For a Christian, honest, deep, heartfelt praise of God and Jesus is the most fulfilling act we can experience.  A close second to that is leading someone to Christ.  Wednesday December 19th I was blessed beyond measure to be able to do just that.

I work in downtown Denver Colorado and because of parking limitations I park about 3 blocks from the building I work in.  I was walking to my car around 3:30pm (I work the early shift) and out for no where a man on a bicycle road up next to me and started talking.

“I think I’m getting a divorce today.”

Those were the first words out of his mouth.  Taken off guard by such a random comment and still unsure of this man’s intentions, I was guarded and responded,

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

He responded, ” Eh, its probably the best thing, she’s all f*cked up on meth and is a hooker n’ sh*t.”

(I apologize for the language but reality is tough.)

“Sounds like you are making the right choice then.”  I replied, still keeping my emotional distance.

My parking lot is at the corner of a busy intersection and not being sure what this man wanted, I decided to stop at that corner and not lead him directly to my car, just in case.

The man said, “Hey, thanks for listening to me, I just need someone to talk to so bad, my heart just hurts so bad and I’ve got to get this stuff out of me.”

At that point I could tell this wasn’t a street person who was just going to beg for money, but truly just a man who was terribly hurting and so alone in his life that he had to pick a random person on the street to discuss his problems with because there was no one else in his life who cared enough to listen.

So we talked.  His name is Jason and he’s had a rough go if it.  Stuck in a violent relationship with a drug addict/prostitute wife, no job, no money, and no ID (was left in a different state).  He told me how his wife mentally and physically abused him, hitting him and calling him such horrible things as a “fleshy bag of sh*t”.  My wife is not perfect but I can’t in my wildest dreams imagine her calling me something so cruel.  I tried to keep bringing the conversation back to him though, focusing on how he can take his life where he wants it and that he has no control over his wife.  I wanted him to focus on the fact that God has given his life intrinsic value, GREAT intrinsic value and that he should ignore the lack of value imparted on his life by his wife.  Additionally I impressed upon him that God loved his wife enough to send his only son to die on the cross for her.  Given the kind of person she is, doesn’t it then stand to reason that he loves him (Jason) just as much?  That message really resonated with him.  It was definitely God speaking through me, I would never have known what to say on my own.   

After an hour God gave me the opening that He needed.  Jason said to me, “I’m just so lonely.  I just want someone to unconditionally love me, someone to be proud of me.” 

I don’t think that I’ve ever heard a heart call out to Jesus so clearly.  I had already explained the Four Laws to him (I will post these in the forums shortly) and how exactly a person can find peace from God and experience the love and salvation of Jesus so I asked him,

“Do you want the free gift of salvation that Jesus has offered you?” 

Quietly he replied, “yes.”

Together, at the corner of a busy intersection at 4:45 at night Jason prayed with me that he acknowledged that he was a sinner that needed saving and that accepted the free gift of salvation offered by God through the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.  Here we are a couple of 27 year old men, locked in a hug, crying, praying together at a busy intersection during rush hour; what a spectacle we must’ve been! lol

I didn’t have an extra Bible with me in my car, but God provides in amazing ways.  The opposite corner of that intersection is one of the best known bookstores in Denver, The Tattered Cover.  I told him I’d be right back and zipped inside to buy him a Bible  and was able to get a great smaller one that should hold up well to any level of use.  I marked a couple things for him and then we talked some more.

“I feel like I can have hope for the first time in forever,” Jason told me.

I promised him that though God tells us we will have trials and tribulations that we can rejoice in them because they make us stronger in faith and that no matter what happened in life from that point forward that He would be in heaven with Jesus, and that I would see him there.  He was smiling and seemed to have less weight on his heart, I think that while he’ll have hards days ahead, God will lead him and make him into a great man.  I’ve been praying contunally for his new faith and that God blesses and brings him peace each day. 

I am deeply humbled that God chose to speak through me to Jason so that he could share in the love of Jesus.  I am no model Christian belive me, there are far better people to wistness than I.  Just the other day my wife and I were talking about missionaries and I remarked that I doubted I could ever be one because I’m not that great at sharing my faith.  Funny how God hears that kind of remark and IMMEADIATELY puts you in a situtaion showing you that if you rely upon him, your personal “skills” don’t matter, but only your faith in God you use you in the best way possible.

In closing, God also has amzing timing and planning. 

