dEVOTIONS

2 Cor 5:18-21
All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. 20 We are Christ's ambassadors , and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, "Be reconciled to God!" 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ. (NLT)

Ambassadors of Christ

Do you represent Christ everywhere you go? Are you one who speaks on behalf of God? I want to share with you some things that encouraged me this past week! I was spending time with a family at a hospital whose loved one was very ill. I arrived at the hospital early that morning but was unable to locate the family. So I went to the appropriate waiting room and waited patiently. Visiting time was approaching rapidly and visitors were flooding into the waiting room to sign in before they went to see their friends and family members who were ill. About 5 minutes before it was time to release the people the woman behind the information desk grabbed the intercom microphone and informed the people that she would be praying before we were dismissed.

I will be honest with you and tell you that I expected a typical 2 cent politically correct prayer but I was in for a big surprise! This woman began to pray to her heavenly father and she prayed for healing and then she began to pray for peace and then she began to pray that the Lord would convict us of our sin and then she thanked God for his precious Son that He gave for our salvation. Man, can I tell you that I got excited in that waiting room! What I really want to tell you about that woman is that she wasn't only a prayer warrior! I watched her love on people and call people by name and ask how their loved one was, by name, and I watched her pray for people and tell them that God was a good God and He loved them! There was something different about this woman and then the Holy Spirit dropped this passage of scripture in my heart. (We are Christ Ambassadors) And can I tell you the irony of the whole thing? We believe the lie that no one wants to hear that stuff anymore but I watched people flood by that desk and tell her thank you so much for praying for their loved one. We think that people will perceive us as weird or kooky, but the truth is people are dying for someone to stand up and lead them spiritually.

There is a misconception in our Christian world today that you must be licensed and ordained and work for a church at least part time before you qualify to be a difference maker in the world. I want to tell you that it is the exact opposite! It is the people who are going into the dark places every day, like a hospital or like the place you work, it is in those places you have the best opportunity to shine the light of Jesus on people. Do you know that Pastors spend about 80% of their time with Christian people?

I know this is a long one today but I feel like God wants to spark something in you this week. I was at El Tap this past week eating with a dear brother in the Lord. We were discussing some things going on in our lives and we were just talking about the Word of God and what it was speaking to us when a woman who was sitting at a booth close to us stopped us. She said "I hate to interrupt you two but I can’t help but hear some of your conversation and I take it that both of you are believers". I smiled and said "yes ma'am that is correct". She pulled her son over to me and asked if I would pray for him. He was just a young boy and he suffered from epilepsy and had been battling seizures. The Lord brought the woman at the hospital into my mind and He asked me "how are you going to pray with all these people around"? I put my hands on that young boy in the middle of the restaurant and I begin to call out to Jesus and thank him for his healing on young Benjamin's life. I didn't care who heard or saw me b/c I knew that at that divinely ordained moment I was an ambassador of Jesus Christ! The Word of God challenges us this week to be God's representative to a lost and dying world. It is our job to bring a living Jesus into a dying world. What are you going to do this week?