All the Strength You Have

    12/22/2013             Rich                37

Most people I encounter in my random outreach conversations are at a very comfortable place in their belief or unbelief.  They don’t think much about eternity because they feel they’ve got it all figured out.  After hearing where they are at in their beliefs, my role often needs to be that of a prophet – a truth teller – much like John the Baptist as he called people out of their comfort zone to a place of repentance in preparation for the coming Messiah.   But once in a while I encounter people who are at a place of brokenness already, and I need to be prepared to be a minister of God’s grace to them.  That was the case with Rich, the man in this video.  He tells about some strange beliefs in spirits at first, but I listen patiently as he goes on to tell me how he has come from success in high school as a state cross-country champion and success in business and family, through some personal tragedies that left him angry at God and slipping into an increasingly overwhelming drug addiction that culminated in physical abuse of his wife, a suicide attempt, and a stay in jail all within the last month or so.  He truly feels he had hit rock bottom, and was in a recovery program and in his 17^th day drug free when I met him at a McDonalds.  As I listen I know I need to share the hard truth of his sin and condemnation before he can appreciate the grace to be found in Jesus, but I worry to myself that he might not be emotionally stable enough to hear it.  After listening to all he has been through, I begin to explain the Gospel to him, and what I feel really helps is that I explain right up front that much of what I have to share with him will be hard to hear, but that the good news I have for him afterward won’t make sense without it.  He listens very intently as can be seen in the rest of the video.  After I turned the camera off, we talked further about his need for church involvement and support in overcoming his drug addiction.  I left him with a story that seemed to resonate with him.  I’m not sure where I heard it, but it’s about a father and his son working in the yard.  The father tells his son to go and “use all the strength you have” to move a rock.  The son tries to move it but can’t, and comes back three times in frustration to tell his father, only to be told to go try again.  Finally, the son says “I still can’t move it, and I am using all the strength I have.  “Oh no you are not!” the father says.  “What do you mean?”  “You aren’t using all the strength you have…”,-  the father continues -”…because you never asked me to help you!”   Philippians 4:13 says “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” Please pray for Rich, that he will find Him who gives that strength, and then begin to use all the strength he has!   Video - 42:51