Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?
Dear Friend,
So I was at one of the local churches in Arizona the other day. I was there because I wanted to check out its bookstore. I like going to church bookstores because I enjoy seeing what they have to read. I think that you can tell a lot about a church by being in its bookstore. This particular church is really big, and so that means the bookstore is really big.
While walking around, I noticed something…something that I hadn’t seen in a really long time. It was right next to the rack with all the birthday cards (they also had encouragement cards, “thinking of you” cards, and those spiritual cards with bible verses in them). But I remember all that my eyes saw were the words “Four Spiritual Laws.”
I hadn’t seen a Four Spiritual Law track in what seemed like forever.
I pretended like I was looking at the greeting cards because these Four Spiritual Law tracks were right by the register, and so I honestly felt embarrassed at the thought of being caught looking at them. It worked out really well though because shortly after I had gotten there, the woman behind the counter left and went to the back of the store. So it was just this bright yellow booklet and me.
As I was looking through it, I was brought back to a specific time when I was working at a church…one of my jobs was to refill the track-rack in the main sanctuary! It was really funny because I remember wondering why in the world someone would come and take one of these tracks.
In this particular church, there were everyday tracks…but there were also more seasonal tracks for Christmas, Easter, and so forth.
Anyway, I want to show you a few of the things that the Four Spiritual Laws track says. In fact, I thought that I would just let the track speak for itself.
Adult?? Always BE Ready??
Free Booklets...Free Durable Vinyl Wallet...Free Easy User's Guide??
Tried and proven...Clear and biblical...Easy-to-use??
That’s just the front of it.
Inside the pamphlet is a user’s guide:
To open the conversation simply read the question on the cover of the
edition you selected. For example, ‘Have you heard of the Four Spiritual
Laws?’ Or, if you believe the person is a Christian, say, ‘I have been a
Christian for years, but I have found a way to express my faith that really
makes sense. I would like to share it with you. Have you heard of the
Four Spiritual Laws?’
The pamphlet goes on to read, ‘After presenting the Four Spiritual Laws, encourage the one with whom you have shared the ‘good news’ to receive
Christ. Do not hesitate to provide a specific opportunity to do so. Often
one who has previously appeared to be indifferent will want to pray when
he is confronted with the definite opportunity to ask Jesus Christ to be Savior
and Lord of his life. After presenting law Four, be sure to:
1. Ask, ‘Do you want a God-directed life, or a self-directed life?’
2. Read the prayer aloud at the end of the booklet and ask, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?’ then say, ‘if it does, you may wish to pray this prayer right now, and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.’ (Pause at this time for prayer. Make sure the person with whom you are sharing can see the prayer to read it.)
3. Pray: if the person hesitates to pray aloud, ask, ‘Would you like to repeat the prayer after me?’ If the person wishes to pray silently, suggest he end his prayer with an audible ‘Amen.’ If the person is not ready to pray, say, ‘One day I believe you will choose to receive Christ and will want to know how to do so. Do you understand how to receive Christ?’
It makes sense to me why some people don’t like Christians after reading this pamphlet. And maybe it isn’t fair to assume the idea of people not liking Christians just because of this track, so maybe it’s more of an emotion of frustration. I sometimes get this barbaric feeling that too many Christians have been tamed and can no longer survive in the real world. Especially when it comes to evangelism (the art of sharing who Jesus is). That is why people use stuff like the Four Spiritual Laws, which is sad. You would hope that telling someone about Jesus would be a little more free flowing and that you didn’t need a user’s guide (literally).
I love going to the Zoo. It is always a good time. Christmas is coming soon, and even though I’m not a big Christmas music fan (I think Christmas music is kind of like K-Love on steroids), I love going to the Phoenix Zoo during the month of December because they have this thing called ZOO Lights. But I always get sad for the animals when I’m there -- I always wonder if the animals ever think about what it was like before the Zoo (B.Z.). Back when some human didn’t feed them three times a day…but instead they had to go and prey over and hunt for food…and if they didn’t kill anything they didn’t get to eat.
If you ask me, the Animals at the Zoo always look unhappy. If I were an animal at the Zoo (I would hope I was a Lion), I wouldn’t like it.
In a sense, Christians are a lot like these animals. I’m not trying to say that Christians should go and prey on and kill people who aren’t Christians for the sake of evangelism…I just think that there is beauty in being raw and untamed. Especially when you are talking about someone like Jesus.
My fear is that the church is turning into the Zoo.
They capture people from the world, and then they tame them by taking away their natural ability to relate to people…
I just want to go to the Zoo to see Christmas lights…not Christians.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
So I was at one of the local churches in Arizona the other day. I was there because I wanted to check out its bookstore. I like going to church bookstores because I enjoy seeing what they have to read. I think that you can tell a lot about a church by being in its bookstore. This particular church is really big, and so that means the bookstore is really big.
