One Nation Under God. Here's Franklin Graham. I'm inviting you to join with us and to pray for America. Pray that we, as individuals and as a nation, turn to the God of our fathers, the God of the Bible. As we approach America's 250th, join Franklin in praying for our nation every day.
A new prayer is posted daily at one nationundergod.com. Invite your friends and family to pray to one nationundergod.com. Uh Life audio. Yeah. Hi from the Salvation Army and you're listening to Words of Life.
These are the words, these are the words of life. These are the words, these are the words, these are the words of life. Welcome back to Words of Life. Today is part two of our conversation with author Preston Fiddler. He's the author of the book 1000 Cups of Tea, which was a big inspiration for the series we've been in.
But if you missed last week's episode, go back and listen to that conversation first wherever you listen to your podcasts. Once again, here's Preston Fiddler. I am blessed. You are blessed that we grew up in a Christian home. But if I had been born in a predominantly Muslim country, I would have had a much different journey to Jesus that could have been met with a lot of hardship, a lot of.
family who's abandoned me because I abandoned their faith. There's so much there. That if we are just seeing everyone as a project, we're really kind of missing the point to just love them for where they are. We want to introduce them to Jesus, but if that's the ulterior motive from the start is to just fix them. We're never going to get through a thousand cups of tea with them because they're going to be like, I'm not a project.
A friend of mine said that he kind of approaches it from this perspective when he shares the gospel with With, and he works cross-culturally, but he's always thinking, you know, I just never want people to be thinking that they're a project. Because that's not at all what I want to be, you know, like approaching it. I really want to see them for who they are as. as as precious in God's sight. And so his little mantra, which I really love and I hold on to, is do you.
you know, if if people would be asking us, Do you love me? Uh because you want me to bec become a Christian, or do you want me to become a Christian because you love me? And I think that that kind of goes back to what you were saying. You know, if we view people as projects, that's not love. If we view them as as Precious in God's sight, that God dearly loves them, and that we ask God for His compassion to love them, everything changes.
In the book, you mentioned a phrase that your friend Dan, I think it was, used, called glittering it with the gospel. Could you unpack that idea? Yeah, Dan, he's a great example of just walking this out. And I really try to learn as much as I can from people who I either coach or am coached by.
Sometimes less is more.
Sometimes you just have to, you know, like listen to where people are. And if, you know, they're struggling with just a deep need in their lives. They see that you love them and they see the compassion and they see you're listening, you're attending. There is empathy, you know, in that conversation there. And then there's this moment when the wind shifts, and it's like, God, you're prompting me right now to share this, and you share this story.
And uh and it it just I mean, everything changes. people see, you know, it's like they receive that. That truth from God through your testimony if you're what you're sharing. And it just glitters that conversation with the gospel. It may be like 5% of that whole conversation, but it's just that moment, that moment where everything changes.
And then it just opens the door to more conversations. It allows them to think, it allows them to process, it allows them to really feel God's. you know, love for them. And um It's just this mindset of You don't need to pressure or push. Don't feel like you have to say so much and then you're self-satisfied, in a sense, with getting the whole gospel or whatever you want to call it into that conversation.
Just share. What God prompts you to share, and allow that conversation to flow by. You know how God is at work in that conversation and in your life and in the life of that person you're speaking with. And trusting that God is, you know, He's going to give you the words to say.
So, yeah, Dan, when he said, you know, let's glitter our conversations with the gospel, it just made sense. Hey, you're listening to the Salvation Army's Words of Life. We're going to take a quick ad break, and we'll be right back. One nation under God. Here's Franklin Graham.
I'm inviting you to join with us and to pray for America. Pray that we, as individuals and as a nation, turn to the God of our fathers, the God of the Bible. As we approach America's 250th, join Franklin in praying for our nation every day. A new prayer is posted daily at onenationundergod.com. Invite your friends and family to pray to one nationundergod.com.
For those who might be listening who are like, I'm not a preacher, I can't quote scripture left and right. You know, what you said is so key. It's sort of testimony. No matter how many scriptures you can quote.
Sometimes the most powerful thing you can say is despite all of that. This is what God has done in my life. And if you just start there and just tell your own story, just you know, even a non-believer, they can't deny my story. No one can take that from me. That is my testimony.
So, even if someone's like, Well, I don't believe in this or I don't believe in this, well, this is my life. Um And that can just be an inspiring just door that opens. Um you know even without quoting scripture left and right. Man, I think that that is so, so um True in our conversations that people one, you know, if you just if you just open the opportunity for them to share with you what's going on in their lives, they will. And we and people.
just deeply long for For us, for people say anybody, but let's be that person who will be willing to listen to somebody's hard story. You know, like you were talking about, it could be somebody who's dealing with church. Hurt, or somebody who's just struggling with unbelief, or somebody who's dealt with maybe a real challenge in their life, or maybe a deep loss. But to be able to listen and respond compassionately, and what you just said about sharing our testimony. There's no, that is so powerful.
And I think when we do that from the, you know, from this place of, you know, this is what God's word said, and we identify in our testimony with God's word. I mean, there's so much. That God wants us to understand and communicate to us from His Word. That is the gospel that we deeply relate to, that our test we testify to, that this is our testimony. We share that.
That that um that the joy of the Lord As we read the gospel in scripture, maybe it would be the story of Moses or maybe of Paul or Stephen or whoever, Peter. We identify with this. And I think God calls us to. That place of deep identification, and then also identifying. With the person across the table who we're having tea with or coffee with, or whatever, be able to say, Let me just share with you from my testimony.
