Will My Heart Change Colour?

December is Christmas month when traditionally we celebrate the birth of Jesus.

God gave us the most amazing gift of his son. It was an amazing gift that was given so that by receiving Jesus as our saviour we would inherit eternal life.

We celebrate Jesus birth by exchanging gifts but in our culture today most of us have no idea of the connection of the gift giving back to Jesus.

As believers, what gifts are there that we could give that might truly make a difference. The answer that I came up with is that the best gift we can give is ourselves.

Let me explain. In the book of James we are instructed to share our faith with others not only in words but also in actions.

Throughout my life there have been times when I have really struggled to know how to do that but recently the Lord has been revealing a great deal to me about his heart on the matter.

In the old days we used to call this….. sharing our testimony. Even as I think about the words I am reminded how much I always hated that phrase. It always seemed to me to be so religious. Each time I heard it the only picture that popped into my head was of some very brave soul standing on a wooden box in the middle of the park somewhere shouting really loud that anybody who didn’t repent of their sins would be going to hell. This picture left me certain that sharing my testimony was not something I was ever going to do.

As the years have gone bye, I have come to understand that sharing my testimony never had anything to do with standing on a box scaring away people away.

I’ve come to see that sharing my testimony really only means sharing the ways that I am experiencing God in the everyday moments of my life I’ve been so surprised recently at all the ways that the Lord has presented me with opportunities. Only a couple of months ago while I was at the dentist office my hygienist started talking and was so interested in what I had to say that we decided to go for coffee at a later time so she could hear more.

Just recently I was contacted by a friend. We had been neighbors over 40 years ago. My wife Gail and I had been good friends with this couple who have long since separated but when we moved to Vancouver Island we lost touch until a few weeks ago, out of the blue I got a text from him. The text was short and to the point. My friend was about to go in for tests to see if he had cancer. He remembered me from all those years ago and knew that I was a Christian. When he reached out, he simply said, next time you speak to the “Big Guy”, meaning the Lord, would you put in a good word for me. In an equally brief response I replied yes of course but I also suggested that the line of communication between him and God was as open for him as ever it is for me and that this might be a good time for him to consider being in touch himself. Short and sweet. The effect of that conversation was that my friend texted me after he got his tests to say that all was well and that he had indeed been talking to God for the first time in his life. It was only a matter of days of being in conversation together before my friend confirmed that he had in fact accepted the Lord as His personal saviour. He is 80 years of age. God moved in his life and he was willing to use me simply because I was willing to allow myself to be me. Nothing more. God had his eye on my friend and so I’m sure that with or without me he would have completed his task with or without me but our Lord doesn’t work in a vacuum and he is always looking to partner with those who are willing to walk with him.

Today we find ourselves living in an age where people are feeling lost and they are looking around to find somebody they can trust to be able to find an arm to lean on so that they can explore the possibility that there may be an answer to the madness going on in the world today.

When people are fearful or in trouble they don’t usually go running to a church. They reach out to someone they trust, a friend. They don’t necessarily expect to find a fix just an arm to lean on. They just want to be heard. They want to be loved. That’s why Jesus said that the greatest command is to love God and love others. If we learn how to do that just watch what God will do. Also, look as Jesus conversations. They were real and transparent. He talked about their pain and the ways that they needed healing and blessing. He talked about their troubles and he told them that he had a heavenly father that could help with that. He left us a love model and them he said go do the same in see if you don’t find that you’ll be able to do even greater things than these.

This is why at church as leaders we need to be encouraging our people to join home groups so that they will have a church family to lean on when things get too tough to be walking alone.

You know, the friend I told you about was 80 years old when he accepted the Lord. I have discovered that when it comes loving people and drawing them to himself the Lord has no age boundaries.

“Hey Mister, You a Priest”

Ever since my conversion I have had difficulty with the whole concept of evangelism in so far as it depended upon me having to lead others to the Lord. I have never felt as though God had put me together in such a way that standing on street corners leading the lost to Christ was my thing. I thank God that that there are those who have been made in that way because if it were left up to me I’m afraid that Christendom would be in a sorry state. I thank god for the Salvation Army and all of the workers who tirelessly worked the pubs and bars looking to lead souls to the Lord. I think that the Lord must have known how guilty I was feeling about the matter because in my fourth year of Bible College something happened that allowed me once and for all to put the matter to rest.

I was involved in a pastoral internship program which was a requirement for graduation from the Bachelor of Theology program at Northwest Bible College in Edmonton, and they had established a program through the University of Alberta Hospital for students in the Theology program to volunteer as Pastoral Care workers in the hospital.

This particular night I had been wandering the halls of the paediatric ward when I saw a young boy running toward me. He rammed on the brakes to avoid running into me and looking up at me he asked ‘hey mister you a priest”. More shocked than conscious of the question, without any thought I said know and just as quickly as he had appeared he was off again. No sooner had the incident passed than I was conscious of feeling terribly guilty. In his search for a priest it would have been very easy for him to think that I fit the bill since dressed in my black blazer and bible under arm, there could be no way for him to make any distinction between Pastor or Priest.

