Life's Challenges - Stories - Witnessing

Tell Them Now

Jake McLean had had a hard day at work, but he was finally able to sit down and relax. He turned on the TV and the first thing he saw was a minister. He was talking about how people can act like the perfect Christian as far as attitude goes, but how they still may have never accepted Jesus.

This made Jake think about his best friend Mike Johnson. Mike was the kind of person that would do anything in the world to help someone out, but Jake knew that Mike had never been saved. For the next week, the minister's words never left his mind.

He constantly thought about his friend not knowing Jesus. So at work one day, he decided to invite Mike and his wife to dinner. So he called Mike up and they talked for a few minutes; the whole time, Jake heard God saying "Tell him now", but Jake had decided he would just tell him at supper.

But Mike said, "Tonite's not a very good night, but if you want, you can come over here and Jennifer can fix supper." "Alright, that'll be great." responded Jake.

That night, Jake went over and ate supper and visited. He started thinking about how much easier it would be to talk to Mike on the phone. He could still hear God saying, "Tell him now", but what would Mike's reaction be?

Maybe the phone would be better. The next day, Jake decided to call, but he started thinking trying to make an excuse not to call. "Maybe in person is better. I mean, it's hard to really tell how someone feels while your on the phone. I'll just tell him at the restaurant when we go to eat tomorrow at lunch." So he sat the phone back down. He could still hear God saying, "Tell him now."

The next day at lunch, as he drove to the restaurant, he could hear God saying "Please Jake, don't let me down". When he walked into the restaurant, he noticed it was really crowded. He began to make an excuse again. "Maybe I should just wait and tell him some other time. It's not like he's sick or about to die."

For two days, God was constantly saying, "Tell him Jake". Finally Jake decided to pray. He prayed, "Father, if you really want me to witness to Mike, show me a sign."

About five minutes later, he heard a knock at the door. He went to answer it and to his surprise, it was Mike. Jake was freaked out to say the least. He wanted a sign, but something a little more simple. He could hear God saying, "Right now Jake", but he ignored Him. What would he say? He hadn't had a chance to prepare.

"It'll take Mike about 30 to 40 minutes to get home. I'll practice what I'm going to say and then I will call him and tell him." He even promised God.

So after Mike left, he started practicing what to say. After about an hour and a half, he decided to call. He started to reach for the phone, but right as he was about to pick it up, it rang.

"Hello?"

No one said anything, but he could hear somebody crying their eyes out.

"Hello? Who is this? What's wrong?"

The person at the other end finally managed to say, "This is Jennifer."

"Jennifer, what's wrong?"

She cried and stuttered, "Mike was on the way home from your house when his car had a blowout. He rolled it four times, finally being stopped by a tree."

Jake interrupted, "Will he be alright?"

Then she started crying even harder and finally managed to say, "He...,He...didn't make it."

If you're saying that this will probably never happen, think again. I based this on a true story of a close family friend and his friend.

First, Jesus is nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes people may persecute you for loving Him and taking a stand. But you shouldn't worry about what people think. What Jesus thinks is what really matters. Do you know someone that isn't a Christian? Has God called you to witness to them? If so, have you said no?

If you answered yes to the last three questions, I hope that you have decided to talk to this person. You may be the only person that ever shares the Message with them. Remember, you may not get a lot of chances. How many have you already wasted?

Author Unknown

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The Ripple Effect

In 1855, A Sunday School teacher, a Mr. Kimball, led a Boston shoe clerk to give his life to Christ. The clerk, Dwight L. Moody, became an evangelist.

In England in 1879, Dwight L. Moody awakened evangelistic zeal in the heart of Fredrick B. Meyer, pastor of a small church.

F. B. Meyer, preaching to an American college campus, brought to Christ a student named J. Wilbur Chapman.

J. Wilbur Chapman, engaged to YMCA work, employed a former baseball player, Billy Sunday, to do evangelistic work.

Bill Sunday held a revival in Charlotte, N.C. A group of local men were so enthusiastic afterward that they planned another evangelistic campaign, bringing Mordecai Hamm to town to preach.

During Mordecai Hamm's revival, a young man named Billy Graham heard the Gospel and yielded his life to Christ.

Only Eternity will reveal the tremendous impact of that one Sunday School teacher, Mr. Kimball, who invested his life in the lives of others.

