I Want to Tell You All About It

THIS WEEK I'm posting really late at night because I just got back home from Universal Studios. I had a lot of fun with my family and the Champagnes, and now I'm blessed to be safe back at my house in my blue jacket. I just have so much to share this week that it's going to be hard to cover it all so late at night, but here I go.

You remember last week I was praying SO hard that I would see somebody saved, or at least that I would have the chance to share the gospel with somebody. All that prayer my heart in the right place for something delightfully unexpected that happened on Monday. I was at Calculus tutoring sitting at my desk, singing a song that I love to sing at church, while I waited for my instructor to come in. I began to feel an urging to introduce myself to a group of people around me: a girl in front of me and two guys to my left. I don't think they were used to strangers introducing themselves just because. But then, I'm not accustomed to doing that kind of thing myself. So they were under the impression that I'm some kind of nice person, and what happened next went much better than it could have if I had not already introduced myself to them.

I heard the name 'Jesus' come up in their conversation a few minutes after, and I was immediately interested. I asked what they were talking about, and I learned that they were trying to figure out whether Jesus works like a measure of volume: can one person have 'more' of Him than another person does? I told them what I understand - that Jesus is either there or He's not and that what makes the difference is how much a person is submitted to His will. The more I talked to them, the more I realized that there were a lot of things that the fellow right next to me didn't really get about God. It's true, God is marvelously complex and far above our heads, and at the same time He makes many things clear to us because He wants us to be near Him. I was very interested in talking to that fellow some more, so I invited him to come to Bible study the next morning because there were so many things I wanted to tell him. I reiterated my invitation right before I left the tutoring session a while later, because I wanted him to know that I wanted him to come.

So I prayed many times that afternoon and the next morning that he would come. And he did. When I got to sit with him he let me tell him many things, and he didn't fight with me. That was nice. But the questions he asked carried me to such a wide range of subjects that I fear I didn't answer them all satisfactorily. I learned that my new friend is an atheist. If you've been reading for long you know how I feel about that topic - I really love to talk about all the reasons I just know there is a God, and I told him a lot of those reasons.

When the bell rang for everybody to go to class, my new friend seemed really eager to get away from me. I don't think I was unpleasant. It is a really profound topic. I mean, think about what a difference it makes to perceive the universe as a grand coincidence as opposed to a Creation. I found that the hardest thing was trying to explain what I knew to be true from the Bible to someone who is not familiar with it and doesn't really consider it reliable. It was also hard to talk about spiritual things when I believe that the spiritual and the material both exist, and he believes that only the material exists. I'm praying I can learn to more effectively share the truths that I have learned. I'm also praying I can talk to my new friend again, because my heart aches more than ever lately for others to know about God's life-saving grace and His true love.

I have been praying God would give me a greater love for my neighbors, a greater desire to share His love with others. I've also been praying for chances to pour out love on the people around me. And God has been answering my prayers.

One of the biggest questions that my friend asked me that morning was "How do you know Jesus?" I think about it, and I don't even remember what I said. I think I remember pausing with a smile and a happy breathe, because the reasons are so many that it was actually hard for me to think of how I should answer. Whatever my answer was then, I have so many more now. So many more. My heart longs to tell him everything.

I want to tell him how Jesus touches my spirit with His Holy Spirit and gives me strength, and how He moves to make things possible for me. I want to say how He turns my mountains into mole hills when I hold His hand and breathes peace into my soul when I call on His name.

I want to tell him how Jesus remains constant at all times when nothing else will, and how He actually comes and comforts me when He sees that my heart is broken or that I'm confused and feeling hopeless. He reminds me that I'm safe in His hands and that if I trust in Him He will light my way no matter how dark it gets.

I want to show him the amazing peace and joy I feel when I'm worshipping God, how I love to dance when I sing to Him, how He makes the world go round in every literal and figurative way. I want to bring him into the way all the believers feel at Engage the Spirit, when there is holy fear and godly peace all at once, astonishment at God's greatness and joy over His nearness.

I want to tell him about the times God has answered my prayers and moved in my life and in other people's lives.

I want to tell him about how the Holy Spirit makes it so He lives in me, how the Son fills the gap between us and the Father, and how God can play all His roles at once and still be one God - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I pray it's easy to see that all this could never be in my head. That assumes way too much on the part of humanity. We could never invent somebody like God. In fact, He invented us!

I want to tell my intelligent and reasonable friend all these things. And I pray for another chance to talk to him, and anyone else. I just want people to feel the security I feel in my soul when I think about what Jesus Christ means to me, and I keep praying for the chance.

There's so much more that I want to tell you about that I just might have to post again in the middle of the week. I heard an amazing story and I planned to write about it, but it's 11:03 and I have no more time. I anticipate another very exciting week, full of wonderful things, because God is so amazing, just so amazing. I want to tell you all about it.