What had the boy wanted that he was looking for a priest and why had I at the very least given him opportunity to explain himself. I began to search the floor hoping that somehow I would come across the young runner and sure enough not long after I came across him still exploring the hallways. When I was able to catch his attention I signalled for him to come my way and when we finally connected I asked him why he had been looking for a priest. Oh he I have to come here often he said and I’m scared that one time in the operation I might die. Well I said to him I’m not a priest but I am a pastor so maybe I can help you I said. Without hesitation the 8 year old asked, if I get Jesus in my heart will my heart change colour. Rocked to my shoes my mind was processing at light speed. Is the kid having me on, is this some kind of game I wondered. I’m not sure how I arrived at my decision but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and so I replied by asking his age and then I told him that I thought he was old enough to know that although his heart would likely not change color, after he had Jesus in his heart he would know that no matter what happened when he was being operated on Jesus would be with him and that he would know that if he didn’t make it he would go to be with Jesus in heaven. My explanation seemed to satisfy the young seeker because he then asked me how he could get Jesus in his heart. I asked him if he anywhere we could and when he pointed to his semi private room I explained as we walked that I would show him how to pray to ask Jesus into his heart.

When we got to his room I sat him up on his bed and after checking one more time to be sure that understood that his heart would not change colour I led him in a prayer to ask Jesus into his life. When we finished I asked him if his family were Christians, wondering if something that happened at home had prompted him to seek out Jesus but he explained that in his house nobody was allowed to talk about Jesus because his father didn’t like to talk about those things.

After he had finished telling me about his home life he stopped and asked if I would write out the prayer that I prayed and I said that of course I would and so as I left that night I gave him both my phone number to call if he needed to talk to me again as well as a written out version of the prayer that we had prayed together.

I couldn’t wait to get home that night to tell my wife the events of the evening and I was glad that I did because the next day while I was at work she called me to tell me that the young boy had called looking for me. I wasted no time calling him back wondering what the reason for the phone call could be. I was able to get through to him without any trouble and so I asked him what I could do.

I sat in stunned silence as he began to tell me the story of what happened after I left him that night. A short time later his roommate returned to the room and when he told him what had happened his roommate decided that he would like to have Jesus in his heart too and so together they prayed the prayer I had written out. Without missing a beat he then said that the following morning his brother had come to visit him and that he too had decided on hearing what had happened that he too wanted to have Jesus in his heart.

There are no words that could ever express what I felt when I hear the young boys story. Many years have passed since but my heart still beats faster as I recall the events of that night. Needless to say the lessons that I learned from the whole experience are too many to list but none carry more weight than the understanding that came out of the whole affair that ‘it is God who draws us to himself’. I did nothing that night except make myself available to a young boy who already knew all the right questions to ask. I didn’t ask him if he wanted to receive Christ into his life, he had arrived there all on his own even when the name of Jesus was not allowed to be spoken in his home. I cannot begin to fathom how the spirit did what he did but I can tell you that I feel incredibly privileged to have been allowed to be the vessel that God used to lead that young man, his friend and his brother to prayer the prayer of faith.

From that point forward I have never had to wrestle with the issue of how to save souls. The Lord showed me so convincingly that it has very little to do with me or what I might try to do in my own strength.

All I need to do is be available and let the Lord take care of the rest.

The background to that story is that shortly before that I had been telling God how sorry I was that I had been such a poor example of a Christian because I had not led people to the Lord. I felt that the Lord had engineered that situation in the hospital to show me that bringing people to the Lord was never about me. It is always about him. God wanted me to understand that if I will just learn how to be myself and be willing to be available when people needed someone that would just listen, …… he will do the rest.

I have shared these 2 stories just as an example of the ways that the Lord works in our lives ‘doing the rest’. For goodness sake don’t do what I did and misunderstand what it means to share your testimony. Just share your heart with others and lean on the Lords love in you. Share what God means to you. Share what happened in your life this week and let God do the rest. Learn to be you in everything you do and in every relationship you have and ditch your understanding that may have come out of old time religion.

I started out by saying that since it’s Christmas we ought to get into the mould of sharing gifts.

I want to remind you that in this dark world of our God has poured so much into your life no matter how long you’ve been a Christian that if you will learn how to be you and just share life you are going to discover that you are going to be received as a wonderful gift again and again.

The Christmas advent season is a time when we light four candles of hope, peace, love, and joy leading up to the final candle lighting that represents the birth of our Lord. The fact that we light candles is so appropriate because we are remembering the Light of world being born.

The Lord calls us to be the Light of the World and he has given us to the world as a gift just waiting to be unwrapped. How about you decide this Xmas that its going to be your life because of the spirit in that that becomes the gift that keeps on giving.

Amen, Amen and Amen.