The Reluctant Evangelist: Moving from can't and don't to can and do

by Richard Coekin

“I’d like you all to know that I agree with everything that preacher just said! I’ve been following the Lord Jesus since 1947 and there hasn’t been a day when I have regretted it. I am pretty sure that I won’t be here next Christmas, but I am not afraid of dying because I believe that Jesus will take me to heaven. So if you would like to know how to be saved and come to heaven, please tell me because I would love to explain it to you!” He sat down; his fellow residents apparently burst into spontaneous applause, and my dad went back to his room and wept with gratitude for the opportunity. He’s an old man who can hardly breathe—but he took the opportunity that the divine Evangelist crafted for him to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4 v 5).