal things and He will. My mother in law I love this. She she is she is a gift to the world. She asks her waitresses. She always says, “Hey, we’re gonna pray right before the food comes. And I just like to ask if you need any prayer, if you’ve got something going on, I’d love to. We’ll pray for you over our meal, and like the waitresses always say, “Yeah, I would love prayer. My mom’s got this going on, or my dad has this going on, or I’m studying for finals this week. They they will just they will say yes. Like how inviting is that, and like disarming. Like you, oh, you’re going to pray for your food anyway. Sure, you can pray for me.

Vera Schmitz
You know, so those are the three things: proximity, your expertise, and then just asking the Spirit for those kind of okay, God, what do you? I mean, a lot like think about the airport. You have strangers that you’re literally going to. If they’re flying this way and you’re flying that way, you’re never going to see them again. Why not ask the Lord to sit next to somebody if you like God make this happen? Do you want me to share something with this person?

Christine Gordon
Yeah, one more thing about about sowing seeds, like you were talking about, and the receiving the yes and the no. So here’s a great example of how you get both, and it’s not necessarily that you’re great or bad at it. It’s that the Spirit Himself is after those people, and we just get to get caught up in it and be a part of it. He doesn’t need us, you know, Jesus is appearing to people in Muslim countries all the time in dreams. I love those stories. I’m like, look, you don’t even need me. That’s you’re definitely showing up over here. But he lets us into this, and it’s amazing. So on my street, there was a woman two doors down here, who she’s living with her husband. They already had one little girl. I realized she was getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and I was like, “She’s having babies. I think she’s having twins. And sure enough, two little baby-we didn’t really talk. Two little baby carts came home one day, and so I bought a couple of onesies. I just wanted to celebrate with her, and I took them over, and she actually answered the door. Now listen, I didn’t go day three, but I took them over when she had a little time to come out of the cave, and I just said, “Hey, we haven’t met. I know you just recently moved in, but I saw you came home with babies. I’m Chris. I’m two doors down here. Congratulations! I’m so excited that you’ve brought these two babies home, and I just want to bring you a couple onesies. I’m down here. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m going to pray for your babies. I literally never heard from her. She waves, no words at all. Okay, across the street is another neighbor. We would wave back and forth. We started talking about flowers because I love to dig in the dirt. We had more and more conversations, and one day I figured she said something about rosé. She loved rosé, so I was I was at Aldi as one is, and I bought her like the cheapest bottle because my husband’s a pastor, and and I brought it to her and I was like, hey, I just I saw this. I don’t know if you’ve had it. I just thought you might enjoy it. Well, that started up another conversation. Then we had another conversation. Then she said something to me one day, and I pressed in a little bit. Okay, same street, same weak girl. This one across the street has read the entire New Testament with me. Is asking has asked me multiple times. Now, what exactly do I have to do? I have to do because I think I want this. Same weak girl, same strong spirit went after her. He is after them, and all you have to do is show up and, like she’s saying, just ask how you can help, because he is the one who loves and made them. So don’t don’t be afraid of being weak and feeling like you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t. It’s okay. It’s okay.

Vera Schmitz
It’s so good. Thank God we have God.

Christine Gordon
Thank God to do

Vera Schmitz
all the hard stuff.

Christine Gordon
That’s right. We have

Vera Schmitz
we have only like four minutes. Okay. Yeah. Oh my goodness. Should we do a couple questions or should we give them? Okay.

Christine Gordon
Okay.

Vera Schmitz
Okay. So Chris was telling you about what I like to do, which is help people memorize scripture. Well, one of the coolest things about memorizing scripture with our temporary tattoos is that people always are like, “What’s your what’s on your what’s your tattoo mean? And then it becomes this opportunity to share Jesus with people. So all of y’all, when you walk out, there’s two verses over there. One looks like a compass, and that verse is as far as the east is from the west. Okay, about our sin being moved, removed from us. Okay, the other kit is about how there is no other name by which we must be saved, and so I want each of you to have one of those and pray about it. Lord, you want me put this tattoo on, and if you’re not into the tattoos, that’s fine. You can put the card up in your house. People still ask, like, what does that? What are those letters? That jumbled letter mean? Okay, so we have those for you. But I’ve got a little giveaway. I’ve got four. I think no, maybe more, six, six brace, five bracelets that have the letters D E I L, which stands for do everything in love, which is just like the blanket over everything we’ve talked about. Like, just let the let love be over the whole thing. Take all the pressure off. So, I’m gonna I’m gonna randomly ask, or I’m gonna ask everybody, and then randomly pick y’all. But if you were going to describe how you feel about telling people about Jesus after today’s session, and you had to describe it in an emoji. Which emoji would you be? Just gonna pick. Raise up that hand. This one right here. Oh, okay. Come find me afterwards. Okay, I need somebody else from back here, maybe right here. Muscle arm. I love that emoji. Okay, over here. Oh yes, I love that. Okay, right here. The open hands. Let’s go. Yes. What about you? I love that. Okay, so is that five?

Christine Gordon
That’s five. Is

Vera Schmitz
there anybody who’s like still like super super nervous about sharing their faith? Okay, you come find me because I’ve got a necklace for you, and the verse on there is, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Christine Gordon
Don’t forget on your way out, she brought every one of you. Y’all are winners. You’re all winners,

Vera Schmitz
and you get a tattoo, and you get a tattoo.

Christine Gordon
Thanks for coming, you guys. Enjoy the conference.