IN WALMART:
“You see, I have two Marys on my arms here,” the Internet salesman responded when I asked him if he knew Jesus, showing me two tattoos.
— “You need to know Jesus personally. He’s the ONLY One you need to pray to – not Mary, not the saints, not anyone else,” I explained.
“Right, right,” he replied.
And I asked him if he ever prayed, to Jesus, to give his whole life to Him. I asked him if he cried out to Jesus for forgiveness for his sins, to ask Him to make him a new person from the inside out.
“Yes, I did that in prison (years ago).”
He just obviously was never taught the Bible, or the true way we must follow Jesus. He was so sincere, though! Just about in tears, he described all the sins and attitudes he was struggling with. He just opened up right there in the store.
We talked for a while about the Lord.
— “I’m sorry,” I told him, “I don’t mean to take you from your work.”
But he just kept on talking. He wanted truth. He was hungry for something other than the sorrow, the pain, the frustration with himself that he was feeling. His relationships were shot. His life was really not heading in any direction that gave him hope. He was needing Jesus!
— “It’s a commitment. It’s a relationship. You need to spend time with Jesus every day. You need to read His Word, and obey what God shows you. It’s a FIGHT and it’s not like everything just gets easy when you get saved! (Anyone who says otherwise has never really entered the true faith of following Christ!) And the relationship with God has to be every day. How much time do people spend on other things … and yet they cannot even spend 5 or 10 or 30 minutes with Jesus? Make it a discipline to spend just 5 minutes a day praying, and 5 minutes a day reading the Bible! You can build it up from there. You will be surprised how God will change your life if you seek Him and put Him first every day!”
“That’s what I need to do,” he earnestly kept saying.
— I encouraged him: “Make sure you pray tonight when you get home, and rededicate your life to Jesus.”
He sent me a text a few days later, exclaiming how shocked he was that everything was going so well. His relationships were better, and he really seemed to have hope! Thank Jesus! When we get right with God, all things fall into place. Matthew 6:33, “But seek ye FIRST the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
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DOLLAR TREE
Tattoos all over his face and towering in height, a young cashier in Dollar Tree looked down at me very sincerely: “Is it really true … that Jesus died on the cross?”
— “Yes. Definitely,” I answered him. “Jesus really died on the cross to forgive us for our sins.”
He responded: “My mom was a Jehovah’s Witness –”
— “I know” – I interrupted – “they don’t believe Jesus died on the cross. They don’t believe Jesus is God. But the Bible says He is God, and He really did die for us, to pay the penalty for our sins. No one else but God, who is over ALL, could pay for the penalty of ALL sins (a free gift to those who will repent and come to Jesus!).”
I explained (quickly, since we were in line with several people behind us) that a mere created being like a man (or an angel) COULDdie for another man, but only God could die for ALL since He is the Only One whom ALL came from – His sacrifice alone would cover ALL since He is the Origin of ALL. (That’s a bit philosophical, but it is true.) Besides, the Scripture says that Jesus is “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8; see also 5:12). So He really was slain. Zechariah prophesied that God would be “pierced”: “…they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced”; and Revelation 1:18 quotes the LORD, saying, “I am He that liveth, and was dead.” When did God “die”? Jesus said, “I AM” (John 8:58),claiming to be The Very God Himself in flesh, and so, yes, God did die for us, in the Person of Jesus (“Immanuel,” literally meaning “God with us”). But death could not “hold Him” (Acts 2:24).
The conversation was quick and simple. And this large, sincere man nodded in agreement. My checkout was done. I looked at him and said,
— “You need to cry out to Jesus and come to Him.”
“I will,” he said, and nodded in agreement again.
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SO MANY PEOPLE NEED JESUS! Let’s be witnesses as God leads us, wherever we are – even at the STORE!
— Amos