Evangelist

BALTAZAR was the winner of the Golden Boot as the best South American goal-scorer in the early 1980s and leading goal-scorer in Spain (Bronze Boot in Europe) in the1988-89 league.

Dedicated supporters will also know that Baltazar was not only famous for his great capacity to score goals, but also for his fervent Christian witness. His testimony was so obvious that one popular sports reporter, every time he commented on games in which Baltazar participated, stopped mentioning him by name, instead saying, "The evangelist has taken the ball, and, "...shot at the goal from the evangelist," and, "The evangelist, Baltazar, has scored!" Yes, Baltazar made it clear to everyone that he was a preacher of the good news first and foremost.

It is right that we live as God wants us to live, but it is also important that we share the message of the gospel. People are going to identify us by who we are, what we do and what we say. Whole days and even months often pass by without our talking to a single person about what God has done for us... and we really ought to be constantly speaking about him! It is vital that people should know what God can do for them.

Every day thousands of people die, without knowing the message of God's love, and all these people are lost for eternity. Many of these have lived around us, have spoken with us and sometimes (and this is the saddest thing) they were our good friends! It is our responsibility to speak to others about the Lord, so that they can find him and live.

People around us judge us for the way we are: if we live as if we have no hope, they will think we have none; if we act as if we have no personal relationship with God, they won't see anything supernatural in our example. So, you see the extreme importance of communicating all that God has done for us, so that people realise that God loves them, and they know this from watching us!

Think for a moment - how are you going to live? Will it be 'normal' working, studying, forming friendships etc? Or are you going to make the decision to live as an evangelist? Don't forget that the lives of those around you could depend on you.