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&In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths&

“Come See a Man”

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Do you remember the time in your life when you first met that someone special in your life? You just knew it had to be true love. She was so beautiful or he was so handsome. Whatever the case, that person was what you had always been searching for. Did you say to yourself, "I better keep this to myself or someone might think I'm boasting or they may think I'm a jerk?" I don't think so. I'll bet you couldn't wait to tell somebody. You couldn't wait to tell anybody. You couldn't wait to tell everybody. You felt like you would explode if you didn't tell these chosen people... Somebody, anybody, and everybody. Right? Well, I'm just a nobody, trying to tell everybody, about somebody, who can save anybody!

When Christ was on this earth about two thousand years ago, He taught many people many things using parables. He did this so that everyone would be able to relate to what He was teaching. The above little illustration is by no means comparable to one of His parables, but it is the only thing I could think of that would even begin to describe the feeling that came over me the very second God saved me. It was like I had this great pressure inside me that had been building up for the past forty years and I was about to burst and all of a sudden the pressure was relieved. The oddest part about it is that I didn't even realize that the pressure was there until it was gone. The Lord has been teaching me in parables ever since even before He saved me, only before He saved me, I didn't realize it, nor did I understand. I think back to about a year before He saved me when I was on my way to work one day. I was going down highway 585 toward Spartanburg, South Carolina. When I got to where U.S.C.S. is, I saw an elderly lady on the opposite side of the highway, going the wrong way. I tried to warn her by running along beside her and blowing my horn, but I couldn't get her attention. There was a cement wall between me and her that was hindering my efforts. I will never forget that stony look on her face as she just kept looking forward. The traffic was heavy that day and people were just about turning their cars over trying to dodge her. When I saw that it was impossible for me to get her to notice me, I decided to run along in front of her to maybe warn the others coming toward her. I hadn't much more than gotten in front of her when I looked in my mirror and saw the collision. She had hit a Mustang head on. She was dead. I didn't realize it at the time, but the Lord was preparing me for witnessing. More about this one later.

Another way the Lord has prepared and taught me in a parable of sorts is Come See A Man. I'm sure you've heard about the woman at the well, or maybe you haven't. Well, Jesus was at a well and a woman came there to draw water and He told her all about herself, how that she wasn't married but that she had had five husbands and she was living with a man who was not her husband. Then He offered her the water that if she drank, she would never thirst again. She accepted that living water and was gloriously saved. Then she went back into town and told all the men there to come see a man. If you have never read it, please do. That is found in the Book of John, chapter 4, verses 7-30. I had read this many times and had heard it as well many times, but to me it was just a neat story of someone getting saved. That is until the Lord saved me and all of a sudden it was like the little illustration I mentioned in the beginning of this article. I had to tell somebody, I just had to tell everybody to Come See A Man. The only thing is that I was inviting people to come see a man named J. Harorld Smith. You see, this is the man who led me to the Lord and I was truly impressed with him and everthing about him. I went straight to work and told a man who I worked with and who was a member of the church where I had seen J. Harold Smith all about him and I told him, "You've just got to go see him." Well, he and his wife did go see him and both of them got saved. He came back to work the next night and told me all about it and thanked me for convincing him to go. Well, that even made the feeling I had gotten when the Lord saved me grow stronger. I began telling everybody I saw about J. Harold Smith and when he would be in the area, I would invite as many as I could to go see him. It wasn't too long until the Lord revealed to me what He was teaching me.

