Road Warrior ToolboxSample

Road Warrior Basics Five: Be Bold

Christian Road Warriors face the same challenges in people we meet on the road as did the Apostle Paul. The Athenians were highly intelligent and culturally advanced and creatively talented. But the downside for these gifted people was their resulting temptation to believe and pursue and serve only what they could understand and design and produce to the exclusion of God. So do our friends on the road today. Hence Paul’s bold challenge to the Athenians (and to our friends on the road as well).

"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17. 29-31).

Paul’s bold yet compassionate appeal to the Athenians was for them to repent, to stop hanging on to their failed idolatries and foolish philosophies and to put their faith in the One God had raised from the dead.

Applications:

1. Be crystal clear in your presentation of the Gospel.

Paul did not start with repentance in his ministry to the Athenians, but when he sensed the Spirit’s leading, he brought it boldly and unapologetically. Christian Road Warriors need to do the same thing! Don’t start with repentance. But when the time is right, don’t shy away from it either! Rather, be bold and crystal clear in your presentation of the gospel. God invites us to repent and believe in and trust Jesus--our Resurrected Lord, loving Savior, and eternal friend--for the forgiveness of our sins and for the gift of eternal life,.   

2.  Be bold in inviting people to trust in Jesus Christ. 

“If there are a thousand steps between us and God, he will take all but one. He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours” (Max Lucado). 

A few folks that day on Mars’ Hill got down off their intellectual high horse and came to faith in Jesus because Paul boldly called them to repentance. Christian Road Warriors who are bold in inviting people to trust in Jesus will have the same experience.