No Fear

The next time you are fearful about sharing your faith, remember this 92-year-old woman.

Eduardo’s Wife Is Dying

Finally, Eduardo was stepping out to his car. I had been gardening and hoped he would come outside. I ran to get the Magdalena DVD waiting by the front door and rushed across the street.

“This is for your wife,” I explained. “It is in Spanish.”

“Thank you,” he smiled weakly, the gold glistening on his teeth.

Eduardo accepted the DVD and I went on to tell him the movie was about Jesus and about the different women He healed. He thanked me and I concluded our brief conversation with, “We are praying for you.”

I wrote about our neighbors, Eduardo and Luz, before. They are Jehovah’s Witnesses and do not speak English very well. About two years ago, they accepted a “Jesus” DVD from me. (I only recently learned that JWs are not allowed to accept literature, so maybe a DVD or the Who Is He? Mini-CD are the best things to offer them.)

In just over a year, three families near us have faced the loss of a loved one. First, a seven-year-old granddaughter died from a car accident. Soon after that Eugene, a man in his fifties, died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Now, Luz is dying at home and has daily hospice visits. I have been unable to communicate with Eduardo and Luz, but I have noticed her housekeeper has a Christian radio station bumper sticker on her car. I hope she has explained the Gospel to them and will also pray that Luz will be able to watch the Magdalena DVD and accept God’s free gift of life eternal or that God will miraculously heal her for His glory and to lead many of her family and JW friends to Christ!

This is also a reminder to all of us that we may not have more time to share with the people in our lives.

More help for reaching Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The Moral Choice

“Are you reading the Bible?” I asked as I sat at the kitchen table with a friend of our son’s, Aadesh.

“Yes,” he replied. Aadesh had asked for a Bible earlier this summer after I had told him that the Bible had a lot to say about financial principles.

“What are you reading?”

“Romans,” he replied.

Wow! I thought. What a deep book of the Bible to start in!

Aadesh explained that some other people had recommended Romans as a good place to start with to learn what God says about finances.

He was very interested and seemed to agree with me as I explained how Jesus’ resurrection validated His claims to be God. I had never talked to Aadesh before about his spiritual background and was not surprised to learn he comes from a strong Hindu background.

Aadesh is leaving for Oxford in a few months and feels he needs to make a decision about his faith now because he knows he will face moral and ethical decisions as a neurosurgeon. I was really impressed with his humility in recognizing this need. He was willing to take a book from me called Choosing Your Faith by Mark Mittelberg which I had purchased with him in mind.

Our conversation went very well, but I later realized, because of his background, Aadesh views Jesus as one god among many. He is exploring which god to choose and I was really not on the same wavelength as he was. In the future, I will need to write to him about Jesus’ claims to be the only way to God.

Today, I am sending him a narrative version of The Roman Road and am trusting God to speak to Aadesh through His living Word.

A Waste of Time?

The man next to me turned in his seat and loudly spoke to his wife across the aisle and back a row, “Do you have a book?” he asked her, and then added, “If someone sits next to me, they should talk to me.” He reached across the aisle and tucked the Stephen King book in the pocket on the back of the seat in front of him.

Inwardly, I sighed. I had picked out my window seat about five minutes earlier. This gentleman had only just seated himself next to me and I had been looking at a magazine. The man in the aisle seat was occupied with something, too.

I am almost compulsive about how I spend my time. I had reading material and stationery and tracts in my bag, ready for a seven-hour flight. I was planning to strike up a conversation, but I guess I offended him by not conversing with him immediately. I closed my magazine and introduced myself.

Ted was returning home to Paradise, California. That’s a great way to lead into the Gospel, I thought, but I did not say anything yet. We talked for an hour about various things when he asked why I was traveling to Phoenix. The plane was full because many of the passengers were going to the Super Bowl, but I was going to meet my husband in Phoenix in order to visit some donors. I explained a bit about Campus Crusade for Christ.

“I don’t talk about religion,” Ted stated when I tried to witness to him. “I am satisfied with my relationship with God.”

I tried gently to show him a verse and give him a tract. He refused and then asked me again to not talk about spiritual things.

The rest of the flight we had a bit of conversation, but Ted turned his attention to chatting with the other passenger. I was reluctant to turn my full attention to a book I had with me, so I kept myself available to chat a little more with him if possible.

