Hello there, brothers and sisters! Told you it wouldn’t be long until I made another one of these… Let me just get right into this one then (and yes, maybe I can keep this one shorter than the last one).
Let me start with a story…
So I work in a Christian bookstore in the Shawnee mall called Living Word, (Yes, Yes, I know you didn’t know I worked here), and today I had a man come in that smelled like gangster cologne and musty cigarettes. Don’t ask what gangster cologne smells like, you would know it if you smelled it. On one hand he had two oversized silver rings, and he wore a short chain on his neck. With his black hair and mustache, pot belly and Italian flag shirt, I figured that I was looking at a straight up mob boss. He browsed the store for nearly 30 minutes without uttering a single word. Finally, after pausing in front of a book entitled “Bringing up Boys,” he exclaimed nearly under his breath, “This is bulls***.” I’ll admit, I thought I was only imagining that, but after he gestured at the whole store and said louder, “This is all bulls***,” I realized that this man wanted to throw down. Ok, I’m just kidding. He was just voicing his opinions, but man I’ll tell you, his opinions were getting on my nerves. I took a second to gather my thoughts and finally said, “Have you read any Ted Dekker books before?” I didn’t know how, but all I knew is that I needed to talk to this guy. We engaged in a topic of religion and how much he hates it, and I grew more and more frustrated at what this guy was saying. He was battling all aspects of Jesus, just because he didn’t like religion. I asked him at one point if he believed in God, to which he replied, “Yeah, but I’m not into the whole religion bulls***.” (I’ll tell you, this guy loved saying BS as often as he could…) We went back into the conversation, (which consisted of him talking loudly about how Jesus was a phony, and all Christians want is power, and me just standing there, frustrated, working out how to keep myself from arguing with his every sentence) and as we progressed I realized that my frustration was stemming from pride. I wanted to fight this dude on every front. HE WAS WRONG. But I realized that he came into a Christian bookstore for a purpose. God brought him here. Not for me to argue with him out of pride and anger, but for me to share the gospel with him. It was a blessing that he and I were talking. At that point, my thoughts shifted. I locked eyes with him and said, “I follow Jesus, but not because of some religion. I follow Him because He died so that I could have a relationship with God the Father through Him. Not for religion.” After saying that, I could tell that he had some respect, not just for my views, but for Jesus as well. He didn’t understand it all, but he respected it. We continued to talk and I could tell that he had really warmed up to me after that statement, and another statement about Christ’s reaction to the Roman taxes. (Yeah, “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.” Funny how God works, huh?) Through the Holy Spirit, God had given me a hunch to say it, and as soon as I did, the doors opened up with this guy. Our conversation ended, and as it did, we decided that we would get dinner sometime and that we would talk more. He liked me. But not because of me; because of Christ in me.
As the mob-man was in the store, another man named Robert came in. (Another God sent person.) As the guy left, Robert approached me and told me his life story and how God had redeemed him. After some joking and laughing about the absurdity of some of the mobster man’s comments, Robert got real with me and said, “I’ll tell you this: always follow the hunch. That guy came in here for a purpose. God wouldn’t have let him come in here if he weren’t going to leave changed.” And that got me to thinking…
In God’s mercy, I was not only able to share the gospel with a hard hearted, yet clearly broken man, but I was also able to learn a valuable lesson on how to engage a person with boldness, truth, and love. What I realized was that when Christ told us in the book of Acts chapter 1 verse 8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere,” he was proclaiming that we would be given opportunities to spread the gospel anywhere and at anytime, and also that we would be given the power to do so. This was shown in 3 major ways to me today:
- Even in my extremely frail, prone-to-fall state, God still used me. And He uses you.
- God gives us the power to be able to proclaim His gospel boldly, in all circumstances, through many different ways, causing people to come to know Him.
- God teaches us lessons about ourselves, and our faith in Christ, through opportunities such as these.
So the point of all that is this: FOLLOW THE HUNCH. If God puts it on you to speak to someone, do it. Don’t be afraid. You’re dang right, you don’t have the power, but God does. And He is with you as the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is your guide and source of power. The power to speak boldly, truthfully, and in love. You haven’t been called to speak to every single person out there, just those you come into contact with. Pay attention to those people God has chosen to bring near you and share the truth with them, however God leads you to…
As usual, thank you and God bless. Be praying for the mobster-guy. (And other people you know like him who are rejecting Christ.) Don’t let your fear hold the gospel back. Let me know how I can be praying for you, as well.
-GLS
Bearlee Afloat 