People are in need of Jesus.
Really. we are so used to
"just" saying that and we
don't really know how much they are in need of Him... or
know of any friend that needs God.I was that type of person.
I used to say to all my friends, "People need Jesus."
Of course,
all my friends were Christians... and we
HAD Jesus, you know? We had Him!
Now that I look back on it, we were thought we acted like Jesus, but were so far from it. We were full of arrogance.
I cant tell you about it enough without bringing up that one time where Jesus was hanging out with sinners.
Matthew 9:10 says,
"While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" came and ate with him and his disciples."
He ate with them at their house. Imagine that!
I bet he heard a couple of words that were
inappropriate.
I bet he heard some nasty jokes from these men.
So, when you meet someone that does not go to your church... does not go to your youth group... does not believe the way you believe... then and only then, (
hehe) you can ask that one question,
WWJD?
Really, what would Jesus do?
He would sit and talk to them.I was waiting for my friend Joe at Starbucks and was killing time. I opened my calendar and was thinking about Thanksgiving, Christmas, my girl, the upcoming weekend (already!)... you know, just killing time.
On my right side of me there was this young guy that was reading his bible.
I was
intrigued.
I started to make conversation with him.
We eventually got the point where I asked him ,"
What church do you go to?"He responded
, "I don't go."He then told me that he had moved here from another state, so I thought, well, he has not found a church.
He
then told me,
"No, I just don't approve of churches."Oh God, this is about to get interesting, I said to myself.
If I was still hanging around my "
Christian pals", I would have said,
"Sinner!"I would have said,
"He is not part of us."I would have said,
"He doesn't get our vision, lets move on. Forget him."I would have judged him wrongly.
But, I asked myself,
WWJD? (Yeah right!
Hehe)
For the next 30 minutes (Joe was taking too long to meet me), my new friend took me through 1 chapter of Acts and 1 chapter of Galatians.
We talked about God's righteousness, the law, believing in Jesus through faith...
He obviously knew his stuff.
People are in need of Jesus.I have come to realize firsthand that they do.
I came out of that conversation kind of shocked at the views that many people have about the church.
Its one thing to hang around with your church camp friends... its another to make friendships with people that need Jesus.
People are so full of bitterness towards the church, but
yet they still realize that they need Jesus.
We all need Jesus.
Go out there and make a friend this week.
Talk to them about Jesus... because deep down... deep, deep
down, they know they need Him so much.
"I pray for my friend. I pray that God reveals to him that Jesus said that the church was His... That He was going to build it. I also pray that the church starts acting like the church. Jesus, help me act and be your church."