Ted is an avid reader, so a short while later, I recommended a book to him, The Last Jihad by Joel C. Rosenberg. He had heard of it. This book is the first in a series which combines Biblical prophecies and current events. As the reader goes further into the series, the author presents the Gospel.

I could have felt frustrated that I did not get anything done that I had brought on the plane or that Ted did not want to hear the Gospel and lost interest in talking after he found out I was a missionary. Also, in hindsight, I could have offered to give his wife my seat (although that might have been a bit messy with how crowded the plane was), so I could then have an opportunity to try to witness with someone on the other side of the plane.

I decided this morning, though, that God is sovereign. He wanted me there to be like Christ even if I could not say much as a Christian. He wanted me to suggest a novel for Ted to read as the only little bit of witness I could do. I was where I needed to be, doing what I needed to do with the person God placed next to me.

Click for more information about Joel Rosenberg’s books.

In a Corner

We walked past seat after seat, looking for two together. Finally, we saw two seats in the very last row. A rail-thin teenager had the window seat. I could not see much of him as he huddled in his back corner of the plane, his hoodie pulled up, hiding his face. I noticed his tattooed ankle as I stowed my carry-on and tried to get comfortable.

“Do you have enough room?” he asked.

“Thank you,” I replied as I looked up into his face, hidden behind a curtain of hair. I learned his name was Matt and we settled in for take-off.

That might have been the end of our conversation, except that I knew I would want to try to bridge the chasm between me and this young man, as we shared some cramped space for the next hour. Although inches apart, we were separated by several decades, by lifestyle, and possibly by spiritual condition.

He opened his book and I opened mine. I wondered if he noticed the big, bold letters on my book’s cover: God is the Issue by Brad Bright. I was really enjoying Brad’s book and wishing I was a little further along so I would be better equipped to speak with Matt. I opened to the Chapter, Communicating God’s Heart, and read:

“. . . our hearts often do not truly reflect God’s heart. We focus on symptoms, but God focuses on the cause. We tend to judge others based on their outward appearance. God always judges based on the heart.”

Well, I knew right then the book could wait and my conversation with Matt could not.

Part 2 of 3 < Prev Next>

Confined, But Not Restricted

The house was adequate. A little small perhaps, but maybe that was because of all the people that came by. Even at night, men were coming and going.

But Paul could not go anywhere. For two years, he waited for his trial which might mean the end of his life. He did not view his house arrest as an end of his ministry, however.

Two soldiers at a time shared four-hour shifts with Paul. Soon the Gospel spread from that little house to all the elite Praetorian Guard and even Caesar’s household.

Paul also had an immeasurable impact across two millennia from his writings which are now in the New Testament.

So what can you do when you have limitations? This is the challenge presented this past July by our speaker, Dr. Crawford Loritts. His phrase, “confinement, but not restriction” has stayed with me these past few months.

I pulled out my journal today to look over my summer, starting the day my college-age son “took over” my car for his job, through to today. After the boys returned to college, I had minor surgery on my legs and found myself homebound again for the past two weeks. So, I was pretty much at home most of May through September. I filled a page with all the ministry opportunities I had when I could not get out! What a blessing!

I will write about specific opportunities here in The Sower to give you some ideas when you find yourself confined, but not restricted.

NOTE: Join the Sower Facebook group for more help in sharing your faith.

The Top Four – Part Two

“We have too much stuff!” I fumed as I stumbled past a pile of stuff in the garage.

This wasn’t the first time I had hit my limit on the things we had accumulated. I had been trying to “purge” the house for several years now. I felt like Eustace in C. S. Lewis’ The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace was unsuccessful in removing his dragon skin. Only Aslan could do it. For Eustace, the skin symbolized his sin that only Christ could remove. For me, the clinging dragon skin represents all the trivial possessions and projects that consume my time and energy. I have been pruning things out of my life and home with a goal to simplify my life, but it is now time to let Jesus dig deeper than I had been able to do on my own.

So, what do my struggles to downsize my possessions have to do with witnessing?

The top four hindrances, in order, that keep Christian workers from sharing their faith are exactly in reverse order from Christians in general (The Top Four – Part One). They are:

1. Busyness
2. Not knowing nonbelievers
3. Lack of know-how
4. Fear

This was a revelation for me! Busyness is definitely my number one hindrance. Specifically, I am often too busy with possessions and projects to give people a little droplet of my time that can mean an ocean of eternity for them!