While walking around, I noticed something…something that I hadn’t seen in a really long time. It was right next to the rack with all the birthday cards (they also had encouragement cards, “thinking of you” cards, and those spiritual cards with bible verses in them). But I remember all that my eyes saw were the words “Four Spiritual Laws.”
I hadn’t seen a Four Spiritual Law track in what seemed like forever.
I pretended like I was looking at the greeting cards because these Four Spiritual Law tracks were right by the register, and so I honestly felt embarrassed at the thought of being caught looking at them. It worked out really well though because shortly after I had gotten there, the woman behind the counter left and went to the back of the store. So it was just this bright yellow booklet and me.
As I was looking through it, I was brought back to a specific time when I was working at a church…one of my jobs was to refill the track-rack in the main sanctuary! It was really funny because I remember wondering why in the world someone would come and take one of these tracks.
In this particular church, there were everyday tracks…but there were also more seasonal tracks for Christmas, Easter, and so forth.
Anyway, I want to show you a few of the things that the Four Spiritual Laws track says. In fact, I thought that I would just let the track speak for itself.
Adult?? Always BE Ready??
Free Booklets...Free Durable Vinyl Wallet...Free Easy User's Guide??
Tried and proven...Clear and biblical...Easy-to-use??
That’s just the front of it.
Inside the pamphlet is a user’s guide:
To open the conversation simply read the question on the cover of the
edition you selected. For example, ‘Have you heard of the Four Spiritual
Laws?’ Or, if you believe the person is a Christian, say, ‘I have been a
Christian for years, but I have found a way to express my faith that really
makes sense. I would like to share it with you. Have you heard of the
Four Spiritual Laws?’
The pamphlet goes on to read, ‘After presenting the Four Spiritual Laws, encourage the one with whom you have shared the ‘good news’ to receive
Christ. Do not hesitate to provide a specific opportunity to do so. Often
one who has previously appeared to be indifferent will want to pray when
he is confronted with the definite opportunity to ask Jesus Christ to be Savior
and Lord of his life. After presenting law Four, be sure to:
1. Ask, ‘Do you want a God-directed life, or a self-directed life?’
2. Read the prayer aloud at the end of the booklet and ask, ‘Does this prayer express the desire of your heart?’ then say, ‘if it does, you may wish to pray this prayer right now, and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.’ (Pause at this time for prayer. Make sure the person with whom you are sharing can see the prayer to read it.)
3. Pray: if the person hesitates to pray aloud, ask, ‘Would you like to repeat the prayer after me?’ If the person wishes to pray silently, suggest he end his prayer with an audible ‘Amen.’ If the person is not ready to pray, say, ‘One day I believe you will choose to receive Christ and will want to know how to do so. Do you understand how to receive Christ?’
It makes sense to me why some people don’t like Christians after reading this pamphlet. And maybe it isn’t fair to assume the idea of people not liking Christians just because of this track, so maybe it’s more of an emotion of frustration. I sometimes get this barbaric feeling that too many Christians have been tamed and can no longer survive in the real world. Especially when it comes to evangelism (the art of sharing who Jesus is). That is why people use stuff like the Four Spiritual Laws, which is sad. You would hope that telling someone about Jesus would be a little more free flowing and that you didn’t need a user’s guide (literally).
I love going to the Zoo. It is always a good time. Christmas is coming soon, and even though I’m not a big Christmas music fan (I think Christmas music is kind of like K-Love on steroids), I love going to the Phoenix Zoo during the month of December because they have this thing called ZOO Lights. But I always get sad for the animals when I’m there -- I always wonder if the animals ever think about what it was like before the Zoo (B.Z.). Back when some human didn’t feed them three times a day…but instead they had to go and prey over and hunt for food…and if they didn’t kill anything they didn’t get to eat.
If you ask me, the Animals at the Zoo always look unhappy. If I were an animal at the Zoo (I would hope I was a Lion), I wouldn’t like it.
In a sense, Christians are a lot like these animals. I’m not trying to say that Christians should go and prey on and kill people who aren’t Christians for the sake of evangelism…I just think that there is beauty in being raw and untamed. Especially when you are talking about someone like Jesus.
My fear is that the church is turning into the Zoo.
They capture people from the world, and then they tame them by taking away their natural ability to relate to people…
I just want to go to the Zoo to see Christmas lights…not Christians.
heart.soul.mind.
kyle diroberts
posted by Kyle DiRoberts at 8:34 PM
6 comments
