Greetings all!
With this update, I want to share a tremendous
blessiing. It is going to be about the
salvation of a gentleman that many have worked with for MANY, MANY years. After all this time, and much prayer, we are
able to rejoice in his salvation.
The gentleman is the husband of someone who attends our
church. I knew this guy when we moved
into town, and though he would attend church with his Christian wife, he would
always remain adamently against Christianity.
Much prayer was lifted up on his behalf.
I have personally tried for many years in opening up conversations
regarding Christ, but he would always just say that "he couldn't see
it". He was a newspaper reporter
and he would always state that his investigative sense would always make him go
against Christianity/spiritual things/ God, etc.
I tried giving books like "Case for Christ"
written by a former investigative reporter for him to consider, but even after
reading he would reject it all.
Throughout all of this, his wife would faithfully attend church, and
serve the Lord. Our church so desired to
see this man come to understand his need for Jesus. Of course, all souls are precious, but if we
are honest, there are some that we really desire to come to the Lord a bit more
passionately.
In December 2011, this man lost his job at the
newspaper. He, of course, was
devastated. I met with him for coffee
one day, and talked to him about how the church would help with some food items
for the family with the now loss of income.
He was extremely touched by this.
We chatted about his need for a new job, but with the Christimas
holidays happening (he lost his job Dec. 21), he didn't see anything happening
until the new year at the earliest. Yet,
he was going to put out job applications so that he would "be on
file".
That afternoon after he returned home from our lunch, he
received a phone call from a newspaper in Melbourne. They wanted to talk with him about a possible
job opening. Of course, the man was
excited and he rang me. I told him, that
if the Lord was to allow him to get a job so quickly, that he needed to
remember the verse found in Romans 2:4 "or despisest thou the riches of
His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to repentance?"
I told him that if God was to bestow His goodness by allowing this
gentleman to get a job so quickly, that he needed to recognize that God is good
to us so that people can be drawn to Him with a heart of repentance.
A week later, and he got hired at this job, which was better
paying and a better position. I met with
him again and reminded him of the verse.
He shared with me that he recognized that this could not be a coincidence,
but that it had to be something much more than that. He would entertain the thought of God.
In continuing to chat with this man over the months that
past, it was quite noticeable that this man kept pondering about God, and his
own need for Jesus. This led to last
week, where I was talking to him and he mentioned something about his
"Christian duty". I paused and
asked him why would he talk about him doing something out of a Christian duty,
and he confessed that he has come to realize that there is a God that is
personally interested in him, loves him, and so desires a relationship with
him. He recognizes that that
relationship is built in the work of Jesus Christ. And he wanted to enter into the work of
Christ for him.
When I heard this, you can imagine the JOY that I
experienced. It was so exciting to hear
this testimony! He couldn't share it
without tears in his own eyes. This was
one of those pieces of news that the entire church rejoiced in, as they all
shared in praying for this gentleman.
I know it is a lengthy story of this man, whom you will
never know this side of eternity. But
rejoice with me that you will one day get to know this man when we are all
together in Heaven. We are so thankful
for the goodness of God that brought one to repentance!!!!
Until next time,
Steven Maldoff
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