Is It Really That Easy?
Today was a pretty cool day. In our morning church services we had a celebration service. A little over 2 months ago, the different ministries of our church were challenged to Show Some Love. Four different teams comprised of various ministries of our church teamed up and were each given $250 dollars of seed money to work with. They were to raise more funds, and to somehow come together to show some love. One of our teams completely renovated the home a very nice but needy family in our community. Another team had a special day at a local nursing home where they literally gave makeovers to some of the residents and treated them to a special day. Yet another team held a community wide school supplies giveaway at our local mall and 502 children were blessed with free school supplies. And our final team went to an area childrens Hospital and blessed the children and their families with a great day and with various gifts.
So today in our morning services we celebrated what these teams were able to accomplish. Each presented the videos of their events and a few people gave testimonies of what they experienced as they served and reached out to others in need. Just before we were about to dismiss, I went up and just shared an experience that I had recently had and what God showed me about that experience. As a matter of fact, I shared the story that I posted previously on this blog entitled “A Captured Heart”. I just spoke for about 5 minutes, but then I just felt the need to give somebody an opportunity to give their heart to Jesus. I even struggled with it from the pulpit because I thought to myself, “I didn’t even preach. I just spoke some words to encourage them.” But I just sensed the urge to give the invitation for someone to meet Christ. As I gave the call and invitation for someone to come and surrender their heart to Jesus, to my amazement about 10 people responded. As I saw them walking down the isles to the altar, I couldn’t help but think, “Is it really that easy?” I mean, I hadn’t preached, I hadn’t really tried to convince them, I didn’t even tell a joke or scream and yell or anything. I had just encouraged them and then just gave them an opportunity. That was it.
But it really was that easy! The next time you are hanging out with a friend or speaking with a co-woker, don’t feel like you need to preach, argue, convince or pursuade. Just encourage them, love them and give them an opportunity to meet Christ. It really is that easy!
