God must laugh at me *a lot*! Seriously I think He often calls the angels over: “hey guys come look at how Adam is going to stuff this up!”. I envisage many angels rolling around with laughter. Often.
Tonight was one of those times. At the Rally 4 Life, in a conversation and a man, we will call him Man A, came and stood right in front of me. Like he wanted to join the conversation so I introduced myself and shook his hand, moving towards him.
“I’m Man A”
He asked my young sons’ name and then commented about a Biblical reference to that name. The way he said it though I thought “this man may only have a religious view of God & may not be saved .
“That’s ok” I think, “I have a booklet for this in my left pocket…I’ll give it to him when appropriate.” But then the event starts & Man A is gone.
A short time later, another man, we will call him Man B, is standing behind me. I say hello & not sure what else, but when I am facing the front, I sense a clear prompt from God:
“turn around & tell him that Jesus loves him”
Umm, no. That’s weird. It’s not even a phrase I use normally. The event continues and the thought will not go away. But when I turn around, he is gone.
I’m not sure how long afterwards, I see him again and so approach him and wait for his phone call to end. When it does, somehow I am thinking it is Man A, but it’s not., it’s Man B. I give him the booklet intended for Man A, he thanks me and that is that.
Then, a man is introduced and starts to speak to the crowd over the microphone. ‘This is Man B’ I think to myself – still not realising the mixup.
At least I know where he is… At the conclusion of the event, I approach him and say hello and he says:
“Hi Adam”
Umm what – how does he know my name? At this point I should have realised that this was Man A, not Man B. But I don’t want me not remembering when / how I talked to someone to distract me from the purpose so I launch into it:
“This is weird, but you know when you were standing behind me, I sensed that God told me to turn around and tell you that Jesus loves you. It was weird so I ignored it, but thought I would come tell you now. Do you know Jesus?”
“Wow thank you! I do know Jesus, but I have been very flat lately so that is timely. Did you hear that before or after we were talking”
Now at this point I *really* should have figured it out as I never talked to Man B. But I don’t.
I try to answer him, but in doing so I get confused & have to tell him I actually don’t know if I sensed that before or after we talked.
We keep chatting for a bit, I give him a tract he asks if I will contact him, I say yes and leave only just now remembering he asked about my sons name, but *still* not figuring out I have got two people completely confused for each other in the space of 15 minutes.
Not a hard task, not complicated, yet I still manage to get it backwards. But here’s the thing: I *know* that although the angels had a good laugh, they also had another opportunity to worship the majestic King of Heaven.
You see, me giving the wrong booklet to the wrong Man and giving the wrong tract and message to the other ‘wrong’ man, I did for Jesus. And God promises if we do *anything* for the Jesus, He *will* turn it into a success for His purpose. Somehow, God will use my blunders. Every single one of them (and there are *stacks* of them).
If you don’t believe me, just ask Man A or Man B^
If God can use me and my burnt out brain – He can *certainly* use you! All he needs is for you to do something for Him…
Your neighbour, the service station clerk, the secretary, the boss, the windscreen washer at the lights: they all need Jesus. And anything you do for the Lord in regards to them *will* be used by God for His purpose!
Your message doesn’t have to be perfect, you don’t need all the answers or training or eloquent speech or self confidence. You don’t even need to get the ‘right’ person!
God *will* use it. Go! Give them a tract, a CD, a DVD, a Bible, ask them if they know Jesus, or think about death often, or need help or….
So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.
[emphasis added] 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NLT)
Lord, help us to be obedient to Your call to share Your love & truth with others. Help us walk in faith and with purpose, denying our own desires and need for acceptance to talk about things that are of utmost importance – thanks that are Eternal. Give us a love for other people that would motivate us to reach those around us. Thank You for promoting those before us to share Your Truth with us so we can understand Your amazing love & grace.
Please pray for Man A & Man B!
^ to do this you have to make sure you are going to go to heaven. If you have told even one lie, stolen anything, lusted (or had sex outside of marriage) you are disqualified. If you have broken *any* of Gods’ laws, (we all have), you’re *only* Way of getting to Heaven is trusting the Truth of who Jesus is, what He accomplished and give your Life to Him. He will *never* let you down. AND you’ll get to meet thousands of ‘Men A’s’ who ended up there due to God using fallible people to share an imperfect message about a perfect God and His perfect Son.