Corona Devo 3147
I spent a few hours in a bar last Saturday night, and if you know me...you know that I don't frequent bars, but I decided after that night that maybe I should.
Nah, not for the alcohol (I don't drink) or loud music...but it sure is easy to visit with the people in a bar. They are approachable and open, and open to Jesus.
The bar was hosting a community-event and as I moved through the crowds and visited with people that I knew and people that I didn't...God made it easy to share about Him.
At one table I reminisced with a husband and wife that I hadn't seen in ten years, about when our children played soccer together in elementary school. I thanked the dad who used to provide free foot-skill training for our kids on Summer mornings. I let him know (the truth) that it had made a difference in the abilities of our children. I saw his eyes moisten, and he thanked me for sharing that and said that it made his night.
What if we reminded people more often of how the difference they make in this world?
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. (14) I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ~Psalm 139:13-14
I asked them where they go to church and they told me...and that opened the door for us to all realize that we all love Jesus! I invited their daughter to the youth group that we have felt God's prompting to begin this week (ask me for details!), and then we parted company with full hearts. I am blessed that I was at the bar the other night!
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, (25) not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. ~Hebrews 10:24-25
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In another group conversation, a lady that I don't know well sought me out to tell me that her niece in Wisconsin may be attending the college that our oldest son currently attends in Phoenix (Grand Canyon University), and she wanted to know more details about the university.
Happy to share about the largest Christian university in our Nation and the beautiful impact and education that it is providing to our son, I highlighted the Lord and all that He is doing. I do not believe that she is a Believer, but she stayed with me in conversation and interest because she knows our son, and to God be the glory with our chit-chat! I am glad I was at the bar Saturday night!
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One lady's daughter stopped high school early and is living in the next city with her boyfriend.
Someone's son broke his clavicle in two places in a game the other day.
There were disclosures of cancer diagnoses.
I recognized another woman because our kids went to kindergarten together. She's divorced now and her husband is remarried and has had new children with another woman.
If we need reminded that our world is broken, go to a bar and listen.
If we need reminded that people are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, just talk to them.
If we need reminded that Christ calls us to work with Him to reach others with His hope and truth for today: read the Bible, and then go to a bar.
Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. (36) When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (37) Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. (38) Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” ~Matthew 9:35-38
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I didn't expect to have the evening that I did at that bar, but I knew throughout the night that God was there and He had me there.
To listen. To engage. To shine (His light, not mine).
I am quick to judge environs sometimes, and maybe you are too: Places that "we don't belong", or that might be filled with the "wrong" kind of people.
But those people and those places were Jesus' people and Jesus' places. He came to find and save those people.
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
(10) While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. (11) When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
(12) On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. (13) But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” ~Matthew 9:9-13
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I never go to bars, but I am blessed that I did Saturday night.
However, we can be anywhere and engage with others on God's errand: our neighborhood, a plane flight, the grocery store, the post office. God's people are everywhere, and everyone has a story, and everyone has some area of brokenness.
Everyone also has a Savior. Some people just don't know it yet.
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
(31) “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
(32) This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth. (33) In his humiliation he was deprived of justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from the earth.”
(34) The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”
(35) Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus. ~Acts 8:31-35
Who can we tell today about the good news about Jesus? And where can we go to engage with someone who needs to hear it?
To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.(21) To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law.(22) To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I Corinthians 99:20-22
Blessings,
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