PERSONAL EVANGELISM

I am writing this in Auckland and last Sunday I attended the Bible Chapel in New Lynn. Inspired by the sermon a lady got up and told the following story at the end of the sermon, “I met up with a man at the Foodtown checkout who asked ‘WHO IS GOD?’ after he had read something on a bottle of Charlie’s honest squeezed Orange Juice.” To make a long story short, the Lord made her meet up with that same man three times in a row and only the third time she had the courage to say to the stranger what the Lord wanted her to say to him.

I AM NOW MORE THAN EVER CONVINCED THAT WE HAVE TO TRAIN UP PEOPLE IN PERSONAL EVANGELISM!

I myself went straight to Foodtown after the service to find out about Charlie’s honest squeezed Orange Juice. I did find the bottles, but could not find the writing on them “Made by God- Packed by Charlie’s”. The reason was probably that I did not have my glasses on me.

I asked a nearby man who is a worker there at Foodtown. But his comment was,” God has more important things to do than to make orange juice for us!”

But the next day I found the one litre bottle with the following writing on it “Made by God–Packed by Charlie’s”!

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Most of it will probably never be published!

Even the 12 items or less checkout had trouble getting people through today and while waiting I got talking to a young man beside me whose face was familiar to me from the time we came here about 2 years ago. We recognized each other and and I said sorry for getting him into trouble with the manager of the shop at that time. He was a checkout operator at that time, but now he trained to be an accountant.

First of all he did not remember the incident. He said that it was alright, when he remembered. I said,” It was especially bad for me because I am a Christian, read the Bible and want to follow the Lord. But at that time I was not well at all.” But he had forgiven me. I asked him after that,” Are you believing anything at all?” His reply was,” I was a Mormon, but now I am going to the Union Church. A very nice young man indeed.

I believe that the Lord led me to meet him there at that time.

I was actually going to do some other business first, but the LORD led me to go at that time to Pac’nSave!

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As it happened he parked his car in front of the courthouse in Kaikohe, got out of the car and while we were both crossing the road I called after him,” Sir, are you a Christian?” His answer was in the affirmative. I inquired further,” How do I know that you are a Christian? Have a guess!” He replied,” I don’t know off hand.” I saw in his face that he was a bit at a loss for an answer. As this man was a complete stranger to me I did not want to keep him in suspense unnecessarily and said to him,” I know because I saw an ALPHA sticker on the back of your car.”

Most of you I am sure are familiar with the ALPHA Course run by Churches. One man I knew ran a course like this and people came to the Lord through the event.

But back to my man in front of the courthouse.

As we went along on the footpath a bright smile came to his face. He was a

middle aged man. A very pleasant man indeed.

Upon my question where he was from his answer was,” From Kerikeri.” I suspected already that he was not from Kaikohe. Further I asked him,” Are you born again?” “Yes,” was his quick reply. I gave him a clap on his right shoulder and said, “Praise the Lord!”

We both kept on walking and smiling and then parted company. I think he had business at the courthouse and I went along my way in the direction to the warehouse in Kaikohe.

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I don’t know if you love answer phones as much as I do. But the one I listened to today was very different.

A pleasant voice gave the name and then it said , ” I have a personal promise for you.” And then I listened to John 3:16 paraphrased. I was very much encouraged.

What a way to witness!

For those who don’t know John 3:16 I am going to write the verse down here. It is from the Bible.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

I am at the checkout of the foodtown supermarket in New Lynn, Auckland, and starting to talk to an elderly man I have never met before as we are waiting to be served.

He is before me but seems to want to continue to talk, because he is waiting for me over there until I am also through. We are talking about all sorts of things until we are finished and taking leave from one another.

I am sitting down with the food I bought and some time later on the way to the conveniences I remembered all of a sudden that I had missed again one good opportunity to talk about the things that really matter. I never mentioned the things the Lord Jesus Christ had done for me. On top of that I usually tell others that my ministry is Personal Evangelism.

And I will probably never see that gentleman again.

As I keep on walking I cannot trust my eyes. There he is again and as he is spotting me he is waiting for me.

We are talking again and all of a sudden he is talking about religion. That must have been the working of the Lord. From then on it was not difficult to tell him how the Lord found me.

Although he is a rationalist, he was willing to listen. Praise the Lord.

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