Man Shares the Gospel: You Won’t Believe What Happened Next!
A friend shared an exciting experience with me the other day – this person had taken an opportunity to share the good news of Christ with a complete stranger while waiting in line somewhere. He swallowed his fear, said a silent prayer, took a deep breath, then began to share spiritual truths with a stranger who was sitting near him. Guess what happened?
The stranger became infuriated then stood up and stormed out.
The stranger began to curse at the Lakewood member.
The stranger wielded a weapon!
The stranger was humbled and listened intently.
Actually, none of these happened. As it turns out, the stranger was actually a believer in Christ as well and began to share encouraging Scripture and testimonies with the Lakewood member. The two quickly realized that they were not strangers at all, but actually brothers in Christ and they spent several minutes celebrating together the hope they shared in Christ. They had even volunteered and served in similar ministries and other opportunities. When the time came for one of them to leave, they both smiled and agreed that if they never met again on earth, they would see one another in heaven.
We often allow ourselves to become paralyzed by an irrational conclusion that we’ve drawn, built on a worst-case-scenario, derived from our worst fears. Then when the opportunity arrives to share the gospel, we sit silently. The result is that we not only rob someone else of the opportunity to hear the gospel, but we may even rob ourselves of receiving a blessing in the form of godly encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ whom we’ve not yet met.
I challenge you to stop for a moment right now and offer a prayer to the Lord, asking Him to increase your faith and increase your awareness of those around you who need to hear His gospel, and need to be encouraged by His followers.
Blessings,
Pastor Bruce