Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." "Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked.
"Come and see," said Philip. (John 1:45, 46 NIV)
I love Nathaniel's response to Phillip: "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" It's the type of response I feel from people I know who don't "do" religion. They don't usually say it, but I can see it in there body language... "Can anything good come out of religion?" Some have been hurt by the church. Some have been turned off by the in-fighting. Some just see it as a waste of a perfectly good weekend morning.
Philip told Nathaniel who Jesus was, but it wasn't until Nathaniel experienced Jesus himself that he was won over. That is our challenge. We can talk about Jesus until we are blue in the face... That will not convince anybody. We need to help people experience Christ for themselves. We do that by drawing them into our own experiences.
If you only experience Christ at church, you will have a hard time drawing non-church goers into your experience. Once you have Christ at the very center of your own life, then you are in a position to allow others to experience him through you.
Lord Jesus,
May our lives reflect you, so that others may see. Amen.
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