And how God has saved me, and how God continues to just, you know. Um Give me hope in this life and um And be able to identify at that point, you know, that common identification, hearing. I think maybe it's like two conversations going on at the same time. The conversation we have with people who we're talking with, but also hearing God's Spirit as He leads us. in those conversations to communicate Truth to people in ways that really I think do are filled with that sense of we are Testifying to that truth.
This is our testimony. I love that you. Yeah, that you brought that up because it's it's so powerful to really testify. to the gospel in our lives from God's Word. We pray that you're enjoying and being blessed by this conversation.
Uh We're going to take one more ad break and we'll be right back. One Nation Under God. Here's Franklin Graham. I'm inviting you to join with us and to pray for America. Pray that we, as individuals and as a nation, turn to the God of our fathers, the God of the Bible.
As we approach America's 250th, join Franklin in praying for our nation every day. A new prayer is posted daily at onenationundergod.com. Invite your friends and family to pray to one nationundergod.com. Let's say you're just you see someone at the grocery store, you just see on their face that they're in pain of some kind. Asking if you can pray for a stranger is one of the most powerful things you will ever do as a Christian.
It's also one of the scariest things to offer if you've never done that, especially if you're an introvert like me. But in my experience The times I've been around someone and I can hear God saying to me. Pray for this person. And then I don't. I've always walked away.
with such a heavy heart. But the worst case that happens is someone says, no, thank you, and you say, have a good day. What you do for someone when you can see someone's in pain, they feel seen, and you not only see them, but you then say, Can I pray for you? Even if they're maybe not a believer, the work God does in that moment, I think, is just. Incredible.
I don't know if you guys want to like talk on on that. I've had the hilarious moment where like I've offered to pray and just like Door shut. No, no, thank you. And I was just like, man, God, I really felt like you were moving me to offer that up. And God was just telling me in that moment is he's just looking for obedience.
He's looking for someone who's in tune with his voice. And even that step of faith, whether or not it was received, is something that God's working out in my own life. Like, will you be obedient? Can I trust you to do this? You know.
Even just releasing yourself. From what you may receive back from the person, and just saying, I'm going to be obedient to God. what I feel like he's telling me to do in this moment, regardless of what the response is. And even if they shut the door, you have no idea what God did in that person's heart throughout the rest of that day. And he might connect the dots later.
I don't have to push it over the finish line. I just need to do what God's telling me. Let him connect the dots. You had that kind of prompting. I mean, I think that you're being sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit.
to go up to that person and share, that's where it starts. One thing that I was thinking of that I have is a chapter, a whole chapter in A Thousand Cups of Tea that I call Language 180, but it has less to do with language. As I've kind of unpacked this, and more to do with just. our rhythm of life, I guess.
So In language learning, what we do is we want people to really have good personal study and then have time in a controlled setting where they practice what they're learning and then get out and use it in community. And so that's where Language 180 came from. But we need to do that in our Christian walk, you know, and just being able to be fluent in the gospel. Like, get time with God and His Word and allow the Word of God to fill our lives to overflowing. I mean, Psalm 23:5 says, He anoints my head with oil, my cup overflows.
You know, it's just this sense of overflow. Starting there as a practical measure, if you don't feel equipped or you don't feel ready to share that gospel of overflow with the unreached around you, your lost neighbors. Go to a family member or somebody at your church and say, hey, can we share the gospel with each other? where we can then kind of begin to cultivate this practice of sharing the gospel. But it's from our heart.
So it's like real. It's not disingenuous. It's, you know, when we communicate. And I've had time like these guys like Dan, you know, where it's like, man, we're just so enriched by the time that we have. speaking the gospel into each other's lives.
that were deeply prompted, motivated to go and share with the lost. And there's something about that that I think can really ignite in a church or in a home group the joy of sharing the Lord with the lost. Ooh, ooh. I mean, it starts somewhere as far as wanting to be more open, wanting to share more with people. Even just have it, like if you even just picked up the book, Thousand Cups of Tea.
That's already a step of saying, I have a heart for this. And maybe, again, you're an introvert like me. I was telling Chris the other day. I live in a largely Hispanic community and I was walking my dog. Each lap around our whole block is about a mile.
And It was beautiful out.
So everyone was cooking. Everyone had a barbecue going on.
So it smells amazing in my community every time someone's like having a barbecue happening. And I was like, I so want to be the guy who knows everybody on this street and says, oh, you know, hey, oh man, that smells good. I'll be back for a snack later kind of thing. And there's such a part of me that, like, it's just not me. But.
Chris was like so gentle and saying he's like But the fact that you even thought of that. God can start to work with that. Um and so like just praying that like you know God, I don't want to be this introverted, you know, and I would love to be that guy. And I think just having that desire, God can do a lot with just a desire. You're just to start there.
Man, I so identify w with what you just said because I'm naturally introverted and it's really hard for me to get to know my neighbors. And I mean, I'm just picturing you walking around that block and I'm just placing myself in my neighborhood here where I'm going, ah, I just want to be that guy, same as you. And um And I honestly so strongly identify with what you just said. Like, that's what I want to do. And so that's my prayer.
And God, I think God is pleased with that. He honors that prayer. He takes, you know, this. It's a deep desire that we have where we feel like we can't do it in our own strength, but then he just, you know, like. The joy of being able to then see him like put that opportunity in front of us where we're like, This is an answer to my prayer, Lord.
Thank you.
So I really appreciate you sharing that. Preston, thank you so much for all the work that you do. You really are inspiring, and thank you for your time. Thanks. This has been really, really a blessing.
Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it. The Salvation Army's mission, doing the most good, means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit SalvationArmyusa.org to offer your support.
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