New Christian

New Christian …

I was at a meeting today.  A guy named Joe asked Reuben and then me how we met Jesus.  He was asking because he just met him on May 23.  Someone asked him to church and out of politeness he went.  The message and the presence of Jesus hit him like a ton of bricks.  He became, in his words, “born again.”  He travels a lot and this was his first men’s disciple meeting.  He had a new Bible that was called, The Beginner’s Bible. 

He shared that he told a colleague about his experience and got the reply, “Oh yeah, I tried that once.”  After a bit, Joe was pretty confused and a little angry at some other ways the man was treating him.  Instead of taking it to him, he prayed.  He prayed because that was the first advice he got about being born again – you should pray.  A little while later the man apologized and Joe thought, “Man, this really does work!” 

I noticed the whole room nodding and encouraging Joe.  It was as if everyone was remembering anew, “Jesus does work!  I mean, truly.”  New Christians I have always thought are vital to churches.  Worship, it’s higher when you are standing next to a person who is feeling like, well, they have been born again.  Education, it’s real when you are the one teaching a brand new Christian what’s what.  (Joe said he’d been propositioned by three women in the last month and that had not happened to him in years.  The men in the room said, “It’s Satan trying to mess you up.”  See, they were teaching him.)  Fellowship, go to the nursery window of a hospital and watch the family peering in at the newborn.  Is that fellowship or what?  Evangelism, it’s higher because you see once more but up close and personal and now, Jesus is touching lives.  So off you go ready to share him convinced he’s who he said he was. 

Let’s never give up on sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.