Evangelism and the Lords Prayer

[Mathew Enoch Mount]

Hello,

Recently I have been informed about the differences between Evangelism
with the upper case E and evangelism with the lower case e. Although
I have always known of the difference between the two, I did not
realize that people used a upper and lower case E to distinguish
between the two. Overall, my understanding of the subject had almost
always been that evangelism with the lower case e is something holy
and done out of love whereas Evangelism with the upper case E is often
unholy and done out of a church’s needs for profits.

I do not see a huge problem in a professional Evangelist being hired
by a church and evangelizing, but my concern is that he or she would
work hard to put the names of the competition so to speak in the mud
all while promoting their own financially profitable doctrines. Just
like the media whom profits by sending out messages that people want
to listen to, so to a professional Evangelist may feel inclined to do
the same. Overall, sadly many people today see all evangelism of any
type to be Evangelism performed by someone whom has the same moral
character as a stereotypical used car sales man, and this is perhaps
why the Christian church is seen like scum today in America.

When I had my gospel table in the Student Center of Southern Illinois
University Carbondale open to public display, I often had my table
among other tables that promoted large churches that had been well
known of in history and in the community. One representative of one
of the churches would stand behind his table and shout at people to
repent with a obvious emotional stance of lordship over most all
others, and this man had the same attitude toward other church
representatives of other tables whom had been in favor of a slightly
different message than what he was in favor of. Overall, this man I
believe would have considered himself to be a professional Evangelist
while he promoted the republican party and the Reformed religion (he
might not have gotten paid for his work by the way); moreover, because
of people like him whom see all truth as flowing out of themselves
from no other direction than from their inside out many people think
of all ministries and evangelism to fall in the same category because
their voices are so much louder and their faces are so much more red
than everyone else whom believes in the Lord Jesus Christ and whom
comes to promote him and his teachings.

Consider the following passage, "And it came to pass, that, as he was
praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said
unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in
heaven, Hallowed be thy name. <notice that first off Christ is
instructing people to give reverence to his heavenly father and his
kingdom> Thy kingdom come. <the second element of prayer is to show
aspiration for the coming of the kingdom of God> Thy will be done, as
in heaven, so in earth. <the third element of prayer is to ask for
god’s will to be done on earth like a mirror of what is in heaven>
Give us day by day our daily bread. <the forth element is to pray for
daily needs in working for developing God’s kingdom; moreover, this
daily bread may in fact be the bread of life or in other words the
truth from God namely Jesus Christ the manna that comes down from
heaven that people may eat and never be hungry again.> And forgive us
our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. <the
fifth element of prayer thus is to ask God for our forgiveness and to
make this forgiveness known by the way we treat others.> And lead us
not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. <the sixth element of
prayer is to be delivered from evil by being lead out of it by God.>
And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go
unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;
For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing
to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble
me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I
cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise
and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity
he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you,
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it
shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he
that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If
a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him
a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask
him?" <the last point that Jesus makes is his commentary on prayer,
and this is the seventh point namely that although we may ask even
through we may be evil God will give us whatever we ask because of our
boldness even if we approach him at the greatest cost to him. This
gift that we get in boldly asking of God at the cost of the life of
Jesus Christ death on the cross is the Holy Ghost that is made freely
available.> (Luke 11:1-14 KJV)

To summarize following are the elements of prayer.
1) Give reverence and respect to God and his kingdom.
2) Hope for the coming of God’s kingdom.
3) Ask God to mirror his will to be done on earth like in heaven.
4) Pray for the daily needs of the kingdom of God.
5) Ask God to forgive ourselves like we forgive others.
6) Ask God to protect you from evil by asking to be not even tempted
by it.
7) Remember that God fulfills our prayers because of his going out of
his way to do so by his death on the cross.

The point is that according to the story of Jesus Christ the entire
reason why the man in his parable asked the friend in bed for food is
because the man asking for bread was asking on behalf of his friend
whom had no bread because of his travels. In the same way we are to
be the evangelist like the apostles of Jesus Christ whom he spoke this
message to whom approach God at an incredible inconvenience of the
death of Christ for the sake of securing the life giving bread for
those whom we seek to serve. The promise of God is that if we pray
according to the Lord’s prayer then we will be given everything that
we need through the Holy Ghost to give to others for the sake of
building God’s kingdom on earth, and the cost of all these things
given by God has been paid by the death of Jesus Christ and are given
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Thank you,

Mathew Enoch Mount
mmo...@essex1.com