Sadness on a Plane

Recently I was on plane to Sacramento, California and sat next to a man who saw I was reading a New Testament. He asked me why we needed God?

I took out a Gospel booklet and began to share the Gospel with him. The man suddenly said, “I know all that stuff. I am a minister, I just don’t believe it.”

Rather than acted shocked, I continued to share the Good News looking for a soft spot in his heart so that he might begin to respond to the Word of God. However, he did not seem to soften at all. I left him with the Gospel booklet and my card and asked if we could get together sometime in Seattle where he lives.

Perhaps God will bring him to a place of repentance and trust in Him through the glorious Gospel of Christ.

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4 nasb).

The Race Is On (Working for the Glory of God!)

Soon after trusting Christ in my early twenties, I worked the night shift at a plywood company in Southern California mainly with Hispanics. We enjoyed each other whether we fought nor not. They taught me to really like hot peppers!

I worked on an 8-man crew (4 teams of 2 men on a team) that off-loaded huge crates of 50 4’ x 8’sheets of plywood from trucks.  We would then unstrap each crate of plywood, inspect each piece and then stack them into piles of 100 good sheets.  The stacks of plywood were then taken to another building to be painted for mobile homes.

In an 8-hour shift, each 2-man team would prepare two or three stacks of 100 good sheets ready for painting.

My teammate was also a new Christian, and as we began to reach out to others with the Gospel and do Bible study together on breaks, we began to be concerned about our testimony in the lazy, union-controlled work environment.

So we began to pick up speed and work harder.

Soon we were doing four stacks of plywood, instead of two or three.  The other teams also began to speed up as they did not want to look bad.  The race was on as each team began to race each other and still be careful of quality control.  The amount of stacks increased.  Soon it was three or four stacks by lunch, and eight or ten stacks completed on each shift instead of the previous two or three.

This became a problem as the painters then had to keep up and go faster on the paint machines.  The union bosses then came in and made a fuss, but the management was so happy that they gave everyone a raise, extended our break and lunch times, and provided all kinds of amenities to the 250 workers.

Our company became the most productive factory in California.

As young Christians this made a great impact on our personal life as we saw the difference Christ made in the simple matter of stacking plywood for the testimony of Christ for the glory of God!

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” (Colossians 3:23).

Can a Hot Meal Prevent Suicide?

A man in Seattle living in an alley decided there was absolutely no hope. He had no job, no family, was addicted to alcohol and drugs, losing all hope and the will to live. Therefore, he decided to commit suicide.

Realizing that before someone died, one usually wants a last good meal, he went to a rescue mission in Seattle. At the mission he had what he thought was his last hot meal. However, it was served with love, compassion, kindness, and concern by the Christian staff. This caused the man to have a glimmer of hope. Later he heard the Gospel of Christ, turned from sin, trusted the Savior.

What opened the door for him was simply kindness of Christians reaching out with a hot meal with concern. Kindness is not the Gospel, but it opens the door for one to hear and respond to the Gospel.

We are concerned about a person’s suffering, hunger and pain, but especially the pain and suffering of an eternity separated from God.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Romans 1:16).