You see, I told many people about J. Harold Smith and invited many to come see him and I got a variety of responses. Some would flat out reject the offer. Some would say they would come and then not show up. Some said they sure would like to come, but made excuses why they couldn't. And then there were those who thanked me for inviting them and they really went. These were the minority. That's when the Lord showed me that this was the very same responses I would get as I told them about Him and invited them to Come See Him. He was preparing me for the rejection and the lies and the excuses. He was also preparing me to tell you about Him and not J. Harold Smith. I still love J. Harold Smith to death and I would love for everybody to go see him as often as they could and I would do the same, but the One that I desire for everyone to Come See more than anything in this world is Jesus Christ, the One who died for me and He died for you too. We were born to choices, but when we die there will be no more choices. In between the two, it's all choices. If you who are reading this little article have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, I put before you a choice right now. Come See A Man. Please! Which of these before mentioned people are you going to be? Are you going to reject so great salvation, or are you going to lie and say you will come and not come, or are you going to make excuses, (There is no excuse) or will you be one of the chosen ones and Come See This Man.

Now, for those of you who have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. More Choices! Yes, the choices don't stop when we become Christians. When's the last time you witnessed to someone about the Lord? Remember the story about the elderly lady going the wrong way down highway 585? At the very moment I saw her, I was faced with some choices to make. I could have just said, "There goes somebody going the wrong way, I hope she doesn't have a wreck." Or I could have said, "Well, you know it's really not my job to warn her, I believe I will call a policeman or something." Or I could have said, "You know, she probably won't listen to me, so I'll just keep on going and leave her to her own business." Either of these choices would have ended in sure tragedy. Even though I made my choice to try and warn her, she still ended up dead, but it wasn't because I didn't do my best. There are so many people who claim to be Christians who never witness to the lost. Now I don't say that everybody that doesn't witness is lost, but I do say that they are definitely not in the will of God. There are those who say they just don't because they don't want to get involved with other people's business and I wonder why they have no burden in their heart for that soul that is on it's way to hell. There are those who say that they can't witness because they just don't know what to say. When I saw that poor lady perish in that crash, what I actually did was witness the tragedy and I could tell you every detail. I was there and I know what went on, so I could witness to you all about it. If someone says they don't know what to tell in witnessing, it could very well be that they don't have anything to tell. If they have been saved and are serving Him, they not only will be able to tell of what He did for them when He saved them, but they will also have some things to tell about what He is doing for them right now. Have you been saved? Were you there when it happened? If you can answer yes to these two questions, you can tell me about it.

I don't know how many times I've gotten behind a car and saw a bumper sticker that read, "Let me tell you about my Grand-Children" or "My child is a Terrific Kid at such and such a school." Well, I wonder if those Grandparents are as anxious to tell people about the Saviour of this world and His love? I wonder if those parents have told those children and the world about the One who made them so terrific? Choices-Not Excuses.

Now, ready for some good news? See if you can find a parable in this one. Remember in the story about the elderly lady going the wrong way. That was about a year before the Lord saved me, which by the way, was Friday the 13th of November 1992. Well, about a year after He saved me, I was coming home from work. I was supposed to work over that day, but someone came up to me and volunteered to work over for me. As I said, I was on my way home and just as I was about to get on highway 585 in the same area as before, I saw a car going the wrong way again except in the opposite direction. There I was faced with the very same situation and the same choices. I could have said, "Well, the other time I tried my best and the lady died anyway." Without hesitation I ran my car up beside that car. This time there wasn't a wall between us, so I was able to pull right up beside that car. The last time there was a wall between us and that's the way Satan builds a wall between us and the lost people of this world, but when the Lord desires for us to be effective, He tears down that wall and we will be able to reach them. As I pulled up beside that car, I noticed that the driver was an elderly lady and she had what appeared to be her husband in the car with her. I was up on the grass median so I was able to get almost to their car and I started blowing my horn. Almost immediately, they looked at me and I started waving for them to get over. They realized what was wrong and pulled up on the median with me. As soon as they did that, it was like the Lord told me to keep going, so I didn't stop and as I pulled away I could see them get off the median right behind me and I pulled away from them. I don't know for sure why I was led to keep going, but it just might have been so those precious people could think they had just seen an angel of the Lord. I was so excited that I called my wife from my car phone and told her about it. Yes, we as Christians and as His unworthy servants do have choices to make. Please, let's strive to make the right ones.