Letting God’s Word do the work.
We sat down with Charles, a Bible sharer in London, to hear his experience of using The Word One to One to share God’s Word with others.
Thanks for joining us, Charles! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Charles, I’m married to Wendy, and we’re based in East London. I work in Canary Wharf, and we are part of a church right in the centre of London called St Helen’s church in Bishopsgate.
I grew up in a catholic home, and always believed that there was a God, that Jesus had died for my sins, but never really felt confident that I was going to be good enough to go to heaven. All that began to change in high school – a friend of mine, who was in the same class and dorm as me, was a Christian and he read the Bible to me. He regularly challenged me about what I believed as compared to what was written in the Bible, and we’d have debates and arguments about it as I was holding fast to my own beliefs.
But because he always read from the Bible – and I believed that the Bible was God’s Word – I couldn’t argue with that; every time I would say something, he would just open up the Bible, and it was convicting and clear that I was wrong, and I wasn’t living as a Christian in line with God’s Word.
One evening, lying down on my own, I remember being challenged by one of the verses he read to me from Hebrews, which says, ‘Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts’ – and I just knew that God was speaking to me through that. I knew I had been resisting what my friend had been reading to me from the Bible, because of my concern about the cost of changing what I believed, particularly in front of my friends and family.
But I knew that God was speaking to me from His Word, and I couldn’t resist it – so I decided to stop resisting, and submit to the Lord Jesus and His Word.
Q. Who have you been sharing God’s Word with recently, and how did you start sharing with them?
I’m reading with two people at the moment, and it was actually fairly easy to ask both of them. One of them is a friend from university, and because he has recently become a Christian, he was looking for opportunities to grow as a follower of Jesus – so I thought, what better way to do that than through listening to God’s Word? So that’s how we got started with reading the Bible together with The Word One to One.
The other person is a friend from high school. He recently got married, and I thought it might be helpful for him in his marriage to have a good Christian foundation. I think he would call himself a Christian, but he hasn’t spent much time in church or in the Bible, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to explore God’s Word together.
In the past, I invited one of my colleagues in the office to a lunchtime talk at my church, St Helen’s. I then asked him if he would like to explore Christianity in more detail by going to the Bible and seeing what it has to say, and he agreed to try it with me. He enjoyed the first session, so we carried on meeting for a while but then he eventually said that he’d like to continue by himself, and that he would get in touch with any questions he had. It didn’t finish the way I expected, but it was good to start reading with him in the first place.
I have also used The Word One to One to read with my family back home in Uganda. During the first lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, we gathered every Sunday on Zoom to catch up and make sure everyone was okay. After a while, we ran out of things to talk about, so I suggested we read through John’s Gospel together. We read together up to Chapter 10, and then stopped after the lockdown ended as it wasn’t as easy to get everyone together.
Q. How have you seen God work through reading His Word with others?
That’s an interesting question – I’ve definitely seen God working in several ways. One of them has been the joy of encountering Jesus in His Word – His wisdom, how He challenges His opponents, and how He has compassion on those around Him. It’s been exciting for me to see that during our times together – and my friend won’t miss our sessions unless it’s something extremely important! So that’s a real joy for me to see him enjoy God’s Word as much as I do, and we have a wonderful time reading it together.
“I’ve definitely seen God working in several ways. One of them has been the joy of encountering Jesus in His Word – His wisdom, how He challenges His opponents, and how He has compassion on those around Him.”
With the other, it’s been a more gradual process – but actually, some of the things in John’s Gospel have really stood out to him. For example, in John chapter 4, after Jesus meets the Samaritan woman, John teaches us that faith in Jesus comes when we listen to Him and what He says, rather than seeing His miracles.
My friend was astounded by that – the fact that running around looking for signs and wonders doesn’t result in belief, but rather, listening to Jesus’ words as they’re written in the Bible. And that was exciting for me, because this was at the heart of what we were doing – we were listening to Jesus’ words together! So he understood the whole point of reading together.
I’ve also noticed that he’s taking notes as we read, so I’m excited to see that positive response to Jesus and His Word. And it’s nothing I’m doing – I don’t even prepare much, apart from praying, because I think I’d be tempted to try and push particular points or add things myself! He reads the text, I read the notes, he asks any questions he has, and this shows that God is revealing certain things to him as we read through John’s Gospel.
“Running around looking for signs and wonders doesn’t result in belief, but rather, listening to Jesus’ words as they’re written in the Bible.”
Q. How has The Word One to One helped you share God’s Word with others?
The Word One to One helps because it’s so easy to use, and the material is available on-demand for when you need it. Ultimately, it’s God’s Word – so I’m always reminded to trust the Word to do its work, and all we need to do is allow people to listen to what Jesus says, and pray that He will speak to them and that they listen.
The Word One to One also has a lot of helpful commentary, which helps you explain the trickier parts – so you don’t have to be super prepared or a world-class theological scholar or anything like that!
As we read through The Word One to One, it’s not me preaching – all I’m doing is reading the notes! And actually, that’s been really helpful as I’ve read with my family, because we have different theological views. It never feels like, ‘Charles is preaching to us’ – it’s simply the case of ‘he’s reading this part, we’re reading this other part’. So it’s a lot less subjective and more objective, since God’s Word sets the agenda.
“As we read through The Word One to One, it’s not me preaching – all I’m doing is reading the notes!”
My advice to anyone who is reading The Word One to One with others is simply to keep going. Although it might look like not much is happening on the outside, God’s Word is always working on the inside. We believe that it is powerful, and that He sends it out to return to Him only after it has accomplished His purposes.
Q. What advice would you give to someone who is interested in reading God’s Word with others?
Have confidence in the power of God’s Word to do its work in people’s hearts. Jesus tells us that we need to believe in His words, because that’s how people begin to believe in Him and receive eternal life.
When it comes to the first session, work out in advance about how you’d like to run it. For example, I decided before my first session that my friend would read the text and I would read the notes, and that was all we would do. So decide beforehand, communicate it to your friend, and then it will be really clear to both of you about how it’s going to work, which will make you both feel more settled and at ease.
Also, why not practise it with another Christian? It really helps to learn the ropes a little bit and gain confidence before you go into your first proper session.
In terms of making an invitation, I’d say pray – pray that God would provide opportunities for you to invite others to read His Word with you, because God wants people to hear His Word! And pray for boldness to take those opportunities.
“Have confidence in the power of God’s Word to do its work in people’s hearts. Jesus tells us that we need to believe in His words, because that’s how people begin to believe in Him and receive eternal life.”
Also, prepare for people to refuse your invitation, and don’t be discouraged. It’s not you they’re rejecting, they’re simply rejecting an opportunity to hear God’s Word.
And appeal to people’s curiosity! Ask them, ‘Have you ever wanted to find out for yourself what Christianity is all about? Here’s a wonderful opportunity to do that. You won’t be preached at, it’s really informal, we simply read what the Bible says and you ask any questions you may have, and that’s all there is to it.’ And trust God to open the right doors. Many people have turned me down, and that’s okay – I then ask them again about three months later anyway!
Finally, I just want to encourage people from my own experience of coming to faith. How I became a Christian was because someone read the Bible to me –he didn’t use loads of intellectual logic, all he did was read God’s Word and it was overwhelmingly powerful against my thoughts and arguments. Even when my friend wasn’t there, God’s Word was on my heart.
And so I’m convinced that the way to serve others, to evangelise, to disciple, is through God’s Word – and The Word One to One is a resource that does a lot of the hard work for us!
Find out more about getting started with Bible sharing at one of our free training sessions.
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