The basic approach...part 2

In a previous post we noted that when approaching someone with the gospel it is important to ask the question:Who am I speaking to?Let me suggest a second question to ask.Who am I?I think this is an important question to consider for two reasons.First, we see in the Scriptures that God was happy to use different people with different personalities to communicate His message with others in a variety of different ways. Paul is not Peter is not James is not the prophet Obadiah. While certainly we can learn from others and while certainly there are principles that transcend personality when it comes to communicating biblical truth, we should be careful not to force one person to communicate in exactly the same way as someone else. God didn't. We shouldn't.This doesn't mean we shouldn't learn from others. This doesn't mean there aren't general principles of communication that are helpful to understand. This doesn't mean that we won't have to change and even sometimes go against our own personal style to better communicate a message. It does mean that we don't have to be others and we should be very careful not to give the impression to those we are training that they have to be us.Second, (and this may be more important) when approaching someone else with the gospel you need to be careful that in your approach you are not forgetting everything the Bible says about who you are.For example, you were dead in your sins before God saved you. So you can't approach someone with the gospel like you are somehow in and of yourself superior to them.You are dearly loved by God, so you can't approach someone with the gospel overwhelmed with concern for their opinion of you. The Creator of the Universe is for you.You are acting as a representative of God Himself. This message is not yours. It is not something you came up with one day as you were sitting by the pool lounging with friends. So you can't approach someone with the gospel like you have the authority to modify the message.