Author Unknown

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The Pool

A young man who had been raised as an atheist was training to be an Olympic diver.  The only religious influence in his life came from his outspoken Christian friend. The young diver never really paid much attention to his friend's sermons, but he heard them often.

One night the diver went to the indoor pool at the college he attended. The lights were all off, but as the pool had big skylights and the moon was bright, there was plenty of light to practice by. The young man climbed up to the highest diving board and as he turned his back to the pool on the edge of the board and extended his arms out, he saw his shadow on the wall.

The shadow of his body, was in the shape of a cross. Instead of diving, he knelt down and finally asked God to come into his life.

As the young man stood, a maintenance man walked in and turned the lights on.

The pool had been drained for repairs.

Author Unknown

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His Name Is Daniel

It was an unusually cold day for the month of May. Spring had arrived and everything was alive with color. But a cold front from the north had brought winter's chill back to Indiana. I sat with two friends in the picture window of a quaint restaurant just off the corner of the town square.

The food and the company were both especially good that day. As we talked, my attention was drawn outside, across the street. There, walking into town, was a man who appeared to be carrying all his worldly goods on his back. He was carrying a well-worn sign that read, "I will work for food." My heart sank.

I brought him to the attention of my friends and noticed that others around us had stopped eating to focus on him. Heads moved in a mixture of sadness and disbelief. We continued with our meal, but his image lingered in my mind. We finished our meal and went our separate ways.

I had errands to do and quickly set out to accomplish them. I glanced toward the town square, looking somewhat halfheartedly for the strange visitor. I was fearful, knowing that seeing him again would call for some response. I drove through town and saw nothing of him. I made some purchases at a store and got back in my car. Deep within me, the Spirit of God kept speaking to me: "Don't go back to the office until you've at least driven once more around the square."

And so, with some hesitancy, I headed back into town. As I turned the square's third corner, I saw him. He was standing on the steps of the storefront church, going through his sack. I stopped and looked, feeling both compelled to speak to him, yet wanting to drive on. The empty parking space on the corner seemed to be a sign from God: an invitation to park. I pulled in, got out and approached the town's newest visitor.

"Looking for the pastor?" I asked.

"Not really," he replied, "Just resting."

"Have you eaten today?"

"Oh, I ate something early this morning."

"Would you like to have lunch with me?

"Do you have some work I could do for you?"

"No work," I replied. "I commute here to work from the city, but I would like to take you to lunch."

"Sure," he replied with a smile.

As he began to gather his things. I asked some surface questions. "Where you headed?"

"St. Louis."

"Where you from?"

"Oh, all over; mostly Florida."

"How long you been walking?"

"Fourteen years," came the reply.

I knew I had met someone unusual. We sat across from each other in the same restaurant I had left earlier. His face was weathered slightly beyond his 38 years. His eyes were dark yet clear, and he spoke with an eloquence and articulation that was startling.

He removed his jacket to reveal a bright red T-shirt that said, "Jesus is The Never Ending Story."

Then Daniel's story began to unfold. He had seen rough times early in life. He'd made some wrong choices and reaped the consequences. Fourteen years earlier, while backpacking across the country, he had stopped on the beach in Daytona. He tried to hire on with some men who were putting up a large tent and some equipment. A concert, he thought. He was hired, but the tent would not house a concert but revival services, and in those services he saw life more clearly. He gave his life over to God. "Nothing's been the same since," he said, "I felt the Lord telling me to keep walking, and so I did, some 14 years now."

"Ever think of stopping?" I asked.

"Oh, once in a while, when it seems to get the best of me. But God has given me this calling. I give out Bibles. That's what's in my sack. I work to buy food and Bibles, and I give them out when His Spirit leads."

I sat amazed. My homeless friend was not homeless. He was on a mission and lived this way by choice. The question burned inside for a moment and then I asked: "What's it like?"

"What?"

"To walk into a town carrying all your things on your back and to show your sign?"

"Oh, it was humiliating at first. People would stare and make comments. Once someone tossed a piece of half-eaten bread and made a gesture that certainly didn't make me feel welcome. But then it became humbling to realize that God was using me to touch lives and change people's concepts of other folks like me. "

My concept was changing, too.

We finished our dessert and gathered his things. Just outside the door,he paused. He turned to me and said, "Come ye blessed of my Father and inherit the kingdom I've prepared for you. For when I was hungry you gave me food, when I was thirsty you gave me drink, a stranger and you took me in."

