Good Friday morning! The Memorial Day weekend is upon us and the campers have hit the road already. Time for me to run around to the neighbor's homes and do some real artwork on their garage doors. On second thought, I would probably give the show away when they returned and wondered why someone drew a rock with spots on their garage door and I blurted out that it was a dinosaur. We artists are often misinterpreted, especially the artists who can't draw something recognizable to the average art critic. Imagine the humiliation if the vandalism came to a trial and the verdict came down to a hung jury.
Jury foreman: "Your honor, we have not reached a consensus. Juror One thinks that the drawing is a dinosaur and some kind of vague threat. Juror Two thinks its a rock and is definitely a threat. Juror Three thinks its a bear with arthritis and couldn't possibly be a threat. Juror Four thinks the drawing is of some kind of vehicle and is a cry of 'take me with you'... "
We can't have that kind of mess in our legal system. I had better just keep my art talents out of the public eye. I often have the same thoughts about my witness for Christ. What if no one can 'get' what I'm trying to say? Maybe I should just keep quiet. We all have heard those thoughts when we try to witness. Mostly the devil doesn't want us to speak out for Christ, but we also have that avoiding-the-critics instinct. We don't like public ridicule and that is certainly understandable. I have good news in this too! Those who do not believe in Christ will most certainly not understand you and me when we try to witness. We are changed creatures in Christ and everything we say about Jesus will be incomprehensible to the non-believer. But, we have an ally who speaks directly to the heart of the unbeliever. You will remember him; he spoke to your heart before you came to believe in Jesus.
Back then, you may have listened to a minister or even a friend tell you about Jesus, sin, Hell, Heaven, God, and you didn't feel the love; you felt guilt and shame, and you didn't like it. The Holy Spirit spoke these things to your heart. The message was all about love and eternal life, but you heard hellfire and damnation and it hurt. For a time you may have avoided Christian messengers in order to stop the message, but that quiet voice was still there. You may have dreamed about hell or in some rare cases even had a quick taste of it. When you first heard the message of Jesus you might have used a defensive reaction to push the message away. Perhaps you laughed off the messenger, or tried to bring your brilliant intellect to bear to crush the simple fool who dared to speak words of guilt and shame to you. Yet, someone kept reminding you of Jesus.
We know now that reminding us of Christ is in fact the Holy Spirit's job, and a good job of it He does! Before you came to believe though, the Holy Spirit was a nagging and painful presence in church. You didn't like it when the preacher spoke about sin and hell. Perhaps even in some churches you might have voted at a board meeting to find a preacher who spoke only of loving one another and doing good works. Your fellow board members, all upstanding men of business and banking, might have felt that those sermons that made them feel guilty were just driving away the congregation. Can't have that, the minister must go. After all how will the church pay its bills if too many people leave? How things have changed in you and me!
After we come to believe in Christ and accept his lordship, we become critical of ministers in a different way. Heaven help us, we might even call a minister too nice if he doesn't remind the congregation about the penalty of sin at least once a month. We might take a fellow Christian aside and offer a little correction if he is compromising with the world to keep his old friends. We might even notice that, gasp, we are becoming more Christ-like as the Spirit works in our hearts. How do these things get started?
Back at the point where some Christian messenger spoke, sang, or wrote some words that at first you couldn't quite get. However, before the words came to you, the Spirit had found a field that needed a little care and planting. Seeds were planted that perhaps you didn't realize and then the person came along with a little bit of water and the words of life. You might have been a drunk looking up from the gutter, or a person by all accounts succeeding in the world and wondering what you were missing, but something in you responded to the words from the witness. Though you may not have understood, something germinated in your heart and eventually God harvested another soul.
As Jesus told us in the parable of the different soils, not all of those seeds will grow in good soil. We have been given a watering can though, and our job is to keep on watering those seeds planted by the Holy Spirit. Someone who does not believe in Jesus may have no idea why he or she is asking you questions about life, death, Hell, or Heaven, but the Spirit has brought him or her to you. Don't be afraid; answer the questions, and trust in the One who makes himself known to the lost. He made himself known to you once, and what a life-saving blessing it was!
Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!
Bucky
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