Welcomed and Loved

So, a pretty awesome deal happened to me this last week.

A friend/acquaintance got in touch with me about going to church. For those that don’t know, I’ve grown up in church my whole life. If you are a regular reader here at A Fresh Voice (AFV), then you know I’m saved. I will shout to the rooftops until the day I die that I love the Lord. It’s that serious. My grandfather pastor’s a church, and this is common knowledge to people. So, requests to come out to a service are not completely unheard of. I welcomed my friend out with open arms, and let him know what time service started.

Well, he didn’t come.

I’m no stranger to this. People ask me about the church all of the time. I can probably count on two hands how many have actually followed through to come out. It’s not that there is something wrong with the church. It’s that some people aren’t ready for Jesus to truly speak to them. If you come to Gospel Tabernacle, then He’ll do just that. Others use Jesus as a conversation piece with me. Considering how controversial that subject can be, the choice to be so light with it kind of surprises me.

In any event,  my friend contacted me the next week to apologize about not coming. I let him know there are no worries on my end, and the church doors are always open when he wants to come. He has to feel welcomed and loved when he walks through the door. That starts with me. Just one simple conversation can make or break someone’s view of your church. During our discussion, he proceeded to tell me how he was feeling spiritually. In short, he needed help.

These conversations get me excited! As someone who is saved/Christian, you want to lead someone else to Christ. Thus, I knew this conversation was of the utmost importance. At this moment (and throughout life period), I need to be in tune with God. I don’t want to mess this opportunity up. I don’t want to say the wrong thing. So, what do I do?

Pray.

I asked God to word my mouth, and give me what to say. He knows exactly what we need to hear. God answered my prayer. He gave me what to say, but I was still a bit nervous. So, I called my mom. My mom is saved to the bone. Her whole life exudes Jesus. Plus, she’s been in these type conversations before so she has the experience of knowing God’s voice. She gave me a scripture (Romans 10: 9-10) and told me to relay it to him. I did. I ended off with inviting him to Bible study later that night. He accepted the invitation.

Then, my mother and I prayed again.

When you get in situations like this, you want everything to go right. You want to make sure you didn’t speak out of turn. Most of all, you really want the person who’s searching for God to come to service. Thoughts instantly raced through my head. They then ceased, and I heard God say:

“He’ll be there tonight.”

After that there was no worries. Sure enough, because God is not a man that he should lie, my friend came. He didn’t initially see me because I was downstairs teaching the teenage class. I knew this might make him a bit uneasy. However, my mom just so happened to be teaching Bible study that night, and she was aware of the situation. At the end of our session downstairs, I got the call to come upstairs. There sat my friend. We shook hands and I sat down on the bench behind him. My mother proceeded to talk about salvation for a short bit. Afterwards……..

He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior!!!

Everything was perfect! I saw a man who was pleading for Jesus to help him, deliver him, and save him from his sin. Jesus did JUST that!! He put my friend in my path. Bear in mind, we went to junior high and high school together, but outside of “Hey!! How are you doing?” conversations, we didn’t really talk. God knew my mom would be teaching Bible study that night. He knew she would be in tune to His voice. God lined everything up to perfection just for my friend. My friend is that special to God.

And you are, too.

To see a soul accept Jesus is probably the most beautiful thing ever. Especially when God chooses you to be involved in the process. He choose me. My friend and I didn’t have any long conversations about God. I never talked to him in depth about Jesus. He just knew I went to church. You never know who is watching you, and trust me, someone is watching. People watch the way you interact with others. They listen to what you say. They watch your life. Especially if you are professing Christ as your Lord and Savior. People want to see if there is truth to this life.

Oh yes. It’s true.

Seeing what God did for my friend encourages me to go on living for Him. If God saved me, then he can do the same for anyone else. God is just that mercy, kind, long-suffering, and a host of other qualities I can’t begin to name. God welcomed, and loved, another soul into the body of Christ.

And, it was beautiful.