I felt as if we were on holy ground.

"Could you use another Bible?" I asked.

He said he preferred a certain translation. It traveled well and was not too heavy. It was also his personal favorite. "I've read through it 14 times, "he said.

"I'm not sure we've got one of those, but let's stop by our church and see." I was able to find my new friend a Bible that would do well, and he seemed very grateful.

"Where you headed from here?"

"Well, I found this little map on the back of this amusement park coupon."

"Are you hoping to hire on there for awhile?"

"No, I just figure I should go there. I figure someone under that star right there needs a Bible, so that's where I'm going next."

He smiled, and the warmth of his spirit radiated the sincerity of his mission. I drove him back to the town square where we'd met two hours earlier, and as we drove, it started raining. We parked and unloaded his things.

"Would you sign my autograph book?" he asked. "I like to keep messages from folks I meet." I wrote in his little book that his commitment to his calling had touched my life. I encouraged him to stay strong. And I left him with a verse of scripture, in Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you," declared the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a future and a hope."

"Thanks, man," he said. "I know we just met and we're really just strangers, but I love you."

"I know," I said, "I love you, too."

"The Lord is good."

"Yes. He is. How long has it been since someone hugged you?" I asked.

"A long time," he replied.

And so on the busy street corner in the drizzling rain, my new friend and I embraced, and I felt deep inside that I had been changed. He put his things on his back, smiled his winning smile and said, "See you in the New Jerusalem."

"I'll be there!" was my reply.

He began his journey again. He headed away with his sign dangling from his bed roll and pack of Bibles. He stopped, turned and said, "When you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?"

"You bet," I shouted back, "God bless."

"God bless."

And that was the last I saw of him.

Late that evening as I left my office, the wind blew strong. The cold front had settled hard upon the town. I bundled up and hurried to my car. As I sat back and reached for the emergency brake, I saw them.... a pair of well-worn brown work gloves neatly laid over the length of the handle. I picked them up and thought of my friend and wondered if his hands would stay warm that night without them. I remembered his words: "If you see something that makes you think of me, will you pray for me?"

Today his gloves lie on my desk in my office. They help me to see the world and its people in a new way, and they help me remember those two hours with my unique friend and to pray for his ministry.

"See you in the New Jerusalem," he said.

Yes, Daniel, I know I will....

Author Unknown

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You are Jesus to Someone

Several years ago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in Houston , Texas . Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, 'You'd better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.' Then he thought, 'Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a 'gift from God' and keep quiet.'

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, and then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, 'Here, you gave me too much change '

The driver, with a smile, replied, 'Aren't you the new preacher in town?'

'Yes' he replied..

'Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you at church on Sunday.'

When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, 'Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter.'

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians, and will put us to the test! Always be on guard -- and remember -- You carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself
' Christian ...'

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny..

Author Unknown

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The Street Bum

One night at a small church in Atlanta, Georgia, a man shared how he had become a Christian while in Sydney, Australia. "I was at the street corner in Kings Cross," the man began, "when I felt a tug on my sleeve. Turning, I found myself face to face with a street bum. Before I could say anything, the man simply asked me, "Mister, if you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?' That question troubled me over the next three weeks," the man continued. "I had to find an answer, and I ended up giving my life to Christ."

The pastor of the Atlanta church was amazed that a man on a street corner could have such an impact. But imagine his amazement when, three years later, another man came to his church and gave an almost identical testimony. He, too, had been at Kings Cross in Sydney when a derelict had pulled on his sleeve and then asked him, "If you were to die tonight, where would you spend eternity?"

This second man, also haunted by the street bum's question, eventually sought and found an answer in Jesus.

Shortly after hearing the second testimony, the pastor of that small church in Atlanta had to be in Sydney for a missions conference. On one of his nights off, he went to Kings Cross to see if he could find the man who had been mentioned at his church by two different people. Pausing on a street corner to look for someone like the street bum he'd heard about, he felt a tug at his jacket. He turned, and before the poor old man could say anything, the pastor blurted out, "I know what you're going to ask me! You're going to ask me if I were to die tonight, where would I spend eternity?"

