I was watching my favorite evangelist, Ray Comfort, the other night and he drove home a great point. When sharing the gospel of Christ with unbelievers most of us tend to use the happiness that Christ can bring to us as a 'selling point' for Christianity. Not only can this be misleading, but it may result in their eternal damnation.

Are Christians happier than non-believers? In general, they probably are. But when we commit to take up Jesus' cross, we are also committing to sharing in his suffering. A follower of Jesus will almost undoubtedly experience suffering, pain and sadness -- maybe more than their non-believing counter-part.

Christ did not promise us an earthly life completely void of pain. But, through Jesus, we have the hope of an eternal life that will not have any suffering. It's not necessarily the here-and-now that causes a Christian to be joyful, it's the hope of the future and the peace that comes with knowing that God is in control of everything and that we are his children.

While watching Ray doing street evangelism, I realized that telling people about how happy Jesus can make them may back-fire. What is they are already happy? What if they have a life surrounded with everything that brings them joy? As Christians, we know that these treasures are fleeting, and can be gone in the blink of an eye. Their joy is built on shaky ground. But they are happy, and maybe, some Christians they have seen have not been so joy-filled.

As the sprit leads us, it may be more effective to minister to their sinful nature. Ray has built his entire ministry upon preaching about God judging us by the law. If people don't realize their guilty of a 'crime', it won't make any sense to them that they will have to pay a penalty.

Ask them if they've ever told a lie, stolen anything, looked at someone with lust. When they answer yes, you can share with them God's law that he holds us to. They will realize that by God's standards we are all sinners, lying, adulterous, thieves. Ask them how God will judge us on judgment day.

By God's standards, the law, we are all guilty, worthy of punishment. But God made a way for us to avoid his judgment. He became a man, bore our sins and dies on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. He suffered and dies so we won't have to. To accept his offer, all we have to do is accept him - believe and repent!

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 5:1-5