Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Pastor Jim was a man who truly lived what he taught and preached. He was known in many hospitals and nursing homes in town for visiting, praying, and often attending to the needs of many sick patients. One day when his church van ran out of gas, the only container he could find to put gas into, of all things, was a bedpan. He happily walked two blocks to the closest gas station, filled up the bedpan with gas, and headed back to his car. As fate would have it. Pastor Jim started tipping the gas into the fuel tank as the traffic light turned red and had quite a large audience witnessing the spectacle. Just when he finished pouring in the last drops into the van’s gas tank, a fellow opened up his window and hollered, “Sir, I haven’t done so in years but I swear if your van starts I’m coming to your church this coming Sunday”
All God’s children know that those who have genuine faith don’t need to see unusual or extraordinary things in order to believe in God. On the other hand, just like in the corny joke above, many have come to Christ because they saw or experienced something miraculous. He himself told the unbelieving Jewish religious leaders of His day: “Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.” (John 10:37-38) In the case of these unbelieving men, contrary to those who believed by what they saw, these saw many of His wondrous works and still did not believe.
Being that people can come to Christ by what they see, do you realize that you can draw people to Him by what they see in you? If drawing others to Him is one of your genuine concerns, I hope you see now how important it is for us to try to live a God honoring life. In the case of many around you, it is even more crucial because they are in a life and death situation. And we are not speaking here about living a perfect and sinless life. That would be impossible. Love, here is the key. If you draw closer to God every day, you will love Him more and more every day. And when you do, you will learn to see others just like He sees them, and love them as He loves them. In time, others will see Christ in you and will draw closer to Him because of it. After all, you yourself are a miracle of God’s creation and, in time, others will see it and believe.
Memory verse for the week: (Jeremiah 29:13) “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