The man was stunned. "How did you know that?" he inquired. The pastor told him the whole story. When he finished, the man started to cry. "Mister," he said, "10 years ago I gave my life to Jesus, and I wanted to do something for Him. But a man like me can't do much of anything. So I decided I would just hang out on this corner and ask people that simple question. I've been doing that for years, mister, but tonight is the first time Ever that I knew it did anybody any good."

Author Unknown

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A Witness

This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at USC. There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester attempting to prove that God couldn't exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. For twenty years, he had taught this class and no one had ever had the courage to go against him. Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him' (you'll see what I mean later).

Nobody would go against him because he had a reputation. At the end of every semester, on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!" In twenty years, no one had ever stood up.

They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, "because anyone who does believe in God is a fool. If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking. Such a simple task to prove that he is God, and yet he can't do it." And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students could do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students were convinced that God couldn't exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up.

Well, a few years ago, there was a freshman who happened to get enrolled in the class. He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about this professor. He had to take the class because it was one of the required classes for his major and he was afraid. But for 3 months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said or what the class thought.

Nothing they said or did could ever shatter his faith, he hoped. Finally the day came. The professor said, "If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!" The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom. The professor shouted, "You FOOL!! If God existed, he could keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!" He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleats of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away, unbroken.

The professor's jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man and then ran out of the lecture hall.
The young man who had stood up proceeded to walk to the front of the room and share his faith in Jesus for the next half hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God's love for them and of his power through Jesus.

Author Unknown

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The Fish

"Dad, what does that fish on the back of that car mean, the car that just cut us off," Rachel asked, face wrinkling inquisitively. "I see that A lot on a bunch of cars all the time" . "Well, Rachel," I began to answer my 10 year old daughter who rode beside me on the way to the store, ashamed of what I had to tell her. "Those symbolize Jesus and being a Christian. They are sort of like an advertisement you see on TV to attract people to have Jesus come into their lives and change them." My heart ached, as I knew she would be very confused from what she knew of how a person with Jesus would act and what she saw on the road.

"Dad," She sighed, pausing. "I don't get it at all. I see so many cars with those on them but they don't drive like they have Jesus at all. Jesus wouldn't speed, and run stop lights, and cut people off would He?"

"No, Rachel. He certainly would not. I am actually very upset to see so many people displaying the symbol of Jesus and turning those who are lost away because they drive just like the lost. It is a very bad witness and I pray for those people all the time."

"Then why do they put those fishes on their cars in the first place if they are just going to act like they don't even know Jesus?"

"I can actually relate to them, Rachel, because I once thought I was a Christian just because I read the bible, and sometimes went to church, and had a fish on my car. Nothing in my life changed. I still drove like a maniac, went places I knew I shouldn't go and did things a follower of Jesus would not do. But I had the fish….," I paused, briefly, remembering how I really was before I surrendered to Jesus and really allowed Him to change my heart and life. "The trouble is when you put a symbol of Jesus on your car and not your heart."

"So is that why we don't have the fish on our car, Dad?"

"I don't carry the fish on the outside of our vehicle because I carry it on the thing I surrendered to Jesus 9 years ago…"

"Your heart, right," She said smiling…

I nodded, praying for the guy who cut us off, knowing I was once just like him.

Author Unknown

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The Fish Tank

At their school carnival, our kids won four free goldfish (lucky us!), so out I went Saturday morning to find an aquarium. The first few I priced ranged from $40 to $70. Then I spotted it-right in the aisle: a
discarded 10-gallon display tank, complete with gravel and filter--for a mere five bucks. Sold!

Of course, it was nasty and dirty, but the savings made the two hours of clean-up a breeze. Those four new fish looked great in their new home, at least for the first day. But by Sunday one had died. Too bad, but three remained.

Monday morning revealed a second casualty, and by Monday night a third goldfish had gone belly up. We called in an expert, a member of our church who has a 30-gallon tank. It didn't take him long to discover the problem: I had washed the tank with soap, an absolute no-no. My uninformed efforts had destroyed the very lives I was trying to protect.


Sometimes in our zeal to clean up our own lives or the lives of others, we unfortunately use "killer soaps"--condemnation, criticism, nagging, fits of temper. We think we're doing right, but our harsh, self-righteous treatment is more than they can bear.

Remember Love is the way to show Jesus Christ to All you come in to contact with. He is the one who cleans the lives. We are simply tointroduce the Savior and let Him do the rest.

Author Unknown

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