John 20:31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

I dearly love verse 21, and have even written a short book on it, but right now I feel the Lord is speaking this verse to me more strongly. Because God is infinite, there are literally infinite things that can be said or written about Him. Every believer has a trove of things they have learned through their encounters with Him. However, we need to have restraint, and not overload people with more than they can take in. As I wrote about just a few days ago, even Jesus said, “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.” (John 16:12) What we say and what we write needs to have the same motive John had in recording his Gospel. It is the highest of privileges to share Christ in such a way that people believe and receive eternal life through Him. We can’t control whether someone will believe and receive life, but it’s for sure they won’t believe if they don’t have the information necessary. We aren’t to try to “cram it down their throat,” as I have seen people accuse others of doing, but we are to make the truth available in love. The irony of such accusations is that those who are actively against Biblical standards and morality often do all they can to cram their positions down everyone’s throat! The good news is that more and more people are getting tired of that and rejecting what has been pushed on them. When we try to “convert people to Christianity” we can generate the same sort of response. However, when we share the truth in love of the Savior we have encountered personally, then the response is much better. People don’t need a religion, they need a Savior.

This feels very timely to me for a number of reasons. In the first place, I’m a pastor in Japan, where the vast majority of the people around me have not encountered Christ and for the most part know very little about Him. Sharing Him is a constant, daily activity. In the second place, I’ve started writing my autobiography, and my motive there needs to be exactly what John expresses here. People tell me my story is interesting, but if telling it doesn’t draw people to Christ, there’s no reason to write. I don’t want people to read the book and think I’m wonderful, I want them to read it and know that Christ is absolutely amazing, and He loves them enough to die for them. I have been the recipient of uncountable levels of grace, and I want to share that so that others may believe that the same level of grace is available to them as well.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for the fresh impetus to write. I haven’t written anything on the book the past couple of days, and that’s not good. Help me actively avoid the many distractions and do what You want me to do when You want me to do it, for the blessing of others and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!