The Everyday Club

2/17/11 Luis, 60
In contrast to Carlos the day before who needed to hear from John the Baptist about his need for repentance rather than being ready to hear about Jesus, I met a man named Luis who was totally ready and wanting to hear about Jesus. He was waiting to pick up his young daughter from ballet lessons when I pulled up next to him in the parking lot at the park. When he found out the million dollar bill I gave him was a Christian tract he excitedly told me about attending church for the first time in his life over the past month and his new desire to seek God. He has owned a bar for many years and recently sold it, has a young child (his oldest is in his 40's!) and believes it is time to take God seriously. I believe the church he has been attending is Jesus-centered and biblically based, but he really hasn't heard the Gospel clearly in the month he has been there (or maybe he wasn't listening) and he was excited to hear it from me. Though he probably would have prayed the "sinner's prayer" with me, this is something I don't find in the Bible and believe he needs to do for himself as the Spirit leads. What I regret not doing, however, is I forgot to give Luis my contact information in case he had further questions and I also think I could have invited him out for a follow-up conversation, something that probably would have been very helpful for him. I think I may need to have a higher level of expectation and readiness to help people like Luis in this way, though I also trust that I am just a small part of the body of Christ which exists to do this very thing.