I love that. St Francis was definitely an action man, but not just for the sake of it. He did it to model Christ, and he did such a good job. I support orphanages in Bali. I raise support and profile when home in Australia, and visit once a year. I want the kids to know they are loved and prayed for and thought about by someone from far away, just because Jesus said it was a good idea. www.webpastor.com

.... The bible does not Teach this.. The bible Teaches both To preach by words and Action.. besides.. What is The Gospel? IS the Gospel Social? to help the poor? Nope The gospel is that Jesus Died for our sins.. How can you Act out Salvation From our sinful nature by action? Are we going to put out a play of the Crucifixion? Are we going to act out the Ten commandments ? ... .. In relation to “ Preach the gospel by action and when necessary use words...” There is no Way to Preach the Gospel by Works... unless your a Actor :D

You do this the same way that St. Francis did. You embody God's grace by loving and serving those who hurt you, you give up everything that you have to help others (especially your enemies), you live in complete humility (considering yourself a worse sinner than all others), you seek God's will for your life (with joy) no matter what it costs, you praise those who curse you, you seek to find your glory in the Cross of Jesus, and you set all of your hope on resurrection in Jesus Christ (not on what you, or any person, can achieve). Personally, I would suggest using words. It's easier.

I think St. Francis knew a verse in 1 Peter 3 -- verse 15 that says in the last half, "always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence" or as paraphrased in The Message, "Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy." How can you give an answer if no one asks a question? Why would they ask a question if they don't see you living your life in a way that is different from the rest of the world around you? When people see us love the unlovable, sharing what we have with those who don't have, and living out the greatest commands (Love God, Love others) THEN they ask questions. They want to know why we do it, day in and day out. Why would we bother? What drives us? What do we get out of it? THAT is when we use words. It has then become necessary.

You live your life to be the hands and feet of God. Help your neighbour whenever possible, think of others before yourself,.... Show by example rather then telling people what they should do.

The greatest of all commandments is to "love your neighbor." Leviticus 19:18 The apostole Paul affirms this by stating that all commands are summed up with "love your neighbor." Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14. When asked, Jesus qouted two commands, Deuteronomy 6:4-9, and Leviticus 19:18, "to LOVE the Lord your God...and LOVE your neighbor." 1 John 4:8 states that, "God is LOVE." Anyone who does not love, John says is a, "liar." Jesus tells us that it is impossible to love God outside of loving our neighbor/brother/sister/humanity. Matthew 5:22-24. Mother Teresa once paraphrased Jesus saying, "At the end of our lives, we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat. I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless and you took me in’. This is Christ in disguise.'" So how do we preach the gospel always without words? By our love! As Jesus so blatanly put it. It is as simple and as difficult as that. To love unconditionally. As Henri Nouwen said concerning compassion, "to not reach down from our high postion to pull up those less fortunate but to go and make our home with them. For we have a God who did not pull us up but came and made His home with us." The gospel is nothing but love. Salvation is not the gospel. The good news of the Gospel is that God LOVED us enough ("God so loved the world") to impart grace, so mercy, and grant forgiveness which in turn would result in eternal salvation. The good new of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that you and I are loved unconditionally and nothing we do can seperate us from that love. Now we must show the Gospel to others. So how do you show love to your teenage daughter who just got pregnant? How do you show love to the woman who just sold her body to make money? How do you show love to the man who passed out drunk on the street corner? How do you show love to the young person who is sleeping almost completely naked in the park? Remember Jesus said you will be judged by, "Whatever you DID for the least of these you DID for me." And what Jesus asked you to DO was to show LOVE! Wow, what an amazing God we have, a God of LOVE who judges with LOVE, concerning how we LOVED. Mathew 25:34-46 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' 41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life." -Jonathan

wow i think St francis was spot on when he said this phrase, its so true, just always live with the love of Jesus in everyday life, show people that you really can be different, and when they ask be prepared to say anything, in the best way possible, to whomever, if you start talking to pressuringly about religion, youll not only scare people away from you, but from Christianity, a lot of people in my opinion go to other religions like buddhism and islam because they feel they can be enlightened with those, we need to show them that you can be enlightened in a way not shown on any tv, or on any show, the news will not report on how good christianity really is, instead we get all these stupid tv shows like family guy and all that to make are religion look like a laughing stock, and to some degree, thats our fault, because we speak out to soon, its all about love, and waiting for the question to give the answer, not the other way around. thanks for reading my little rant, JESUS LOVES!!!! I am Barabbas