Looking back over the last 11 years of my own salvation, this is a person who saw me BC - Before Christ. She knew who I was before I ever knew the Lord...the good, the bad, the really bad, and the worst!
She saw me when I first got saved and how I tried to plug into church, but would also plug back into the clubs on Saturday nights.
She watched me go back and forth between church and drinking to finally remaining sober, and then on staff at a church.
She graciously received my boundless evangelistic attempts to get all I knew saved.
She saw me go from on staff at a megachurch to on the sofa nursing my son, and seen me at my worst post-salvation. Sleep deprived, post-partum, and unchurched for a season.
She heard me complain about nearly everything at one time or another along the way.
She saw my efforts to go back to when I was at my best.
She was informed when I felt like I was getting back on track.
She was one of the first who heard me poor out my dreams for the Lord and what I was going to do with my Bible college education.
And now it's her turn.
This morning I was really thanking God so much for her salvation. It's been better news than hearing of someone giving birth, getting married, it's one of the greatest things I have experienced.
To know that someone I love so intensely and dearly is on their own adventure to discover and experience how Jesus loves her so intensely and dearly - it's absolutely amazing!
I was in Luke 8 this morning reading about the seed and soils. I felt like the Lord showed me that because I have been so open and honest with her about my life, my relationship with Jesus, and sincere with my love for her no matter what, her heart is even greater than the 'good soil'.
Imagine a compost pile being nurtured for 10 years, always receiving rich nutrients, all the leaf debris, and fruit peels...turned over and over more, for many years....then imagine with it wet and rich, and just a few seeds being dropped in it.
That's what happened to her heart for this last 10 years of her being a spectator of my life pursuing the Lord. I never held back about my zeal for Jesus. I never held back my failures in life.
This is relational evangelism at its best. Being real about it all, never being ashamed, never diluting it, never keeping it mild or worrying about 'offending' someone. But speaking the truth in love, with passsion, concern, and zeal.
This person who is sooooo dear to me has hit the ground running in her own salvation, and now the good times, good conversations, and good relationship with her is going to get even better. For now, she is also my sister in the Lord. The best above all!
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