The importance of living out your relationship with Christ!

Today I had the honor and privilege of praying with a man to receive Christ as his Savior. Now as a Pastor I have had this honor and privilege too many times to count, but this one was different.

He is in 70's and has never confessed Jesus as Lord, he has always been a hard working man, that never went to church, but never stopped his family from going either. Today my wife and I took their family a Chocolate drizzle cake and after spending some time with him at his home I ministered to him and shared with them the Love that God has for him.

I communicated to him that he doesn't have to clean himself up or even understand what's going on, but all he had to do was put his trust and life in the hands of a God that desires to have a relationship with him. After a few minutes of prayer for his physical needs, I asked him if he was ready to receive Christ as his Savior and to my surprise he said yes.

I joined hands with him and his sofa became an altar and I prayed a prayer of repentance with him and gave him assurance that his relationship with God was now in the best possible position. Tears were filling his eyes as I took a few minutes to encourage him on what just happened.

I shared with him that according to 2 Cor. 5:17 that he was now a new creation, old things had passed away and all things become new and because of the prayer he prayed he was now a new creation. He may be 70 in the physical sense but he was just re born in the spirit.

A smile came over his face and said these words that were the most powerful words I have ever heard uttered in my 18 years of ministry. I told him that now that is life was in God's hands, no matter what happens with this physical body he wins, and his response to me was, "I've been watching my family and I've seen how God has worked in their lives and I know that God is going to work in mine."

WOW! What a testimony! On the outside it looked like a man who didn't have a need for Jesus, but on the inside God had been working on him for years and He didn't use a preacher, a TV, or a radio, but He was using this mans own family to show him the love and power of a Savior who loved him.

This family has been praying for this day for years and even though this day was orchestrated by God's hands, the motion was set forth years ago, by a consistent standard of living for Christ through his wife and 2 daughters.

You never know who is watching you live out your relationship with Christ. If you have lost loved ones, continue to pray for them, but the greatest thing you can do is to live for Christ in front of them.

The wife and his 2 daughters aren't pastors or even preachers, but they personified the quote from St. Francis of Assisi who said, "Preach the gospel at all times and if you have to use words!"

Today was a turning point in my ministry and life, I thank God for allowing me to be used and to see this powerful life changing testimony lived out in God's people!