{"id":2392,"date":"2012-09-24T18:22:50","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T22:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shieldsgroup.com\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2012-09-24T17:56:59","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T21:56:59","slug":"drawing-people-toward-jesus-by-imitating-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shieldsgroup.com\/blog\/2012\/09\/24\/drawing-people-toward-jesus-by-imitating-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing People toward Jesus by Imitating Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a thinking that supposes that if you want people to come to God, you have to make being Christian appear normal. And a lot of Christians have kind of plugged into that thinking \u2014 a thinking that wants to say to people:\u00a0I\u2019m a Christian and I am no different from you. You should be a Christian too<\/em>. You might call that\u00a0the normalcy technique<\/em>\u00a0of evangelism, where you make Christianity appear to agree with the societal norms.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s meaningless. It\u2019s unbiblical. And it doesn\u2019t work. It doesn\u2019t work because society is marked by the things we read about in Ephesians 5:5. Turn on the television and you will be reminded in HD that society is immoral, impure, greedy, idolatrous, deceived, filled with emptiness, and disobedient to God. But Ephesians 5:1ff teaches that, as Christians, we are different. We are to imitate God.<\/p>\n

Some people will find that odd. Some people will be annoyed by it. But some people \u2014 people with hungry hearts \u2014 will find it intriguing. And in imitating God, you will lead them to discover God.<\/p>\n

This podcasts suggests<\/strong>\u00a0that when you live a life that imitates Jesus, hungry hearts are drawn to you \u2014 better, they are drawn to Jesus.<\/p>\n