“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...” ~Apostle Paul to the Roman Church – A.D 57
Over the past few months Parkside Church Lake County has had the great privilege to begin meeting together with a focus on prayer and Bible study. During these sessions, Pastor Scott has emphasized the purpose and foundation of this church plant repeatedly- share the great gospel of Jesus Christ! This single-minded approach has been the basis of our group meetings, especially during time of prayer, as we ask God to use us to share His word to those He has placed in our lives.
During this time I have personally felt God working in my heart and convicting me of my half-hearted attitude towards Jesus’s Great Commission. God has placed a burden in my life to see people in more of an eternal sense. To see people as either saved by God where they will spend an eternity glorifying Him or as a lost and unbelieving soul where they will spend time-without-end in Hell. The most sobering and yet motivating thought about all this is that none of us know how long these people will be in our lives. None of us know how long we will be on this earth. Eternal thoughts such as these have been a call to action!
This past week God decided to give me an opportunity that the Parkside church plant had been praying for. I work as a claims adjuster in auto property and during the course of my day this past Tuesday I met with a body shop manager whom I have never met before in my life. As we were reviewing the claim, the manager stopped mid-sentence and out of left- field began sharing with me how he had just caught his girlfriend cheating on him with seven different people over the last few years! He then went on and opened up with me for the next ten minutes about how this horrific event has caused such extreme stress and anxiety in his life and also of his 13 year old daughter. As we were finishing up the conversation, which was more of me listening and him talking, the man mentioned that he had been thinking of going to church with his teenage daughter.
Here was my in-road! I was able to encourage him to make a commitment to follow through with his church idea. I explained to him that regardless of anything that happens in this world the only thing that will truly matter at the end our lives is our relationship with Christ. As I left he thanked me and made a verbal commitment to trying out this “church thing”. As I drove off, all I could think about was how bizarre and wonderful it was that this total stranger had just shared such a personal and life-altering story with me. God had most definitely heard and answered the prayers of the Parkside church plant! May God strengthen, embolden, and convince Christians everywhere to not be ashamed but passionate about sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ!
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.” ~C.S. Lewis
Post by Ben Bollman
