Ron Hutchcraft Ministries - Fatal Charades - #4974

Thursday, February 2, 2006

I've invented this little game to play with our two young grandsons. I just call it Bible Charades. We tried it during one Sunday afternoon visit to our house, and now they want to do it every time. It's really pretty simple. I just write a brief description of several Bible stories on cards, and the boys take turns drawing a card and then acting out the story with either their Daddy or me as their teammate. Whoever isn't playing is supposed to be guessing. My favorite was when the younger boy - he's only three - was David and his tall Daddy was Goliath. The little guy pretended that this dishtowel was his slingshot, and he spun it around his head - followed by Daddy holding his forehead and crashing to the living room floor. No talking is allowed. You can only act it out. One problem: our five-year-old grandson knows a lot more Bible stories than his three-year-old brother, which makes this game pretty challenging and sometimes frustrating for the little guy. The story we hope he'll guess by our actions might be a story he doesn't even know!

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Fatal Charades."

Some of us have been playing Bible Charades for a long time - acting out a story we hope the people around us will guess by our actions. If you've ever played real charades, you know there are some things people just aren't going to figure out without your putting it into words. So it is with the most important story of all - the story of what Jesus did on the cross to pay for the sins of each person who knows you; the story of the spiritual Rescuer from heaven who not only died for them, but who's alive for them because He walked out of His grave three days later!

Many followers of Jesus are committed to what some have called "lifestyle evangelism." And that's very important - demonstrating in your everyday life the difference that Jesus makes, creating curiosity about Him in the hearts of people who don't know Him. It's important, but it's not enough. See, they're not going to guess the Gospel. They may watch you for the next 50 years. They're not going to suddenly say, "You know Charlie is such a nice guy, I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins!" They're not going to figure that out! You will have to tell them. Gospel Charades will turn out to be fatal charades for them if you never tell them what Jesus did for them on the cross!

Paul's prayer in our word for today from the Word of God needs to be your prayer and mine. In Ephesians 6:19-20 , he says, "Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel." (By the way, it's going to be a mystery to the people around you until you tell them about it!) He goes on to say, "Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should." (Ephesians 6:20 )

In Colossians 4:3-4 , he asks for prayer that "God will open a door for us." That's a natural opportunity to bring up your relationship with Jesus.

The "three-open prayer," prayed each new day, can give you some exciting opportunities to be a spiritual rescuer for some spiritually dying people around you. It goes like this: "Lord, open a door." See, you're trusting Him for some of those natural opportunities He'll open up. Then, "Lord, open their heart." Get them ready, Lord, to hear about you. And finally, "Lord, open my mouth." Give me the courage, the words, the approach to use to point this person to you. Have you got it? "Lord, open a door. Lord, open their heart. Lord, open my mouth."

Don't just depend on your acting out Jesus - your Gospel charades - to give someone you care about the life-or-death information they need to go to heaven. There's too much at stake for that. For you to remain silent about what you know about Jesus could be, in essence, a death sentence for them because of your silence.