Question...

I heard a story the other day about a man who visited Australia for his wedding anniversary. Him and his wife were having a great time over there and enjoying each other so much, when one day he was out to the store to get something that they needed in their hotel room. He was by himself, and decided to take a little shortcut through a back alley. He was met in the alley by a little old man, and the little old man said: "Sir, if you were to die today do you know where you would spend the rest of eternity...?" And as quick as the little old man appeared and asked the question, he dissappeared. The question of eternity however stuck with this man and he pondered it for the rest of the day.

Eventually, because of the question the little old man asked, this man and his wife became Christians, in fact, this man became a pastor. He was the pastor of a big church, and he began to travel and preach to different seminars on the subject of evangelism. Wherever he went he would tell the story of the little old man in the alley and the question he asked. After each seminar he preached at, he would have one or two people come up to him and say: "we went to Australia and the same little old man asked me the same question and that's why I'm saved today!!!"

over the course of a few years, and after speaking in many different places, he had met over 100 people who had been saved because of this little old man and the question he asked. So the pastor decided that he was going to go back to Australia to see if he could find this little old man. He bought his plane ticket and flew over there, and upon arriving he went directly to the same alley as before. There was that little old man sitting by his window in his home, when the pastor walked by the little old man said again: "Sir, if you were to die today, do you know where you would spend the rest of eternity...?" and the pastor replied "yes I do, because of you." The pastor then began to tell him that because of him and the question he asked, he was saved, and that hundreds of other people had been saved too. upon hearing these words the little old man began to weep tears of joy. "I had no idea that so many people listened to me!" The pastor asked him why he asked the question to everyone who walks by, and the little old man said that when he got saved he made a vow to God that every day for the rest of his life he would tell 10 people about Jesus, and he thought that question was a good way of saying everything he needed to in a very short amount of time.

When I hear this story I can't help but be filled with tears too, because of the dedication of this little old man, but also because I feel ashamed that I'm not doing more. If this little old man helped hundreds of people get saved just by one little question, then I could reach many as well by talking about Jesus, and living the life that shines the love of Christ. I don't know why I don't tell about Jesus all the time, I don't know whether I'm scared, or whether I think I'm entitled to do whatever I want. But something that I'm learning right now is that the only think I'm truly entitled to, is Hell... and the only way that I can be anything in this world, is through the love and beauty of Christ.

Grace

I've recently been learning about how God can take all the junk in my life, and form it into His treasure. It doesn't matter how messed up someone is, there is always a hope that they will be caught in God's grace.

I would like to share the story of a man named William. I'll start by telling you about his past experiences. William at the age of only 17 years old committed his first murder because the person hit his sister and he got mad. a few years after that he committed his second murder. He was the head member of the Hell's Angel's motorcycle gang for years, where he robbed, murdered and did drugs without any care for anyone. William has tattoos from his ears down to his feet with no skin showing. He used to be involved in underground cage fighting and thrived off of hurting people. He has been in almost a dozen life-threatening motorcycle accidents and been on life support more than once. William should be dead, but because of the grace of God he lives, and this is his story.

William was driving to work just like any other day, and as he was passing "Family Bible Church" (my home church) he saw a man hitch hiking and, going against his better judgement, he decided to do something he never does; he picked up the hitch hiker. The man came into his truck and they began some small talk. After a few minutes the man reached over without saying anything and put his hand on William (anyone who's ever touched William before has been sent to the hospital rather quickly). But for some reason William let the man's hand remain on his shoulder. Then suddenly, the man began to pray. Tears welled up in William's eyes and he didn't know why, but for some reason he felt a feeling in his heart that he's never felt before. As the man finished praying he asked William to pull the car over to the side of the road. William did as the man said, even though they were in the middle of no where. The man got out and walked directly into the woods and seemed to vanish. William felt something come over him like he'd never felt before, a sense of peace. Come Sunday he decided that he was going to go to that church near where he'd picked the hitch hiker.

When William walked in the door he was expecting glares and stares of disgrace from all the "Church people," but what he found was that the people from my church showed him compassion, and loved him because Jesus loves him. that sunday he sat through the service, and immediately afterwards sought the help of one of the church elders, my father, to talk with. So William and my dad went into one of the empty classrooms together, and in that empty classroom that sunday morning William, the Hell's Angel, the murderer, the drug user, was on his knees weeping before the Lord, and asking him to forgive everything he'd ever done. And you want to know the most amazing part of the story? God forgave William for those terrible things he did and now William is going to live in eternity with his Savior.

When I hear this story I think about how much God loves us, that no matter what we do or how bad we mess up, God will forgive us. William did some terrible things, but the beauty of Grace is that no matter what we do, Jesus died so that we might live. There is a passage of scripture in 2 Corinthians 9:8 that says: "For God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." Just like William, we all need Jesus, and no matter how bad I think I am, or how much I mess up, God is bigger than my sin and my stupidity, He loves me, more than anyone else can, and He is able to take the messy canvas of my life, and paint something beautiful.