Dear Friends,
This past week I attended the funeral of a dear
saint whom I knew from a previous church I served.
The large church was packed. Every
aspect of the service was a tribute to Caroline Ivashenko who gossiped the
gospel wherever her feet would take her.
Every one of the seven family and friends who
spoke of her told inspiring stories of how she always put others first, and how
she took every opportunity to boldly share her faith with whomever
she was with.
Paul writes, "I am not ashamed of the
gospel for it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who
believes, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile." (Romans 1:16.)
Caroline, who lived out the words of Paul's testimony, was never ashamed to
speak about her Savior.
Only God knows how many people are already in
or are headed to heaven because of her witness, but I know there will be
many more than just a handful.
I love the little poem I learned years ago,
which is so convicting.
"When you enter the beautiful city. and the saved all around you
appear,
What joy when someone will tell
you, it was you who invited me here."
When I stand before the Lord will I be excited
or embarrassed? Will the Lord be pleased with those who are in heaven
because of my witness, or will I be ashamed before Him as I stand empty handed
because I brought no one with me.
Unlike Paul, today many in the church have
lost their passion for sharing Christ and bringing others to Him.
Paul had no turf of his
own nor did he erect any fences that would limit the places he would
go to share his faith. He was just as comfortable speaking about Christ to the
religious Jew as he was to the heathen unbeliever. He became all things
to all people with the hope that he might win as many as possible to
the Savior.
He knew that God loves all
people, and the 'all' includes all the people whom we don't like or with whom
we don't associate.
We may feel like Jonah and want God to punish
them and give them what they truly deserve. We may ask, "Why God would you
have me love these people?"
We forget that God not only loved everybody, but that
He individualized His love to include the 'somebodies, those who live next
door, who work in our office, who play on our team, or who are a part of our
own family and who may be the hardest for us to love.
God loved the somebodies all around us, and He wants for us
to do the same.
Sometimes it seems as if the church has forgotten the reason
we are planted here on earth. We are to be the salt and light that attracts the
unbelieving world to the One we love and serve. We are here for a mission: to
get the bride ready for Christ's return.
Maybe the pastor was right when he suggested
that believers shouldn't be allowed to go to church until they bring with them
25 saved friends.
Jesus didn't pick and
choose those to whom He would minister. He cared for everyone and so should
we.
We don't begin to recognize the depth of our
faith until we are forced out of our cultural comfort zone, and we find
ourselves hanging out with those who think and act and believe so
differently from us.
Fellowship in the church is a wonderful thing.
We love being with our brothers and sisters in the family of faith. We
love going to Bible studies together and sitting in church singing and praying
and enjoying fellowship with one another, but, as good as that may feel, we
must not forget to whom we are called to go to the lost, the least, the lonely
and the left out.
Our calling is to be in search of lost sheep.
Our purpose is to build relationships with those who don't know Jesus. We are
to be like the Prodigal's father standing on the front porch scanning the
horizon as he looks and prays for the day, he will see his lost
and beloved son walking up the road and finally coming home.
Believers we are called to go to the places where we are not comfortable, to the people
who hate and despise us and who want nothing to do with our Jesus. Will we go?
Reaching them may mean trying
to understand their point of view without judging them. It may mean
listening to them, hearing their heart and looking
for opportunities to serve them. It may mean we become more
interested in connecting with them than correcting them.
Too often we have tried to clean the fish
before we catch them. The church is filled with a lot of fish cleaners who
haven't caught any fish for too long a time.
Caroline was gifted at reaching out to the
unbelievers. Whether at the train station, the grocery store, the cancer
infusion center, or over a cup of coffee at her dining room table. She was
always on the lookout for those lost souls who needed to know the love of her
Savior.
I pray that all of us would catch her spirit
and her love for sharing her faith, so that one day we too might gladly
hear those beautiful welcoming words from someone already in
heaven: "It was you who invited me here."
Yours in faith and friendship,
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