Here am I! Send Me!

I don't believe every path leads to God. I do believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him. So why is it so hard to approach everyone I see, grab them and say, "The best we could ever hope for is being offered to all of us!!!" ?  I don't know about you, but I don't always have the sense of urgency that my faith requires of me. If they were heading for a cliff they didn't see, wouldn't I try to stop them? So why do I shrink back from being too pushy, too aggressive, too eager to tell them about a spiritual cliff? You might feel the same. We don't wish to offend. But God is clear. We are to tell others about Him. When Isaiah heard the call of God, who will tell the world, Isaiah cried, "Here am I! Send me!" What courage! What inspiration!

I had the (nerve-wracking) privilege of telling a Buddhist about Jesus yesterday. She was here briefly from China, speaks no English, and her sister (my friend) was concerned that no one else in her family knows Jesus. She looked at me hopefully. I can't do it, I thought. I know nothing about Buddhism! Still, if I believe what I claim to believe, Jesus is the most precious gift on earth, and we are commanded to share Him.

Here am I. Send me!

Surely God meant some other Christian who knows how to do this, right???

There they are...send them!

Nope. That's not what God intended. The need presented itself to me. He sent me.

"I'll talk with her," I offered, with trepidation, "You can translate. Warn her that that is what I will be doing though." My friend told me her sister is very shy, but really wanted to see how Americans lived. Perhaps if she could be promised she would get to see my house, she could be talked into meeting me and hearing what I had to say. So I spent the day beforehand cleaning my American house and reading about Buddhism.

I learned many interesting things.  Most Buddhists have no longing or really even a concept of God, so telling them that Jesus is the path that leads us to Him will have little meaning or attraction. They see desire as the root of all suffering, and thus desiring God is not a good tactic either. And because they see life as inevitably filled with suffering, the idea of eternal life is not particularly appealing either.

So what is one to do? The most important thing to do, according to my sources, is to love the person you are sharing with. I can certainly do that, but I only had one hour to love her before never seeing her again. I read several articles on Buddhism and prayed. If God wanted this particular Buddhist to follow Him, and He was going to use such a broken vessel as myself to carry the living water of faith, then He was going to have to provide miraculous words for my mouth to utter. I printed my article of "How to Witness to a Buddhist" and stuffed it in my purse. My friend was meeting us at church with her sister, after which we would go to my house, and I would tell her about Jesus. Gulp.

God must have read the info on "How to Witness to a Buddhist" because the sermon was all about "love one another." In fact, the pastor read all 51 New Testament verses where we are admonished to love one another. Now the Chinese sister who speaks no English did not understand a single word, but it gave me an opening.

As we drove to my clean American house after the service, I told my friend to please translate while I explained what the sermon had been about to her sister. I told her love is an essential character of God as the Bible says God is Love. I told her most of the sermon had been about how we who love God demonstrate that most fully by loving one another. 

After showing her my house, I told her that her sister had wanted me to share what we believed and why we believed it. So I asked what her thoughts were about God. She said she had never thought about it. I started simply...with the origin of the universe and how since most scientists believe it had a beginning, and all things in nature have a cause, the beginning of the universe must have had a cause. And the "causer" had to be something outside of the universe and had to be eternal...or He would have had to have a cause! I told her we call Him "God". Surprisingly, she spoke then and told me (through my translator) that this was very logical and she agreed.

Since we now had a mutual understanding that there was a God, the rest was simple. I mean, once you accept the concept of God, really anything is possible from that point on. I tried to use complementary concepts from Buddhism to explain Christian tenets, but she didn't really know much about Buddhism. She claimed to be a Buddhist, but I seemed to know more about her religion than she did.  I won't go into the details since it would be well over the 500 word attention span of most non-Gods like us. She told me she had never heard the story of Jesus, why He came to earth, why He died, and why she should accept His free gift of eternal life. She found it very compelling. I was floored. Never heard the gospel??? And to think, I had shrunk from the thought of telling her.

She told me it made sense, and she wanted to think about it and talk about it more with her sister. I gave my friend a guide pamphlet in what it means to repent, believe, and accept Jesus' free gift of His atoning sacrifice on the cross. Her sister hugged me, and I felt very hopeful. Going from atheist to theist in an afternoon was a big step. It amazed me (again) how God opens doors and hearts.

I am praying for the heart of the young Buddhist to be softened and eager to hear more of this Jesus she had never known of. I am praying for my friend to have the courage, and the words to speak to her sister. I know she has the love, and since I also know God IS love, I am hopeful that the kingdom of God is about to get a little bigger. God is calling you. Take it from a chicken-heart...it is worth listening to Him.
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Mark 16:15 

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.

Matthew 28:19-20 

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Romans 10:10-17

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

Matthew 9:37-38 

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

1 Corinthians 9:22 

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

Isaiah 6:8 

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”