The beauty of Jesus, revealed in His Word.
We sat down with Ellie, a Bible sharer in Melbourne, Australia, to hear about her experience of using The Word One to One to introduce others to Jesus in His Word.
Thanks for joining us, Ellie! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
My name’s Ellie, and I live in Melbourne, Australia – I’ve been here since I was a child, so I’m a very local girl! I go to Bundoora Presbyterian Church, and I’ve been a Christian for as long as I can remember. I grew up in a Christian family and I’ve loved Jesus all my life, and I feel very privileged to be able to say that!
Q. Who have you been reading God’s Word with recently, and how did you start sharing with them?
I’ve been using The Word One to One for about three years, so I have quite a few examples and stories. I’ll share about four different people I’ve been reading with, and I’ve changed their names to protect their privacy.
I met V at our local kids’ tennis club – we met a few times for coffee and I started giving her daughter piano lessons. Whenever we met up, she would talk about spiritual stuff in our conversations, mainly around Buddhism and how it could coexist really nicely with elements of Christianity. Interestingly, she hated the Bible and thought it was an irrelevant myth; however, she started to get curious and she actually instigated it – she told me that she had a dream where Jesus met her, and so she wanted to get to know Him better by reading the Bible with me.
Another friend I’ve been reading with is M, who I met at church. She’d just become a Christian at a women’s conference, and she was super nervous as she started out in her faith. She had grown up as a catholic, so was very wary about coming into a protestant church and reading the Bible. She was surprised that people actually talked to her and wanted to get to know her! She tried out a ‘growth’ group but felt a bit out of her depth, so I asked if she’d like to read John’s Gospel with me. She jumped at the chance – she’d never been encouraged to read the Bible before and had little grasp of the gospel, and so she’s really enthusiastic about it!
B came down to Melbourne to visit his parents last March and got stuck here because of the lockdown. During his stay, he began watching livestream services with his mum, and after some time I asked him about what sort of questions he had about Christianity. He had some deeper questions about God which are quite commonly asked, and I recommended that he’d find it most useful to get to know Jesus in His Word – because Jesus is the way you get to know God. He agreed to read The Word One to One with me and his mum, and he eventually came to faith which is amazing!
Finally, L is my most recent friend who I’ve been reading with. I started teaching her piano virtually during lockdown last year, and we managed to meet up for coffee over Christmas. She’s very much into spirituality and welcomes all kinds of different teachings and beliefs, and we’ve had some great conversations during our sessions reading The Word One to One. In fact, after our first session of John she took the book away and read the whole thing, and she expressed a desire to read more of the Bible. So we went to a Christian bookshop and got her an ESV Bible, and she proceeded to read Genesis and Exodus!
So there’s a whole spectrum of people, from those who are really receptive to God’s Word to those who are caught up in this sort of post-modernism and struggle to grasp God and His Word.
Q. Did you experience any challenges?
With L, it’s clear that her understanding of God is of one who is formless, nameless and lives in everything – so when she reads about the God of the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, she can’t reconcile the God of the Old Testament with Jesus. It’s definitely challenging because although she has some grasp of who Jesus is, her faith in Him is fragile as there are so many other competing false beliefs vying for her attention.
With V, her husband is also an aggressive atheist, and so she’s on the receiving end of quite a bit of mockery and persecution. Her best friend is also a self-proclaimed witch, who also exposes her to a lot of false but very persuasive ideas.
It’s very easy to feel despair when you think you’re seeing progress in reading with them and helping their faith grow, but then a whole lot of stuff comes up and you feel quite overwhelmed by it. But it’s at that point that prayer becomes absolutely fundamental to the whole process – you’ve just got to pray for them, for the Holy Spirit to change their hearts, for courage for yourself when sharing the Word with them. It can never work if you do it in your own strength – it’s got to be in God’s strength and wisdom.
“Prayer becomes absolutely fundamental to the whole process – you’ve just got to pray for them, for the Holy Spirit to change their hearts, for courage for yourself when sharing the Word with them.”
Q. How have you seen God at work in reading His Word with your friends?
I’ve found that for everyone I read with, Jesus is really attractive – the person of Jesus is beautiful!
With M, it’s been so encouraging to see her jump fully into her new-found faith. She’s all in and by reading John with her, it’s been about building a framework for her faith to deepen and flourish. She’s now in a growth group and growing heaps.
B grew up in a good family and had a grasp of some of the basics about Christianity. He had a moral framework, which helped him understand what he was hearing as he tuned into the livestream services during lockdown. As we were reading The Word One to One, he got to know Jesus and came to understand more about the character of God – and he also got some answers to some of his big questions from our discussions along the way. And as he grew in his understanding of the gospel, he put his trust in Jesus!
“As we were reading The Word One to One, he got to know Jesus and came to understand more about the character of God – and he also got some answers to some of his big questions from our discussions along the way.”
Q. How has The Word One to One helped you introduce others to Jesus?
Around 6 years ago, our lady’s worker at church was interviewed during a service, where she told us about how she was reading the Bible with someone – I thought that was so cool and really wanted to do it myself! However, I didn’t know where to get started.
Two years later, my pastor was reading with The Word One to One with another guy – and this was the first time I heard about The Word One to One. At first I wasn’t immediately grabbed by it, but I still thought it was a good format to explore God’s Word with someone else. So I gave it a shot and tried it with M, who really liked it as it wasn’t confrontational and allowed her to ask all of her questions without feeling stupid.
Reading John with others really helps to give people a framework for understanding God and His character as shown in Jesus and His life on earth. So whatever questions they have, they seem to gain their answers through that understanding, which helps them a lot!
“Reading John with others really helps to give people a framework for understanding God and His character as shown in Jesus and His life on earth.”
Q. Do you have any advice you would give to someone who’s thinking about reading the Bible with someone else?
I would first ask yourself, do you love your Saviour? How precious is He to you? You’ve got this great resource, you’ve got time and you’ve got your friend who you love – do you believe that Jesus is what they need? If so, then just take the plunge!
It all comes down to Jesus. If He is Emmanuel – God with us – then He’s the One we go to and the gospels are where we go to. Just seeing Him save people and change their hearts and lives is amazing!
Find out more about how you can start sharing God’s Word with others today.
Recommended Reads
