Rob Cuse
Member
" With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; " Ephesians 4:2
This is just a random life event that while reading, kiwidan's "Rehab" post, inspired me to share.
Many years (or moons if you prefer) ago, I worked as a Court Officer. A good friend and coworker were stationed on the family court floor. Now I have to give you a little background of where I was in my walk with God. I was young full of energy, ready to serve God any place any where. Full of zeal and thinking I had enough knowledge to evangelize the entire world! So I worked hard trying to establish good relations with those I worked with hoping one day an opening would appear that I could share the good news and glad tidings (anyone know where this is going yet).
So it was a late night for one of our courtrooms and my buddy and I were the ones to work the overtime. Quiet on the floor we discussed many things under the sun, until FINALLY the G-o-d topic came up. Bam, I'm on it like white on rice!
With many, many, and yes many words of exhortarion I bombarded my very patient friend with everything concerning the Lord from A to Z. He stood there nodding and active listening to me. I felt great! I kept going and going and going (get the picture). He never once gave me any inclination of disinterest. In fact he asked many thoughtful and intelligent questions. Oh I was aiming to end our awesome conversation with an invitation to my church. However, the courtroom emptied and back to work we went. We shut down our floor and finished our work. We shook hands and went our separate ways for the night.
The very next morning we are both assigned once again to the family court floor. We greet each other and off with the day. Sometime later he walks over to me and hands me a 3 page letter. I was caught completely off guard and asked what was the letter for. He began to politely tell me that due to our time constraints ( mostly due to my mouth never stopping), that he would have liked to respond to my lengthy exhortation. I said ok and he turned around and continued work as normal.
I took the letter home and read it that night. The words are hard to come by to describe the horror and shame I felt inside. Through all my blah blah blah blah-ing I forgot that its not I but Christ that was supposed to show. My good friend remembered every single point I made and with very intelligent and exacting words rebutted and refused the gospel of Jesus Christ. He explained why he was an atheist and stated why he didnt believe in God. I was completely shattered. My fleshly words bounced right off him. It took me sometime to get enough nerve to ask him for an apology....iin which he said there was no reason to apologize. We are still friends to this day.
The point to all this is I forgot that it is Christ through us that will draw men and women to redemption. I thank you Lord for this lesson.
This is just a random life event that while reading, kiwidan's "Rehab" post, inspired me to share.
Many years (or moons if you prefer) ago, I worked as a Court Officer. A good friend and coworker were stationed on the family court floor. Now I have to give you a little background of where I was in my walk with God. I was young full of energy, ready to serve God any place any where. Full of zeal and thinking I had enough knowledge to evangelize the entire world! So I worked hard trying to establish good relations with those I worked with hoping one day an opening would appear that I could share the good news and glad tidings (anyone know where this is going yet).
So it was a late night for one of our courtrooms and my buddy and I were the ones to work the overtime. Quiet on the floor we discussed many things under the sun, until FINALLY the G-o-d topic came up. Bam, I'm on it like white on rice!
With many, many, and yes many words of exhortarion I bombarded my very patient friend with everything concerning the Lord from A to Z. He stood there nodding and active listening to me. I felt great! I kept going and going and going (get the picture). He never once gave me any inclination of disinterest. In fact he asked many thoughtful and intelligent questions. Oh I was aiming to end our awesome conversation with an invitation to my church. However, the courtroom emptied and back to work we went. We shut down our floor and finished our work. We shook hands and went our separate ways for the night.
The very next morning we are both assigned once again to the family court floor. We greet each other and off with the day. Sometime later he walks over to me and hands me a 3 page letter. I was caught completely off guard and asked what was the letter for. He began to politely tell me that due to our time constraints ( mostly due to my mouth never stopping), that he would have liked to respond to my lengthy exhortation. I said ok and he turned around and continued work as normal.
I took the letter home and read it that night. The words are hard to come by to describe the horror and shame I felt inside. Through all my blah blah blah blah-ing I forgot that its not I but Christ that was supposed to show. My good friend remembered every single point I made and with very intelligent and exacting words rebutted and refused the gospel of Jesus Christ. He explained why he was an atheist and stated why he didnt believe in God. I was completely shattered. My fleshly words bounced right off him. It took me sometime to get enough nerve to ask him for an apology....iin which he said there was no reason to apologize. We are still friends to this day.
The point to all this is I forgot that it is Christ through us that will draw men and women to redemption. I thank you Lord for this lesson.
