Preparing the Way
“But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” —Romans 10:14
In the years before I became a Christian, I don’t ever recall anybody engaging me with the gospel. I often would hang around down in Newport Beach, leaning against a wall with a tough-guy look on my face. I remember seeing the Christians walking around and handing out their religious tracts. In my heart, I was saying, Please, come and talk to me. But I was too proud to ask.
I noticed they would engage other people in conversation, but when they came to me, they would sort of look at me and just thrust the tract in my hands. But I didn’t throw it away. In my room at home, I had a big drawer that was filled with religious literature. And every now and then, I would pull out that drawer and read through this stuff, trying to make sense of it all. I needed someone to show me the way, but I don’t remember anyone doing that.
The way that I ended up hearing the gospel was going to a Christian meeting I wasn’t even invited to. I saw this girl on my high school campus that I found attractive, and I wondered why a cute girl like her would be a Christian. So I went to the meeting to check it out. The last thing I ever planned on doing was becoming a Christian. But I heard the gospel for the first time in a way that I understood, and I gave my life to Christ.
As I look back on my life, I see there were unsung heroes who helped prepare the way for my conversion. And we can all identify people who made a contribution—people whom God used in our lives. Will you be that person for someone today?
Copyright © 2016 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
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