I normally don’t leave work at 3:30pm.  That was the first day I’d left at that time in weeks.  Typically I leave at 4:30pm and had that been any other day AND had I not specifically made plans to leave early that day, I would’ve never met Jason.

Looking at the plans God lays out is humbling and awe inspiring.  He is truly worthy of praise. 

Please pray for Jason.

Recently I had a really neat experience.  I was in the drive-through at Starbucks and when I got to the window I was told that my drink was free because the person in front of me had paid for it!  I didn’t know the person in front of me, they just decided to give me a little blessing for no other reason than that they had a giving heart.  I then purchased the person’s drink behind me and hopefully that chain continued on for a while.

The blessing was not the free coffee though (however free Starbucks is always nice!).  The real blessing was that it calmed my heart.  I don’t have a particularly rough commute, but I tend to be  a more aggressive driver than I should be and I get easily agitated while behind the wheel.  Believe me, God and I have had more than one discussion on this point.  But that person’s act of kindness took me out of my morning commute mindset and I found that I drove more slowly, didn’t follow as closely and let more people in front of me that normal.

Who knows what the real consequences of that person’s kindness was today.  Maybe if I was in my normal mindset I would’ve made a poor driving decision that caused an accident, worse that accident might’ve taken a life. 

Large terrible events take huge amounts of kindness and goodwill and hard work to overcome, and some may never be overcome.  Yet a surprisingly easy, cheap, and painless act of kindness might stop such an event before it ever begins.

If you have the opportunity to be kind, seize it with every last ounce of enthusiasm you can, you never know who’s day you might be changing, or what life you might be saving.

We’ll start with Romans. 

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,”  Romans 5:1 NASB  

 That is easily my favorite verse in the Word of God.  Peace.   How many people in this world will never know peace aside from that which they receive from God?  World leaders work (sometimes) for peace.  Parents and spouses try to create a peaceful household for their families.  Even some television shows are dedicated to bringing some small bit of peace to someone’s life (though sadly just as many are dedicated to the opposite).  Clearly peace is something we desperately need though are often unable to attain.  I believe that is why it is one of the basic promises of the Bible, because it is a basic need of the human species.

This verse has three distinct and important parts. 

First: “Therefore, having been justified by faith,” 

God is about faith not works.  That is established a number of places throughout the new testament, but perhaps best here:

As a kind of precursor to my posts of study of the Word, I thought it would be best to explain where I’m coming from and why I think this kind of language study of the Bible is so important.  Many of you who read the words of the Bible are depending on them to be correct for your very salvation.  Your hope of the eternity you desire rests on an accurate understanding and translation of the Bible.  Almost everyone who reads my words speaks English as their primary language.  As such they read the Bible in English as well.  Obviously though it was not written in English and that raises a great many questions and uncovers some wonderful truths.  The questions will be addressed in the Forums, the wonderful truths I want to share with you here. 

Here’s a great example of what kind of confusion can come up with English word usage.  The classic example of the word “love”.

I love my wife.

I love my cats.

I love fast cars.

I love computers and computer games.

In all of those statements the word love is really just a place-holder for another more specific word that would better describe the actual feeling or feelings.  Certainly the “love” I have for my cats, while sincere and significant, pales by comparison to that of the love I have for my wife.  It is of a different nature as well.  My love for my cats is an affection and parental love while the love for my wife is an unconditional and erotic love.  Clearly the single word ”love” is far too narrow to describe all these things accurately.

That type of problem is greatly amplified when you are dealing with a translated text where you are forced to select the closest word to the original meaning, yet still not an exact duplicate.  Add to that the problem that you cannot simply email the original author and ask their opinion of the best word to use for what they’d intended.  As time goes on many of my posts will center around this idea of discovering the words behind the words.

If you ever believe I am mistaken, by all means lets discuss it!  I thrive on intelligent discussion and debate and perhaps we can both learn something new that will deepen our appreciation of the Word of God. 

ok ok, I realize that’s a cheesy way to start a blog, but you’ll come to find I’m a cheesy kind of guy. ;)  All kidding aside I sincerely hope to bring something fresh, useful and intelligent to your day.  My intention is to blog every other day or so, that begin said, I could miss a day here and there, DON’T PANIC.  Later today I’ll delve into my goals here a bit more, but in short, each day I want to look at some aspect or event in our daily lives and see what he Bible has to say about it.  I believe that guidance to nearly all life’s tough questions can be found in its pages and I look forward to some great blogs and some great forum discussions as well.  Check back later. 

Jesse