Day Thirty Seven

Day 37

Sharing my Life Message

Romans 12:11 “Never let my Zeal Lag”

It’s one of my favorite things to do. Talking about my life. It is one thing I know best in life. It is a miracle I can still remember it all too. Not because it was so long ago, but the fact of all the so called damage that has been done, the drugs that I have done, the damage to my brain they say comes with the brain cells they say I have killed every time I have shot up, the metal disease they have diagnosed me with, the many trips to the psychiatric hospitals and the amount of medications I have taken over the years must have had some effect on my memory you would think. But it is amazing the amount of information in detail I can recall at any given moment when a situation presents itself. Especially from childhood everything I can recall when my parents say “I don’t remember that.” Why is it that parents conveniently forget the most painful parts of their children’s lives when we remember them like they were just yesterday? I never understood that.

But one thing I do understand is, listening to a testimony that comes from the heart of someone that has experienced the touch of God in their life is so moving to me. It is all I ever wanted to be able to do. I have mentioned before about a man that gave his testimony to a group of Jr. High school kids when I was twenty years old I was teaching that moved me in such a way that I prayed to God that I wanted a testimony just like his so I could someday do what he was doing. That is all I ever wanted to do with my life, move people in such a way that my life made a difference in them to feel the power of God with the words that were coming out of my mouth. As I grew up I found that I did have the ability to move people with the words I spoke with. Even when I wasn’t speaking about God, no matter what I was trying to say, I was always convincing. I was always able to get people to listen to me, to get what I wanted just from speaking to them. My manipulating skills took me far in life. Some for the good of me and some for the not so good for me. Either way my words and speaking ability always seem to get me through in life.

Now that I have a subject that I am proud of, a testimony that I am comfortable with, a character I am no longer ashamed of, I am ready to let God use me to share the Power of His saving grace known to the world around me just how He has transformed me from the man I used to be to the man I have become. For me it isn’t difficult to get a conversation started. I am in a very unique situation where ever I go. And if I take along my pets with me that makes it all the more easier. You see due to my medical situation I have been left to depend on a wheelchair and usually if I am out alone, I am carrying a 9 year old Iguana with me. So she gets the attention first, then somehow after the conversation get comfortable and more on a friendly basis, I usually will get asked why I am in or need a wheelchair. That is the only question I wait for. That is my open door. If I was just another man with a Lizard, we would talk about them. If I was just a 47 year old man in a wheelchair, who would come up and just start a conversation with me just for the heck of it? But given my personality and my gift for conversation, my young spirit, my love for people and a conversation piece on my lap, one that is gentle enough to attract the smallest of visitors, I can enjoy a day out and have a chance to share with almost everyone I meet. It was the streets where I used to use and look for things that got me into trouble. So it is no wonder that is where God has me back at sharing my testimony. The same places where the enemy used me to fail at so many things is where I am being used by God to bring him the Glory he deserves.

The bible says we are all supposed to be actively sharing our faith with those around us. But I wonder if we all are taking this task He has given us as seriously as He has commanded us to. How many people do we see every day that we just walk or pass by and have never even mentioned to them we are a Christian? How many even know that we go to church? Or that we believe in a God at all? A lot of people like to keep their lives so private but being a Christian should be the least private part of our lives. We in America don’t have to worry about persecution for what we believe. We can shout it from the roof if we want to. People stand in the middle of the street and do it all the time. But we don’t have to go to that extreme. All we need to do is be ready when an opportunity presents itself. If God knows our hearts and knows that we want to do this, He will bring the opportunities to us. God loves a willing spirit and an obedient soul. This He can use all the time no matter where we are in our walk with Him.

Remember we all have a story to tell, we all came from somewhere before we knew God. Something happened to allow us to get to know and chose Him. We all had and still have a growth process that is full of ups and downs and experiences that have tried our faith and have taught us lessons that will strengthen and encourage someone else. Whether you have almost lost your life and been saved from losing it or whether God has kept you safe your whole life, you have a testimony that is all yours. And God will bring just the right kind of people that need to hear YOUR TESTIMONY so that your life will have a purpose to it and a meaning that will be worth something to someone else. So always be ready to give an account as to what God as done in your life. Someone NEEDS to know what He has done for YOU.

