When God prompts you to speak...

Beka sent out an email with this recent story of hers.

She said I could when i asked her if i could share it with you all. I hope it encourages you like it did me to share the Lord with those you come in contact with! Even if you think there's not enough time.



Beka's Story:

"I flew home from Michigan yesterday with my sister and niece and I sat next to this man, but i didn't really talk to him or introduce myself because i was helping Debby watch Chloe. Then, i fell asleep and then when i woke up, he was asleep. And THEN things got interesting...

I had to go to the bathroom so i stood up just in time to see and old lady whip into the back bathroom and then i turned around and another lady jumped into the other one...and i was like "...weird..." so started to move to go stand in line anyway and i think 1 or 2 more people got up and went and stood in line, and then the guy next to me woke up. So i sat down and started talking to him about who he was, his family, what he did, where he's been (you know...surface level stuff) and all the time I'm feeling more and more pressure to share the gospel with him.

Suddenly, the seat belt light comes on and we're in Orlando and we start our descent and i thought to myself: there's NO way i have time God, sorry.

Then, the conversation came to a complete halt and he just kinda stared straight ahead and it was awkward and so finally i was like fine...I'm not gonna get through it, but I'll do it anyway...

I spoke up with trepidation: "Sir, with all the places you've been and the people you've known, and the things you've seen...has anybody ever told you how much God loves you?"

And he turns to me and says..."it's funny you should ask...it's something I've thought about, but I'm just not really sure...my parents are latter day saints...my wife is catholic...and I'm just...open."

I figured since i wasn't going to get through it all anyway, I'd take my time and really get to know what his thoughts were, with hopes of establishing that i did care where he was coming from so if we didn't get a chance to finish i would have at least provoked his thoughts some and perhaps opened an opportunity to talk more at some future point.

So i asked him several questions and we talked all about whether he thought he'd go to heaven when he died; Who he thought Jesus Christ was; and What he believed about the Bible. With that grounds I got to go through a super clear, scripture-by-scripture presentation of the gospel. (Surprising myself regularly that at each point we still hadn't hit the ground and I wasn't out of time yet.) I asked him if it made sense and he told me it did.

Then, I wondered if he'd heard that before and he said: "Not that way...the religious influences in my life have presented something like that with...a tweak..." We talked about how different religions tend to be very similar in that they're works-based in one way or another; man is always striving to be good enough, to work his way to God; and how the message the Bible teaches is different. It's based completely on God's grace extended to us in our undeserving state, which was necessary if we were to be together with him for eternity (or at all), because there is no way we could possibly be good enough in and of our own efforts. I encouraged him not to just take my word for it but to read through John and see for himself: the condition that's put out there again and again is just "believe."

As he thanked me for telling him, we landed.

Then, people got up and crowded the pathway right in front of his seat so he couldn't move for another 10 minutes...so I took the time to recap and share that he could make that decision to believe right now and that 1 John talks about how we can know that we have eternal life with that decision-it's never something he has to wonder about.

As the aisle continued to clog, I told him that he would not just be stepping into eternal security but a fulfilling relationship with the creator of the universe who loves him more than words can describe and who gave all there was to give to have that closeness with him.

The man told me that i was certainly passionate about it and i told him that it's the one thing on this earth really worth being passionate about; it is the one thing you can cling to when everything else fails; it is the one thing you can be sure of in a world of uncertainty and deceit; and it is the one thing that you will have missed your entire point and purpose in living if you bypass.

Then: the aisle cleared up and He thanked me again for talking to him and told me I could be praying for him when I asked and I thanked him for being so open and sharing with me and we parted ways.

He got up and left, and as I gathered my things i was thinking to myself...How in the world did I fit all that in? Was I just talking really fast? There's no way the descent lasted that long....and as I was thinking these things...

I heard my sister apologizing to her husband on the phone for being so late. I tuned in just in time to hear her say:
"Yeah...I'm really sorry! We'll be out in baggage claim in about 15 minutes...We've been in Orlando, but the plane has been circling the airport for no apparent reason for the last half hour..."

...I decided I should be more prompt when God tells me to talk to people...haha"

Beka