Jim Petersen - Living Proof: Sharing the Gospel Naturally

Book excerpts from Jim Petersen's work:

*We are not dealing merely with ideas and philosophies; we are dealing with people. Ideas find their existence only in people's mind. In the zeal of our battle against ideas, we Christians often confuse matters by placing ourselves in a position of war against those who hold to those ideas. But we must always remember that we are sent to such people.

*In making a decision to become a Christian, the involvement of the will is fundamental. This is because it was our will that got us into trouble with God in the first place. Conversion is laying down our arms and coming out with our hands up. It is submitting again to God's sovereign rule over one's person.

*Faith: We must take care that faith is constructed on the only sure foundation, the rock of the living Word of God, incarnate and written. Faith cannot rest on anything else without being compromised. It cannot be syncretised with other religions, beliefs, or pagan or humanistic presuppositions. We come to God on His terms, not ours.

*Over the centuries, as Christians have sought to strike a balance between these two seemingly contradictory commands, we have swung from one extreme to another - from hermit like isolation to conformity to the world. But either extreme defeat God's purpose. Conformity to the world obscures the glory of God. Isolation renders the Christian model useless. The value of the congruence between our lives and our faith will be lost to the world if separation becomes isolation.

* a cool perspective on doctrines:
most of us emphasize certain doctrines far more than others. We favour certain forms of expressing our faith because they are so natural to us that we can't envision a Christian functioning without them. Often we consider certain behaviour to be normative and essential. Our strong feeling prompts us to elevate or emphasize these ideas to a point where they become requirements for anyone we minister to. This tendency restricts the Gospel.
We need to be careful of our religious traditions, our forms of worship, our personal doctrinal emphases, or our persuasions concerning Christian conduct- anything that is not in balance with the whole of scripture. If we are not in balance, then we offer a Jesus who is identified with things that may be important to us but are a stumbling block to those we seek to win. They won't take him because of the wrappings.
In the reality of his fullness, Jesus cannot e confined to any system. Did He became a Protestant with the reformation? Was he ever a Roman Catholic? Rather, He stands above our ecclesiastical structure and our theological systems. He is the gospel focus of all time, for all people. When we identify Him with our particular ecclesiastical persuasions, we isolate him in a limited space. In the process, we exclude much of the rest of the world.