Day 209- An Invitation First

We took Hannah Grace to a Christian camp today. She'll be there for a week. She's been there before so this is not a "first." It's just a Daddy who misses his daughter and wants other people to pray for her this week.  It is more of a shameless request than a "first."

I noticed today that there was a vehicle parked in our church parking lot.  Occasionally people will park there and I assume ride together somewhere.  The idea hit me today that I could leave a note for this person and invite them to come worship at our church. Of course, I've invited many people over the years to church, but for some reason, I've never left a note on an unattended vehicle in our church parking lot with an invitation to church.  That is somewhat embarrassing to think this has not occurred to me before. Today, I left a note inviting someone who left their vehicle in our church parking lot to come and worship with us.

For those who are followers of Christ, we should desire that others come worship in our church.  Of course, the reason is not so that we can have a bigger church or feel better about ourselves helping our church to grow.  No, the reason is because we want people to come to know Jesus and have a very real and personal relationship with Him.  All people are sinful and that sin separates them from God.  Praise God, Jesus came and died for our sin. He rose again three days later.  He offers forgiveness and a relationship with Him to all who will repent of their sin and believe in Him. Romans 10: 9-10 says, "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

 

I was reminded today that as a believer I am also an ambassador for Christ.  My heart should be attuned to the Holy Spirit to seek to take every opportunity to share the message of Christ. He is too good to be silent about.  He is too wonderful for people to not know about Him.  I desire for my heart to more and more be so enthralled with Christ that I just naturally share Him consistently and joyfully. The idea is not to share Christ out of guilt (because my preacher preached about it pretty hard) or out of duty (I really know I should).  It's much better to share about Christ from a heart overflowing with His love.

I have a friend who used to travel a good bit in his job.  He kept his fishing rod in his car when he did.  One day I asked if he was going fishing. He said no, that he was working.  So, I asked him why he had his fishing pole with him.  His reply stuck with me. He said he had to drive a lot and he never knew when he was going to pass a lake or a pond that looked like there would be good fishing there. He sometimes would stop and ask a landowner if he could fish a little while in his/her pond.  He did not want to miss an opportunity to get in a little fishing that he might otherwise never get the opportunity to do.

Christians ought to be ready to share their faith like my friend was ready to fish.  We  want to be ready and not want to miss an opportunity that we may never have again. I love catching a good fish, but that does not compare with helping someone come to know Jesus. Happy fishing!!

Fishing in the abundant life
Barry

3 things I thank God for today
1. Sunday  School teachers who personally shared their faith with me one on one when I was a teenager.
2. Friends in college who had a strong influence on my life for Christ
3. People who let me fish in their ponds