In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains that the seed sown among thorns symbolized “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.” What was the result of sowing seed among thorns? The thorns choked the plant, “making it unfruitful.”

Some very good questions to ponder from this parable are:
• Am I caught up in the concerns of this life? And in desires for more things?
• Am I deceived by what I own? Is something taking the place of God in my life?
• Am I unfruitful because of what I own? Or because of how much I own?
• Am I willing to let Jesus help me “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles” so I can more easily run the race God has given me? (See Hebrews 12: 1 – 3)

As Eustace explained after his experience with Aslan: “Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt . . .”

I want to be free to serve, not entangled by so many things. To go deeper may be painful in some respects, but I am ready. It’s not worth holding on to things if they are hindering me in my availability and usefulness.

P. S. If you have been struggling with “stuff” too, you might be interested in my blog on Stewardship, The Steward.

The Top Four – Part One

I recently learned the top four hindrances, in order, that keep Christians from sharing their faith:

1. Fear
2. Lack of know-how
3. Not knowing nonbelievers
4. Busyness

I added these hindrances to tags for this site and will plan to cover them in The Sower.

Do you identify with any of these four? Feel free to write some comments to share here with others.

Busyness is definitely an issue for me. I remember experiencing real freedom in this area during Hurricane Frances in 2004. We had evacuated to my son’s apartment, taking only the bare essentials with us. I finally had time that weekend! Without all the things to distract me, I had lots of time available for my family. Unfortunately, we returned home to an unwanted skylight and a puddle of brown water, with blobs of soggy pink insulation in the kitchen, so we were more-than-our-usual busy for a long time after that.

Stay tuned. In a few days, I will publish The Top Four – Part Two.

Turning Back

I chatted a bit with Mo as I bought salmon at the fresh fish counter. I turned and headed down the aisle to check out. I was not even halfway down the aisle when I sensed God prompting me to go back and give Mo a tract.

I started a few mental arguments.

“I will look silly going back now!” and “This will be awkward!”

God kept up the pressure and I knew before I reached the end of the aisle that I had to turn around. Fortunately, Mo was still at the counter and was not waiting on anyone.

“Excuse me, but I knew I had to come back and offer this to you,” I said, as I held out a tract to him. He smiled and accepted it.

As I remembered this incident today I asked myself: who would I rather risk offending? A stranger or a friend? Or Almighty God, by my disobedience? It is far better for me to be sure I am obedient whenever I hear God’s voice, no matter what He asks. I am sure it must have been better for Mo, too, as God must have had something to say to him that afternoon.

MP3 and Me

“There she is again,” I thought. Almost every time I went to the fitness center, I saw a tall, Middle Eastern young woman. I had never talked to her and I was feeling awkward as the weeks turned to months. It seemed that she was a little awkward about seeing me, too.

Normally, I strike up conversations early. The longer the time goes from initial encounter to introduction, the harder I find it to introduce myself. During this time, I had also been given a MP3 player, so I was listening to music or audio books when I could have chatted with some of the regular members.

Then one day, it dawned on me that she had lost quite a bit of weight, so I decided to ask her about it. I introduced myself and my daughter first.

Then I asked, “Excuse me, but it looks like you have lost weight.”

“Yes, I’ve lost thirty pounds.”

“Wow! How did you do it?”

She explained what she had done and we also learned that she was studying for a realtor’s license. When she said her name was Pooja, I asked her what it meant.

“Divine prayer”

What an opening that was for a spiritual conversation! I did not say anything, however. I thought I must have appeared to be snubbing her for months and I assumed my actions had given a negative impression. “Better to chat with her a few times first,” I thought.

The next two times I saw her, we chatted only briefly. I remember God giving me another spiritual opening which I did not take. I have not seen her since.

So now I want to be aware of any personal hindrances:
• Am I talking on the cell phone when I should be chatting with the clerk or waitress?
• Should I turn off or turn down the music and tune in to those around me?
• Am I making assumptions that might not be true? Instead, I need to respond to those little cues that can move a conversation to spiritual topics.
• At least for me, it is better to have little bits of conversation to build on later than to wait to meet people.