Yesterday, in worship, Mark Bell shared his story of coming to faith. THis talk was appropriately titled "Who Needs God?" I think that Mark's story is similar to that of a lot of people. We go through life with all of our physical needs satisfied. We have money for recreation. We are comfortable. Mark said it several times in his talk. He felt like he "didn't have any problems." And yet, beneath the satisfied, comfortable exterior was an inner searching that was going unsatisfied. In the Methodist tradition, we call this sense "prevenient grace." This is the grace of God that calls us to itself, sometimes by making us uncomfortable in our comfortable lives. Every time that Mark described, rather humorously I might add, seeing a Harvest Crusade sign and then dealing with the inner turmoil that resulted, that was God's prevenient grace working in his life. Said another way, Jesus did not die on the cross and raise from the dead so that God would simply sit back, have a glass of lemonade and wait for people to respond. God, through the Holy Spirit, is constantly working in our lives, whether we actually believe in him, or not. When Mark finally went to the Harvest Crusade, he had all kings of preconceived ideas about Christians. "This is just a scam," was one of his ideas. "These people are fanatics" was another. His experience is actually rather typical. Many people outside of the church have a lot of preconceived ideas about Christianity. Unfortunately, all too often, the church has brought these ideas on ourselves by the way that we have behaved. It is important to think about how our behavior, and often times our words, impact other people. Mark's story is an important reminder that how we behave really makes a difference to how effectively we bear witness to the love and grace of God.
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