One Day Too Late by Skillet

I have inadvertently introduced, Skillet, a Christian rock band to my middle one and since then, he has not stopped dipping into their super noisy music when daddy is not home in lieu of the more sedate Christian songs.  “This song”, he said to me today, “is talking about you, mom.”  So I listened to it and indeed it does – One Day Too Late.   Everyday, I go out to the marsh trail and the pool to evangelize and to everyone who has ears to hear.

Last night, my bible study group member asked the nagging question she had for a long time.  She lives right in downtown and there are panhandlers at every corner of the street.  The bible urges us to be doers of the word and not merely hearers deceiving ourselves (James 1:22).

‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat ; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink ; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ (Matthew 25:35-36)

“Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3)

“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this : to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27)

So she kept wondering how much she should do when she has limited income and is still looking for work.  This has been my burning question 6 months ago when I started becoming on fire for Christ and whatever I did, it didn’t seem to be working.  I wasn’t working anymore and didn’t have an income and my husband resented me giving away his money.  And it’s true, if you don’t own the money yourself, you don’t give it away.  If you wanted to help a homeless, you don’t stick him to your friend who happened to pass by and make him pay for his meal.  So I too wondered how to go about it.

And then, the less I “busy” myself at God’s work and the more I observe quietly and wait for the Holy Spirit to prompt me, the more I understood.  It did not have to be a meal or money out of your pocket every time, or flowers from the supermarket that eats into your weekly family budget.  Keep your ears and eyes open and the Holy Spirit will give you divine appointments everyday.  Lonely people literally initiate the conversation when you look in their direction eye to eye.  The moment they speak, no matter how it doesn’t seem to make sense, is an invitation to you to share your testimony.  And do not walk away from these divine occasions.  Skillet’s songs amply describe it:

Today I’m gonna try a little harder
Gonna make every minute last longer
Gonna learn to forgive and forget
‘Cause we don’t have long, gonna make the most of it

Today I’m gonna love my enemies
Reach out to somebody who needs me
Make a change, make the world a better place
‘Cause tomorrow could be one day too late
One day too late
One day too late

Two Jonah moments

Throughout the last few months, I have been evangelizing everywhere I went, fervently and furiously but without much success.  During all of December, I was in the doldrums.  Not only was I house bound (meaning not being able to go to the pool) because of the removal of an in-grown toe nail that took 2 extremely long weeks to heal, I had to travel to Southern California for 2 weeks to visit the in law, and when I got back I was absolutely infected by my daughter’s hacking cough and flu for another week.  So 5 weeks in a row, I stewed.  But during that time, without all that activity, I thought about my lack of effectiveness in evangelizing and then about myself, my mission and then I realized that the most important people that I had to evangelize to was my family members.

In the Old Testament, in the Book of Jonah, Jonah the prophet was asked by God to go to Nineveh to preach and convert all the wicked people there.  Jonah was really quite something.  He said no.  He didn’t like the Ninevites at all and didn’t want them to be saved.  What kind of a prophet is that?  The more God insisted, the more Jonah ran away to the point where he booked a cruise and headed out anywhere in the open sea away from land, away from God.  God persisted, and Jonah kept running.  God caused a storm so tumultous that all the sailors on board called on their own idols, gods and higher power or what not to try to pacify the storm but Jonah was in the lower bunk, sulking, hiding.  The captain went down and asked him why he wasn’t calling on his god to help him and Jonah explained that he was the cause of the storm.  Then pray, the captain urged.  But Jonah wouldn’t.  He said, “”Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he replied, “and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you.” Jonah 1: 12.  Basically, he was saying, “I’d rather die than do what God asked me to.”

And I did just that.  For the last 10 years since I was baptized as a Christian, I didn’t dare face my husband in talk of God.  He was too critical, too sharp and too scary for me to handle.  And I had chosen a spiritual death for 10 years.

Jonah moment no. 2:

My left leg has been swollen on and off for 6 months and increasingly every week in the last few months to the point that it was ballooning at times no matter what I ate.  I sulked at the same time during those 5 weeks.  It was similar to Jonah who sulked after Nineveh whose people, contrary to his expectation, all repented and Jonah was greatly displeased and was angry.  He fled to Tarshish and stewed.  God provided a vine to give him shade and the next day, provided a worm to eat up the vine and caused it to wither and sent scorching wind in and Jonah complained.  Jonah complained a lot, didn’t he?  So did I.  Here I was, having been delivered from the jaws of death one year ago, with God pulling me through the entire year, with no pain at all for an end stage cancer patient, would spend 5 weeks sulking about a swollen leg when there are people out there who “cannot tell their right hand from their left hand.” Jonah 4: 11

Classic, isn’t it?  Do you have Jonah moments?

 

My Evangelizing Efforts

For the last few months, I have been training myself to evangelize, meaning, sharing my experience (testimony) with those who don’t know God and Jesus Christ (the unsaved), or those who have turned away from Him (those asleep to put it nicely, rebels to put it bluntly), and trying to bring them to Christ (to convert). Initially, I made so many mistakes that the moment I left the person, I winced because I realized I didn’t say the right things or I kept omitting the right things to say.  And every time I asked God to let me try again, almost instantly, he would present the next victim (candidate). Here are some of the more poignant efforts where inside me, that was exactly what I felt, and I did let some of that fervor out along the way, probably scaring them.  But I am not going to apologize for my fervor or my intensity.  It’s a matter of eternity that we are dealing with and to be anointed with this last minute gift of speaking to strangers is God sent.  There is no calling in this world higher than ministering to man’s soul for eternity sake.

Most people probably wouldn’t understand why I am doing this, when I’m Stage IV end stage cancer and my time with my family is limited but when you have not been near death before, (given only 24-72 hours to live at diagnosis), you wouldn’t realize the urgency.  And I don’t wish it on any one of you to have a terminal disease before you turn to God.  Between now and then, if you yield all to God, He would bless you with so much more joy.  Like me now, everyday is an adventure, the people I meet, the hearts that I could help guide to God, to soothe their hurt, fear, pain, and most of all, my teenage sons are warming up to God.  It’s a miracle.

And yes, I do dress in my sloppiest self most of the time for these purposes to blend in.  So much so that when I go to church on Sunday, I stand out and could easily be regarded as one of the street people. LOL.  Right, a homeless driving a Volvo.

If anyone of you would like to know more about Jesus Christ, God and the Holy Spirit, email me.  I’d love to chat with you.