Day 22: Second Threshold, from Complacency to Curiosity

We are traveling through five thresholds using the book, i once was lost, trying to understand the way people today come to faith.  We stopped and learned around the first threshold, From Mistrust to Trusting a Christian and now on to the Second Treshold that we will be unraveling for the next few days: From Complacency to Curiosity.

 

 

How often do I get a whiff of God-interest and pour on the knowledge possibly to douse it out in the long run?  How often do I hear tummy rumblings of God-hunger and stack up the feast causing gag reflexes to kick in (I know, gross, but perhaps true?)  This has been my method and perhaps where I’ve gone the most wrong.  More on that tomorrow.  Today?  The authors of I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus, Don Everts and Doug Schaupp teach us a different way.

 

Our goal in this threshold?  To cause deep curiosity…particularly about Jesus.  People are wary of Christians, fascinated about Jesus Himself.  And we should know, we are too.

 

But first, we can learn from Him.  Our Jesus Himself provoked curiosity.

 

He was constantly standing up straight and punching out of the box people put him in.  He was asked about taxes and instead of sticking his fist up toward Rome, he told everyone to give to the oppressors their drochmas.  Instead of focusing on the religious establishment, trying to convert them, he kept shocking the people, enlightening them on where they were headed askew.  Jesus didn’t just stand, answering questions, a theological know it all (though of course He had the right to be), his actions and parables brought on more questions.

 

He fanned the flame of curiosity, as if it was His job. As if it was his mission.

 

In the gospels, Jesus was asked 183 questions and answered only 3 of them, asking 307 back!  His bag was chock full of questions, no pat answerish quote in sight.

 

He talks in parables making people lean in closer, trying to decipher the riddles.  He takes the clay of the common stuff of life (farming, wedding feasts, bedtime) and molds metaphors that cause  forehead rubbing, making curiosity catch fire.  He poured just enough water to cause deeper thirst.

 

No white board illustrations of the overarching salvation story, just a bit more salt to make his followers more thirsty.

 

And what about you?  When you began to be curious, how did your good-news bearers draw you in to warm your hands closer to the fire of Jesus? 

 

Curious for more?  How to ask good questions?  How to determine how much answer to give? Tune in the next few days…:)

 

Hi friend, this is Day 22 of 40 Day of cross-shaped evangelism.  If you want to catch up, click here.

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