Critical Mass

Here is my “conversion chain” not sure what else to call it. These are the moments of witness that I remember, things that when I came to Christ I realized were the people whose words and actions added up to the moment the Holy Spirit had His way and I came to Christ. I cannot completely put them in chronological order. It's close though. I do this for two reasons:

1. There is no pastor on this list. That's a good thing, not a slap against pastors. I was hostile to Christians and church so there would be very little chance for a pastor to reach me. You lay people have to do this!
   
2. Your seemingly small things, things you probably do not remember have worked with others to bring a harvest of repentance and salvation that you won't know about this side of glory. You won't always or often be like Larry Isitt, Dane Conrad, James Sims and Drew Barnes and get to see that I came to Christ after they witnessed to me.

Ed Higginbotham, my dad's commanding officer when I was 4 or 5, invited us to a service at a Presbyterian church
C.S. Lewis. No lie, in third grade, the idea that Aslan—an innocent—died for the sins of others stuck in me, even tho someone very important and influential in my life told me that was a ludicrous idea. I could not let it go.
Kids playing basketball in my subdivision in Texas. I knew one of them from Germany (Air Force brats...) I cussed while we played. The boy said simply “we don't talk like that here.”
FCA group playing flag football on a weekend at my high school. I was on a long bike ride and stopped to play, too. Same story. I cussed. They said please don't. Older kid tried to tell me about Jesus.
Kathy Kedzierski. Open about going to church.
Tim, from Governor's School. Just told me about salvation and asked me if I wanted to accept Jesus. He was totally ready to pray for me right then and there.
Guitar player at a party. He shared with me about the blues and Jesus.
Abortion protesters on a street in San Luis Obispo, CA.
JoAnn, my cousin. She invited me to church with her a lot while I was in college in Mississippi.
Anastacia Feldman, history professor.
Audrey. Can't remember her name. Would not go out with me because I was a pretty rank pagan. That stuck with me, too.

Erwin Burt, a friend who let me hunt on his land, and took me to church with him.

Tommy Blanton, boss

Stan Hauer, English professor
James Sims, English professor

Larry Isitt, fellow college student

Two girls from 37th Avenue Baptist Church who asked me if I knew where I'd go if I died.

Dane Conrad, fellow college student
Drew Barnes, fellow college student
Buddy Pittman, co-worker
Robert Allen, co-worker
Barry Burruss, co-worker

The Gideons. Getting that Scripture in October of 1994...

There are 23 items on this list.  There are no doubt some I do not remember.  The point is, will you be intentional about telling someone about Jesus, and be ok with always being number 13?  Never knowing that the person you share with will come to faith or not?

The Gideons

I have had an interesting series of conversations with Jeremy Brown, a banker and Gideon in our town. I should say that they are more like one conversation that we seem to keep having; we keep picking up the same thread.

The conversation is about Scripture, of course. The Gideons exist to get the Word of God into people's hands, lives, minds, and spirits. With Jeremy's permission, I share a couple of things he shared with me about some times he has passed out New Testaments.

Once, a fellow in a car saw him on a corner passing out Bibles, and he stopped the car in the middle of the road and hollered, “are those Bibles?” When Jeremy indicated they were, the man hollered that he wanted one. So Jeremey hastened to the car and ended up handing out 4, one to each person in the car.

I tell that as the inspirational piece. The rest of what I share is heart-breaking. I suspect that many of you do not understand or believe what I am about to share MEANS. The ignorance of Americans as to what Christianity is/believes is staggering. Church, you cannot stay in your shell anymore. Well, to be honest, you can. But you will find it emptier and emptier, and one day, one of you will be that last one there.

It will be easier to do nothing and hope you die before you see the terrible decline. But surely there are some of you who want to fight.

One young college student asked Jeremy and his co-worker if they knew anything about Heaven. They said they did. The student said her thrid-grade Sunday School teacher told her one thing, but a professor another. Jeremy said I will have this in common with your professor, “Read the book. The answer is in here.”

“Is the answer really in here?” she asked.

“I guarantee it is.”

Another time, a student asked, “What are you handing out?”

“New Testaments,” Jeremy said.

“Is that the book Jesus is in?”

At a recent event, Jeremy noticed a man looking at the New Testaments available. But he wasn't really making a move towards him. Jeremy engaged him and the man asked what they were giving away. “New Testaments.”

“What's that?”

“It's a part of the Bible.”

“Oh, I have heard of that.”

Friends, I was once as ignorant of the Bible and Christianity as these were. I was worse off, because a college education had convinced me that I knew more about it the fallacies, contradictions, and madness of the Bible than the Christians who had been brainwashed to believe it. I had such good and elegant reasons for my unbelief! A Gideon's Bible, Fall Semester, 1994 changed everything. I had refused or thrown them away before that.

Support the Gideons. Look into becoming one.

But more than anything: get to know some non-Christians and tell them what you believe and why. Invite them to believe it, too

The Gideons

A Gideons Bible played  a huge role in my conversion.  Many others have a story like that.

Our new Superintendent, Terry Reffett is one.  He grew up in a Christian home, left home and kind of drifted away until one night he found a Gideon's Bible and started reading in Psalms and the Lord spoke to his heart.

A few weeks ago, Wes Holland told me that picking up a neglected Bible brought him back to being more active in church.  Justine Holland mentioned that finding a Bible in a box of things unpacked brought her back to the Lord.

The Word of God.  Maybe we should pass it out more.