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In this issue...
Front and Center
Determining
Whether to "Go
Medical": A Board
Assessment Survey
By Thomas A. Glessner
Fishers of Men
By Jim Pye
Remaining
Relevant in an Age
of Abortion-by-Pill
By Aimee Pendell
"Nevertheless,
Let Us Go"
By Patricia L. Miller
For Ten Thousand
Tomorrows
By Stephanie Rogers
For Such a Time
as This
By Lynne M. Thompson
Printing Made
Simple
Marketing 101
By Jerry Thacker
Good News,
Bad News—
Spiritual Warfare
By Mark Hiehle
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Her clothes were skin tight and splattered with crusted droppings from whenever she had eaten her last meal. She was big in stature and big in belly. Six months pregnant—and homeless. The defiant woman who stood before me reeked of the hard city streets from which she came. She had an attitude about her. |
By Patricia Miller
"Don't try to come close to me, white woman! What do you know about my life?" Hostility glared from eyes deeply imbedded in her glistening ebony face. Beyond the anger, I saw death in her eyes—physical death if she stayed as she was and spiritual death buried in the caverns of that hardened heart.
As I pondered the situation, I thought of Jesus. Jesus went to the dead. He raised Lazarus from physical death. He was with me now to offer this tormented soul a new life in Him. But she was challenging me with every look—with every word from her mouth. She was right. What did a blue-eyed, blonde woman raised on a country farm know about life in the dark hallways and stench-filled alleys of the city?
I silently prayed for strength from the Lord and for His mighty power to flow through me. I wanted her eyes to meet Jesus in my eyes and not only to find refuge and shelter, but also to know His love for her.
Did Jesus know what challenges we would face when He asked us to reach out to the living dead? Yes, He did. He is our example. God has given us His living Word to help us speak boldly for His glory to be revealed. In His Word we are reassured. Genesis 18:14 says: "Is there anything too hard for the Lord?"
So many times we struggle within ourselves before reaching out to someone. How many times have we been silent and missed an opportunity to say or do something to point the way to Jesus? The regrets come later. The guilt and shame of giving in to our fears and doubts return to haunt us. We ask ourselves, "Why didn't I say something?" We wonder if it was really the Lord prompting us to speak. Fears of rejection or of being misunderstood have overcome us, and we have remained regrettably silent.
On that day it wasn't so. My fears of her hostility were calmed as I thought of the lyrics: "Trust and obey, for there's no other way..." Oh, the mercy of God. How it brings deliverance to our frightful, doubting hearts. God's mercy and grace extended to me that day and to this lost soul now slouched down in the seat across from me.
I looked again at the woman, and God's love saturated her as I offered her a place to stay in our maternity home, a refuge from the city shelters where she had gone to escape the abuse in her fragile life, for she was fragile—inside. We could offer her hope for a different future for herself and her baby.
"Society" would say she was hopeless, but then, what does "society" know when there is a God who says nothing is too hard for Him? After all, Lazarus was raised from physical death, so why not this hurting woman from the death traps tormenting her life and soul? Doubt flickered for a brief moment through her eyes. But somewhere deep inside of her was a longing to come with me, a longing to believe in the impossible. God's Holy Spirit flowed down, down, down into the deepest cavern of her heart. It was scarcely a brief nod of her head, but it meant: "Yes, I'll come." God is faithful.
At the maternity home, we provided for her immediate physical needs, but God brought new life to her the following week. During our church service, she raised her hand and took one giant step to His altar and received Him into her heart. Raised from the living dead! Two lives were changed for eternity. What a God we serve!
"Nevertheless, let us go" (John 11:15).
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Pat Miller is the Director of Public Relations for the Fountain of Life Center and the director of Jubilee House in Burlington, New Jersey. For more information, call (609) 499-2131 or visit their web site at www.flcnj.org. |
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