God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)
Where did we ever get this belief that manipulation, arrogance, anger and abrasiveness are effective ways to win people to the Lord? Even if we are persecuted, such an individual is acting in the flesh. Why would we respond in the flesh as well? If we are persecuted for Christ, respond in a way that Christ would respond. Isn’t that common sense. Didn’t our Lord command us to respond to unbelievers with “gentleness and reverence” (1 Peter 3:15)?
There is something essentially wrong with a man who calls himself a Christian and who can listen to a truly evangelistic sermon without coming under conviction again, without feeling something of his own unworthiness, and rejoicing when he hears the Gospel remedy being presented.