Day Thirty Six

Day 36

Made for a Mission

“The best use of your Life is to spend it on something that outlasts it”

One day a young boy set out for school but never arrived. The school called to see where he was and why he wasn’t in school that day; His father said he had left at his regular time as he did every day. Worried what happened to his son, he got in his car and began to drive the route his son walked to see if he could find him but he wasn’t anywhere to be found? He called the police and they set up a search party and soon the whole town was looking for his son. They would not stop until the lost boy was found again. The father never gave up hope that his son would soon be with him again. He knew that his neighbors would not stop until his son was found because they also loved him and his son.

So it is the same with God and us. Unbelievers are like the lost son in the story above. And all our neighbors are all the Christians in the world who God has called to help Him find all the sons that are lost in the world because God is frantically looking to get them back to Him. God needs our help in finding them. This is all God is concerned about as He sits up in heaven, working in our lives to get us to a place where we can be instruments of His purpose to fulfill His purpose in us, to make us more like His son Jesus so we can do what His son Jesus did while He was here on earth. Each one of us individually He is shaping and molding to become more and more into the character of His son, one day at a time, one feeling at a time, restoring us from one hurt at a time, one broken relationship at a time, so we can be used in one ministry at a time. He has given us each talents and abilities to be used in specific ways, placed us in specific locations and places that are needed so we can be near the right individuals He wants us to reach because it is only us that can that reach these individuals. When God brings certain people into our lives, it is for a reason and for His purpose. There is always a reason why they are there. They just didn’t show up out of the blue. God brought them there. You are not in line behind them by accident. They are not your neighbors because the manager rented them the apartment next to you. They are not your co-workers because someone else hired them. When we understand this, that God has the control and does the behind the scenes work for us, we realize that half the work is already done for us, and we just need to finish what He has already started for us. It is like a salesman walking in a place that has already been primed ready to buy something; they are just waiting for the guy to come in with the product. They may not say YES right away, but eventually they will bite. You may just need to sharpen you salesmanship skills a little, find what works for you.

How do you develop this desire to reach those around you? Pray, always pray first. Second you need to have a love for people. A strong desire to care about the people that God puts in your life daily. To be able to have genuine concern for those around you and see them not only as just people in your life but as people that you want to spend eternity with. I heard a saying once that I think really applies well to the motivation and desire in people to be able to share their lives with others. “Those who have been forgiven little love little, and those who have been forgiven much, love much”. Now this isn’t always true is all circumstances because I know many people who have lived wonderful lives that have great big hearts for people. But I have also seen people who have lived very hard lives, that have gone through very many difficult times, have had many things to overcome, me included, that because of these hurdles to overcome have developed a greater love for mankind than the one they started out life with in the first place. God through their experiences has taught them how to love the unlovable whereas a lot of people just don’t know how to approach or reach them. We, I were these people at one time in our lives.

It takes a long time, and sometimes people never get to a place in their lives where they realize that reaching the world around them up and above and beyond their everyday jobs and responsibilities is what they were created to do. Between taking care of their families, going to work, paying the bills, spending a few hours in church on Sunday, who has time for much anything else? Maybe we should leave it all up to the single people. They must have more time on their hands right? Jesus was single anyway. Be more like Jesus the bible says. And go out and get twelve good friends to follow you around to lend you a hand with what ever you need done. Run your errands and wash your feet and hair. Fix your meals for you then you will have time. Ok maybe this is the wrong way to go about it, it would be nice but it isn’t reality. God gave all of us a personality to use in someway that will and can affect others in a different way so that we can be used to share our own lives and experiences with others. God has given us all experiences to be used that will reach others in some way. It is up to us to share them. To stay silent is the crime. To not tell others what God did in our lives is hiding His truths.

Someone in my life right now grew up with someone putting a lot of bad feelings and bad teachings towards the bible in his mind. He really doesn’t trust the bible as having any truths in it for the moment. How to get him to a place to trust in anything it says is going to be a challenge for me. So what I have asked him to do for the moment is just rely on what he sees in me. (this really puts a pressure on me doesn’t it?) Let me be the example of what you believe someone that believes in Christ is. Instead of me showing you what it means to be a Christian is by showing it to you in the bible, watch my life everyday, you are living with me. See how I treat you. See how I have treated you. See how I treat those around me. Watch how I live my life and compare it to how you know others that you have seen live theirs. Then every once in a while I will open up the bible and show you something that goes along with what I am doing or saying and see if it doesn’t match up with something you are seeing me doing or living. Maybe this will be a way to reach him and get him to understand that what he has heard or read or been taught in the past maybe wasn’t the right thing in the first place. Before we can preach the word of God we have to live the word of God. And we can’t live the word of God if the word of God isn’t in us.