I had a friend of mine whom I have the desire to reach out to him. He was an unbeliever and he was a good man. I will call him Tom in here. Every now and then I would have this nagging feeling in me to share the gospel with him. This lasted for months and I knew I need to obey God at a point in time.
The challenge is Tom is smart, sociable and had a strong character. In a social setting he leads conversations and provide logical advices most of the time. I knew it will not be easy to bring up the subject of God and share my testimonies with him. God would need to open up doors of opportunities for me to do so and I knew He would.
In the beginning of our friendship, I was already seeking ways and opportunities to reach out to him. However the level of passion wanes as time passes when I repeatedly could not find the right time to do so. Nevertheless, our friendship deepens as we get to know each other better over the months. Trust was established. Close to a year later, Tom would be pursuing his own agenda which means that we would not get to see each other as often in the future. It was then when the sense of urgency came back to me and I begin to seriously ask God for opportunities again. I knew that it would be now or never.
I must say supernaturally, God orchestrated a chain of events that eventually gave me the chance to bring up the topic to Tom. I looked back and realized it was God’s hand moving behind the scene as various situations build upon each other over time to give me this final opportunity. God leads but my obedience was equally important to bring the events to pass. Most importantly, my heart was seeking and hence God can use me and work through various situations.
There was an occasion when 2 of my Christian friends mentioned that there was a Christian book store sale going on around the corner. Tom happened to be lunching with us at that time and he thought it was ok to accompany us to the store. I was quite surprised though. Anyway when we were in the store, we were searching for what we wanted while Tom was walking around the store. After I paid for what I wanted, I went to search for Tom. At the corner of my eye, I noticed him browsing through a book at one corner. A part of me wanted to go up to him to check out what he was reading due to my curiosity. The other part of me thought that God could be speaking to him through the book and I should not interrupt him at this moment. After all we are in a Christian book store. Hence I continued my browsing before joining him later.
When we convened, I suggested we check out the café around the corner as the other 2 friends were still browsing. I thought this was a good opportunity for me to bring up the subject of God to him. So I asked him, “Tom, you believe in God?” Tom replied, “I do not feel it is relevant to me. I cannot relate to it.” He paused before saying again, “Anyway, I was reading a book on something relevant to my life and I agree with some of the things the book mentioned. It is more like some motivational book to me.” At this point in time, I still could not feel the flow to share my testimony on how relevant Jesus can actually be in our lives using me as an example. The conversation took a change in topic and I could not find ways to bring back the topic on Jesus. In my heart, I was thinking if I could have just force my testimony into our conversation even though it did not flow. Such thoughts have went through my mind on several occasions when Tom and I were alone and I thought it was a good time to share the gospel.
Nevertheless the next day when I woke up, I was still thinking about the short conversation I had with Tom at the Christian book store. “How can I create a situation that allows the topic of God to me share in a non intimidating manner?” Then, I recalled about the book he mentioned and I felt impressed in my heart to buy the book for him and use it as the conversation starter! Praise God! And I did just that. It was out of the way for me but I drove to the Christian bookstore, check out the area where he was browsing the book earlier and managed to find the book which he was reading. I knew it must be the one because that was the only book on the subject he told me he was reading. I was joyous! Not only that I picked up another Christian children book which I thought since this was a rare opportunity so why not bless his child too! Now I told myself that I must make the opportunity right and ask God to help me.
A few days later, we had the chance to have lunch alone again. One of our friends wanted to join us but he could not due to some reasons. I brought along the books and was glad he could not so I could have some alone time with Tom. I believe it was God’s plan. I had a very specific agenda for this lunch.
I put out the books and passed it to him, “Tom, for you and your child. This is the book that you were reading that day right?” He was shocked. I then said, “This is a Christian book and hence as a Christian, I want to bless you with you. In addition, the other book is for your kid. I hope your child will like it too.” I paused. “Anyway have I shared with you how I became a Christian and how God transformed me to who I am today?” God opened the door of opportunity and the divine seed in Tom was watered. It was watered because Tom later shared with me that he had encountered some friends who had similar testimonies with God. I told him, “See, I am not the only one, hope that someday before you pass away, you must remember to asked Jesus to be your God. This is one thing which I sincerely want you to do and you know I have your interest at heart.”
Hallelujah! Praise God! This evangelizing encounter with Tom is certainly one of the highlights of my life. I am very grateful to God to lead me in this manner to reach out to Tom. God was helping me to see the “cracks” that I could use to reach out to Tom and how things unfold over time still amazes me today.
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