Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary: How to Reach Friends and Family Who Avoid God and the Church by Lee Strobel

Author:Lee Strobel
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion, Evangelism, Christian Ministry
ISBN: 9780310872757
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 1993-06-29T20:00:00+00:00

WE HAVE A COMMANDER WE CAN COUNT ON.

There’s a story about an Army sergeant and a private who were doing survival training in the Rocky Mountains. As they made their way through the woods, suddenly they encountered a big, angry grizzly bear that was about to attack them.

Quickly the sergeant sat down, ripped off his heavy hiking boots, took some running shoes out of his backpack, put them on, and was lacing them up in a hurry.

The private stood there watching. “Excuse me, sir,” he said. “Do you really think you’re going to be able to outrun that bear?”

“Well, private, I don’t have to outrun the bear,” replied the sergeant. “I only have to outrun you.”

The point is that the world offers us leaders who don’t really have our best interests at heart. We’ve seen politicians who make all kinds of promises but then fail us in the end. Many people know what it’s like to work for a boss whose sole allegiance is to himself. In other words, if the situation becomes him or you, he’s going to save himself, as the sergeant was trying to do.

I know of only one sure-fire way to determine whether my leader is really in my corner: Is he willing to take a bullet that was meant for me? It would be like the sergeant in the story saying, “Private, you run for safety; I’ll stay here and take on this bear.”

Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”2 And that’s exactly what Jesus Himself willingly did for us—He sacrificed His life so that we might have access to eternity with God. To me, that’s concrete confirmation of His genuine love for us.

What’s more, we can count on Him for direction. The moment we receive Christ’s forgiveness and leadership in our life, the Holy Spirit takes up residence and offers us an internal compass for our spiritual safari. With a regular compass, all you have to do is find true north and then all the other directions fall naturally into place. And once we get calibrated with the Holy Spirit, then every other facet of our life begins to fall into place.

Even beyond that, our commander offers us strength and peace—but those sound like platitudes, don’t they? Don’t you wish we had a laboratory where we could put those promises to the test?

A few years ago, two of my colleagues did have their faith tested. I had sent Rob Wilkins and Larry Kayser to Haiti to research a story for our church magazine about a hospital we were helping on the northern part of the island. While down in that politically volatile country, they got caught in the middle of one of Haiti’s periodic revolutions.

As they hurriedly boarded a seven-seat, twin-engine airplane in a dash for safety, two rebels jumped a fence and stormed the plane. They fired a machine gun into the air to show they meant business, and they threatened to kill everyone on the plane unless they were flown away from Haiti—fast.

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