God working

I have lived in Cornelia at our home for about 3 1/2 years. For all of that time I have had the same neighbor. His name is David and he owns 3 car audio stores, one in our town and two others. He is a 42 year old non-Christian.

For the entire time I have lived here, I have known that I was supposed to / needed to witness to him. Like most people, I have had a hard time getting that done. I do better when I set out to do some sort of evangelism somewhere. Talking with people I know is very difficult.

However, I have always felt like I was supposed to talk to David. We have developed a relationship over the years by talking ocassionally. I have in previous conversations tried to bring up God in some form or another.

He has recently put his house up for sale, and I was worried that I was about to fail the task I felt like God had for me. I was afraid he was going to move away without my ever really witnessing to him. That really bothered me. For all I knew, I would be the only Jesus he ever knew....and if I didn't share the good news with him, no one else might ever either. I have prayed that God would give me the opportunity and the courage to take it.

Today, I pulled up in the driveway and went inside for a minute. When I came back out to go to the truck, he was in his little tool shed, and he said hi. We talked for awhile, and through conversation where he basically told of being in a rut in life and wanting more material things; we began to talk about how God gives me peace and meaning and what I desire in life rests in Him.

In another reminder that evangelism rests not in our meager abilities but in God's dealings in the hearts of men, I found that David was hungry for meaning and true fulfillment in life, and although he lives in the Bible belt and is surrounding by so many churches, David did not know, that Jesus Christ was God's Son and had died for his sins, and he could recieve forgiveness through repentance and faith in Him.

It was so amazing to me, but after learning of the good news of the forgiveness of God, question after question began to pour forth, wanting to know more and more about God. Who He is. What He is like. Why He loves me. Can he fix me.

For about 2 1/2 hours he listened and asked questions....the very same questions that have been asked for thousands of years. Luckily, I didn't not have to answer too many. Jesus did. I found that many questions he asked, Jesus was also asked. So I was able to answer many of his questions, not only with Jesus direct answers, but with the very parables Jesus told to illustrate the point. How exciting it was to me, to know that Jesus answered those very questions, and then to be able to tell him the parables and explain them, knowing that he was hearing his questions answered by the words of Jesus himself. It was so amazing to me, how he kept asking those very questions Jesus was posed with in the Bible.

I can't remember everything we talked about, but we pretty much talked about everything. He wanted to know if he accepted Christ later in life (42), would he only get a smaller percentage of what God gives to people, since most people accept him when they are children. I told him the parable of the man who paid workers at the beginning of the day 1 denari to work in their field, and then another group of workers 1 denari in the afternoon to begin working in the field, and how the first group grumbled because the later group got paid the same as the morning group. And how the man said he paid them what he owed them, and what is it to them if he wants to be generous with own money towards others. And how God could give him His full measure of grace and mercy and love, even though he may accept him later in life.

We talked about people who claim to accept Christ and then do not live that out in life. And I told him the parable of the sower. He is a yard man, and he really grabbed on to that. I explained to him about only a smaller percentage of people in church being true believers, and how going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Hearing that helped explain alot that he had thought about to him. It helped explain the money making TV evangelist, the hypocrites in churches. I told him about the hypocrites of Jesus day and how Jesus despised their actions and called them a brood of vipers.

He listened to / or asked me about everything from Satan, to divorce, to why Christians go to church, to why believe in Christianity instead of another faith, to how would I deal with persecution if I accepted Christ, to becoming a Christian won't make life a bed of roses, but it will give you peace and reconciliation with God, to how God enables Christians to forgive those who have wronged them, by recognizing how much God has forgiven us for. I told him the parable of the man who was forgiven much, and then didn't forgive his servant little, and how then when the rich man found out, threw him into prison as well. And how God says if we don't forgive others, he won't forvie us. And on, and on, and on.

He basically admitted that God must be tugging on his heart. While we were talking (in my front yard, ....sitting on my old wooden picnic table he doesn't like), a giant, beautiful and full rainbow appeared across the sky. He pointed it out, and said he believed that he thought it may be a sign to him that basically this gospel was truely from God and for him. We talked about how God reveals himself through his creation. We talked about what makes man different from animals, being made in the image of God. I explained to him what that meant, and he really grasped on to the idea of the characteristics that separate us from animals and mirror the personality of God.

We talked alot about not putting off the conviction of God, and what doing so could mean. He understood fully. I wanted him to accept Christ's forgiveness right then and there. But he was pretty overwhelmed with it all. He actually had no clue about the gospel. What a travesty it would have been, if he had moved away, with me living next to him and never sharing Jesus. Thank God, he gave me the opportunity....and the guts to witness. How it paid off.

He told me he wanted to think about what we've said. And that he might have more questions for me later. He said he might want to go to church with me sometime. I don't know now if he will accept, if God will continue to pull on the strings of his heart, of if that plant will grow and be choked out by the worries of this life. ....but I do know......I am now at peace with my responsibility. If David dies tonight, he will without a doubt, have known and felt that he was a sinner, and that God has provided for his deliverance. Now it is up to him. When you say your prayers, ask that God will not let the words he has heard, leave his heart. But that he will respond.

How amazing. I've been waiting for that to happen for over 3 years. It was definetly all God and not me. Because I felt like God had been laying that on my heart, because it was going to happen....and sure enough, he wanted to know everything I could tell him. God had beeen preparing his heart for today. Now I will find out, which type of soil will he be?