Kirk Cameron - Conquer Your Fear, Share Your Faith: Evangelism Made Easy

CONQUER YOUR FEAR, SHARE YOUR FAITH

2009 Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron

Published by Bethany House Publishers
11400 Hampshire Avenue South
Bloomington, Minnesota 55438
www.bethanyhouse.com

Bethany House Publishers is a division of
Baker Publishing Group, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
www.bakerpublishinggroup.com

Bethany House Publishers edition published 2014

ISBN 978-1-4412-6603-3

Previously published by Regal Books

Ebook edition originally created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Other version used is AMPScripture taken from THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE, Old Testament copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament copyright 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

All photos in the book by Carol Scott, CJ-Studio.com, Covina, California.
Used by permission.

When I first heard the gospel message, I was 18 years old and still shooting episodes for Growing Pains. I was at the height of what the world defined as success, and yet I was dissatisfied. I had no concept of what a soul was, but I knew that if I had one, mine lacked something.

On one particular day, I agreed to go to church with a girl I was dating, and it just so happened that the man preaching that day was Chuck Swindoll. Mr. Swindoll talked about heaven and hell, about Gods great mercy and love, and about how He created a way for people to be forgiven, purified and made new. Swindolls words hit me deep inside. He wasnt one of those sweaty, purple-haired freaks I had seen on TV stealing money from gullible viewers. He didnt make big empty promises. Instead, he talked about how a person can find peace and a relationship with the creator of the universe. His words were sincere.

A month after my first visit to the church, I was sitting in my car when it occurred to me: One day I will die. As I pondered this thought, I felt completely overwhelmed. If God were up there in heaven, there was no reason for Him to let me in. My own pride, selfishness and sin had greatly offended Him. I had failed to give Him the honor and respect that He was due. I was sure that if I dropped dead on Van Nuys Boulevard at that very moment, God would have been perfectly justified to exclude me from paradise and give me what I deserved. That day, I made the decision to ask God to forgive my sins and change me into the person He wanted me to be.

However, it wasnt until years later after I had become a Christian that I really understood the depth to which I had violated Gods Law. I was reading a book called God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message by Ray Comfort. The book was all about sharing the gospel with people the way Jesus did by using the Ten Commandments to help a sinner know why he needs a Savior. While this seems so obvious and basic to me now, no one had ever shared the gospel with me in that manner. So I decided to try out the approach on myself.

I opened my Bible to Exodus 20, went through each of the Commandments, and asked myself which ones I had broken. I quickly realized that I had broken all of themeven the ones like murder and adultery, because Jesus said that if you have hated and lusted, you are guilty of murder and adultery of the heart (see Matt. 5:21-28). For the first time, I seriously considered what it would be like to stand before an all-knowing and all-powerful God who saw me for what I truly was. It was an eye-opening experience, and over time I came to understand just how effective this approach could be when sharing the gospel with others.

I later watched a video of Ray open-air preaching in Central Park in New York City. He stood on a milk crate and made a spectacle of himself in the middle of a crowd. He was captivating. His words gripped my heart, and my eyes were glued to the video screen. Ray gave it to the people straight, kind of like a New Zealand version of the apostle Paul, about how they had violated Gods Law and were under the penalty of eternal judgment. Then he told them about grace. He preached the cross, repentance and faith. He was straightforward, but he was compassionate. I could sense that he had a genuine concern for people and where they would spend eternity. Instead of people walking away from him, the crowd grew larger. I had never seen someone open-air preach so well, so passionately and so effectively. It was inspiring.

At first I had concerns about Rays method of evangelism and wondered why few others were doing this. But as I read the New Testament, I realized that using the Ten Commandments to confront people with their sin was the method that Jesus and Paul also used. You can see a great example of this in Luke 18:18-22. In this passage, a certain ruler asks Jesus the following question: Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Listen to Jesus reply: Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and your mother.

I found when I was out witnessing with Ray that if I asked someone if he was a good person, he replied yes nearly every time. However, if I held up the mirror of the Ten Commandments, as Jesus did, and asked the person what he saw, he would realize very quickly that in the eyes of God, he was a guilty sinner. I thought this was amazing! For the first time, I didnt have to argue with someone about the truth of Romans 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Once the person recognized his own sin, the step to seeing his need for a Savior wasnt such a great leap. This isnt a new principle; rather, this is the way of the Master!

In this book, and in the accompanying Conquer Your Fear, Share Your Faith four-session course, Ray and I will give you the basics you need to overcome your fear in sharing your faith with others. We will lay down some of the fundamentals for why each of us as Christians should share our faith and then demonstrate an effective way of sharing the gospel by using the Ten Commandments. And we wont just tell you howwell also show you some practical examples of how we do it. We will look at some of the objections to this biblical method and how to deal with specific types of people: intellectuals, atheists, cult members and family members. Finally, we will take a look at a vital subject that Jesus spoke often about: true and false conversion.

Thank you so much for picking up Conquer Your Fear, Share Your Faith. There is no higher calling than to share the gospel, and it is my prayer that as you read this book God will empower you to share the incredible good news of Christ with everyone you meet.

Kirk Cameron

I stood in the lobby of a church and watched the TV monitor as the pastor told his congregation that he had stood on the side of the road the previous year holding a sign that said abortion was wrong. He then invited his congregation of 600 to join him this year and confirm their participation by raising a hand. Only 20 people raised their hands. I could sense his disappointment at their apathy. He then introduced me as the mornings guest speaker.