Talkin' up Jesus

This is an email from a sister in Christ who just so happens to be my son's evening nurse. She is a strong, Spirit-filled Christian and this is her testimony:

There Is None Like Him!

My Pastor and elder have really been encouraging us to share our faith strategically and aggressively. Though this is not revelatory to me or any other Bible believing Christian, the fact that we so seldom do it is testimony to our need to be admonished in this area! With this encouragement keenly in mind, I looked for opportunities and found one with a member new to our family through marriage. She is my son-in –law’s step mom and of Thai ethnicity and a practicing Buddhist. She has lived both in Thailand and the United States for the last 30 years so it would be easy to assume that she was totally familiar with the claims of Christianity. This was not the case.

I took the risk of offending her and got the conversation going in that direction. I had been told that she really liked me when she met me a year ago, so I knew I had some relational equity to draw on. I took her on a walk with her dog and my youngest granddaughter and got her to share with me her goals and dreams for her life at this new venture of being married after being widowed 2 years ago and relocating to Texas. She wanted to move away from some of her single friends who were counter productive to her new life situation of being married and devoted to the needs of her new husband. She was willing to enter “his world” of Texas and even to attend a church of his choosing. She had gone to church when Chris and Sharon and the kids visited in California and heard Dr. David Jeremiah preach and had been very impressed with the way he taught things. This was very different from the Buddhist liturgy she was used to. She shared how she had even entered the Buddhist nunnery in search of peace, but to no avail. She believed in a “universal God” and tried to be a good and kind person which she definitely is. I felt like the apostle Paul on Mars hill talking to the ancient Greeks. I had my inroad and strategy by taking time to get to know her and enter her world! As you may recall, Paul preached to them about their idol to the “unknown God.” Well, as far as I could tell, her “universal God” and the Greeks “unknown God” were pretty synonymous.

I started telling her about the “universal God” that was available to all men and all cultures through His Son Jesus Christ. He was born miraculously of a Virgin and was the promised Messiah. He proved this by His miracles, His astounding teachings, and His willingness to die on the cross, a cruel and tortuous death, for the sins of all mankind. God raised Him from death as proof that this was His Chosen One to redeem us all. No one compares to Him! No one even comes close! He alone can give life, peace and joy! There is none like Him, before or after! He is the only way to satisfy the requirements of an all powerful, “universal God”! I explained that God wanted her to receive Christ as an act of her free will and to give her life to Him as He gave His life for her! At this point my (our) 5 year old granddaughter, Kylee, who had been listening to our conversation on and off, jumped up and down, and exclaimed, “Be a Christian, be a Christian!” This was her first attempt that I am aware of at evangelism! I explained to Booie that these children had been praying for her and wanted very much for her to love Jesus as they do. She had won a place in their young hearts by her kind and gentle ways and taking them to Disneyland didn’t hurt either! I explained that we all loved her regardless of what her decision would be on this matter. She smiled in her very sweet and gentle way and told Kylee that she would have to go home and meditate on the matter!

At one point in the conversation she literally had goose bumps all over her arms as I believe the Holy Spirit was revealing Christ to her! She hugged and thanked me for explaining to her what every one else must have either assumed that she knew or were too afraid to tell her for fear of offending her. I think that may have been me if it was not for the encouragement of my Pastor and Dr. Ruby, our church’s elder. I personally was shocked that it wasn’t as hard or awkward as I thought it would be and that God used my fumbling attempts to communicate the Gospel to her. I was willing to articulate what she already knew; we all want her to receive Jesus, because we as Christians know, “There is none like Him”!
Lori


How brave are you to share the story of Jesus? Is it easy or difficult for you to talk about Jesus? Why?