Raised Hands are Waiting

In my marketing job, I do a lot of work trying to locate and identify customers who are 'ready to buy.' We ask questions, take surveys and even track what types of email our prospects respond to. It's a very laborious process!

A much more productive technique is to contact customers who have self-declared that they are ready to buy. This bypasses all my detective work and gets right to the person who has specific questions and decision points. We say they've "raised their hand" by filling out a "contact us" form on the internet. Or they click on a Google ad. If I search for "buy speakers" and then click on the Bose ad, you can bet I'm already in the market--so talk to me!

That's how I look at the people who knock on my door or stop me on the street corner to talk about spiritual matters. These are people who have already 'raised their hand' for spiritual inquiry. I don't have to be politically correct or beat around the bush. They are already in the market.

Unfortunately, many of them have bought into the wrong product.

They may be in a cult, or have been convinced that their salvation relies on works rather than redemption and Grace.

I don't ignore them as solicitors...I steer my way directly into their path.

I like nothing better than 15 minutes with two people and their pamphlets on my front porch.

Rather than argue over confused theology, I simply take the invitation of their inquiry to explain the Gospel of Grace. "You and I are sinners. Jesus died to redeem our sins. We can have forgiveness and eternal life by believing on His name." And repeat, perhaps with prayer and reference to Ephesians 2:8-9 or Romans 10:9, until they take their leave.

From there, God does the heavy lifting. If they are open to the Truth, it will set them free of whatever else has enslaved them.

Look, some of the people that call out from the street corner are actually my brothers and sisters in Christ. They are boldly proclaiming Jesus and I love it ! I smile and encourage them.

But take a closer look from now on - before you slam the door or say something derisive. Are you dis-missing an annoying cultist, or missing the raised hand of someone seeking Truth, who has yet to meet Jesus?

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory." Ephesians 1:13-14

What do you believe?

Gas Lamp Evangelism

We took a ferry boat from St. Thomas to get to our campground site on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We packed little (cheap) for this guys 'winter' camping trip. The national park there provided cooking utensils and a few other items for our tent site.

One very pleasant surprise was an LP gas tank with a 2-mantle lantern, mounted on a pole beside our picnic table. We learned in a hurry that inky darkness blankets the forested island, especially with no "city glow" from the horizon.

All you had to do was open the LP valve and light a match beside the cracked glass lantern top.

With good humor, we realized that our rusty lantern had only one broken mantle on the dual gas spigot, but we lit it anyway. It glowed reddish orange and cast a few dark shadows within a few feet, but not much else.

The next day we told the park office and by nightfall there were two new lantern mantles on the same crusty apparatus. We lit the mantles and for a few glorious seconds our entire site was bathed in clear, bright light.

Three grown men cheered spontaneously on an island in the middle of the ocean! Hurrah!

Then the lantern sputtered. Then one mantle burned out and the other glowed its same dismal reddish orange from the night before.

It was late, and only a few more days on the island anyway. We could navigate by flashlight. We were also very aware that only a few hundred miles to the north, people were suffering horrendous life and death issues in the earthquake aftermath. Our needs were miniscule.

I went ahead and told the park office, and upon returning to the site later, we found a brand new, shiny lantern with two fresh mantles on our old LP pole. I tentatively placed a match to the globe and cheery bright light spread over our little patch of dirt and tree roots.

What nice fellowship we had at that picnic table for the remaining few evenings. And how much easier it was to see our way around trees, equipment and packs.

You can get by with a dismal red glow and convince yourself that it is sufficient; it may even sputter brightly for a brief moments now and then. But once you see the real Light, you recognize the counterfeit is a poor substitute.

Jesus said, "If the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!" Matthew 6:23

What do you believe?