Weird but True: Unconventional Salvation
Back when I was a youth pastor, this young college student showed up to GC (Generation Church) with a Bible in hand sitting in the second row. I had never seen him before so I went up an introduced myself and asked where he was from. He told me was from the capital region but had been at SUNY IT for the last couple of years. I then asked what church he attended in Albany. He said none. I was a bit puzzled, so I asked again if there was any affiliation with any church. Again, he said none. He then told me he had gotten saved through the internet from some website from Australia! He then did a search for churches in Utica and ours was the first to come up and so he came. Okay, I thought that’s cool…God’s using the internet, but thats not my weird but true story. IT wasn’t until a year and a half later when this young guy asked me to be part of his marriage ceremony that I found out the real story. During on of our get togethers with him and his fiance I asked him to tell me how he got saved through the internet. The story went something like this. He was really into karate, a black belt as a matter of fact. Along with karate he also adopted some form of Buddhism. One weekend his teacher was going to some monastery in the catskill mountains to meditate for the weekend and invited this guy to go along. Part of the weekend was each person got to meet with a high level priest and ask any question they wanted. When it came time for his turn he asked the question he was waiting to ask. What it was I can’t remember, but the priest didn’t answer his question at all, instead asked him a question in return. The priest said, “What would Jesus think about you being here.” A Buddhist priest! In his brain he thought, “Huh? If this high level priest cares enough to ask me what Jesus would think I should look into Jesus a little more- He must be important.” He went home from the weekend did a yahoo search for Jesus and came across an Australian evangelists website that clearly described the gospel message and he gave his life to JESUS! Without even stepping into church he started to make changes in his life, praying, and reading his Bible. He was even leading other people to Christ! After college he moved back to the capital region, and last I heard from him he was on staff at a church in Saratoga. Talk about out of the box. I guess not everybody has to close their eyes and bow their head and say a prayer with soft music playing to have a genuine salvation experience. Sometimes God goes out of the box and can even show up in Buddhist monastery to somebody.
Weird But True: Does God Ever Speak to you though Non-Traditional Means?
I was thinking about this today. Weird but true. During a time in my life when I was far from God I felt the Holy Spirit’s conviction to the point of tears from an Elton John song playing over a speaker system in a department store. I still keep it on my itunes as a reminder to me of God’s faithfulness during that difficult time in my life and that he cared about me so much that he used a song in a department store to speak to me. Crazy, but true. I have a friend who is not only a Christian but is in ministry today who gave his life to Jesus during the movie Scarface with Al Pacino. Weird but True. The reason why I bring this up is tonight my wife and I went out on a date and we went to go see Slumdog Millionaire. I was moved by the scenes of injustice in the film that are unfortunately very common in our world today. I walked away from the film as if I just walked out of church, determined to do something that will make a small difference for people whose lives are the reality of the fictional characters I saw on the movie screen. God help me! Gran Torino was similar for me. God had already been speaking to me about doing more for the refugee community moving into Utica. Gran Torino drove the point home to me. So, there you have it. Am I the only one that this happens to or does God seem to speak to your through non-traditional methods as well….
Just back from Rochester, NY….
Sam (our children’s pastor) and I went to Rochester today to visit/see a church we have been hearing a lot of great things about. It’s called The Father’s House and Its in Rochester. We had a great time seeing their new building with all the goodies, but I have to say I really had a great time talking with the pastor. Pastor Pierre Duplessis has been there just ten years and he has built on incredible church. He’s agreat leader who is very personable, humble and down to earth. During our conversation today it wasn’t hard to figure out of what this guy is all about…He wants to reach people for Christ, and he’s doing it! The church is seeing incredible growth and should be an inspiration to all churches in the northeast.
Advent Conspiracy pt 3. WOW!
I actually am fasting blogging at the moment, but I thought I would make an exception for this one post. I just talked with our administrator and we went over all the final numbers from the Advent Conspiracy. Can you believe after it is all said and done we gave over $82,000 to the different organizations we featured? That is simply amazing. I cant even tell you how proud I am of our church. In this time of economic uncertainty, the church has really stepped out in faith! Just wanted to tell you all about that. Again, GREAT JOB!!!
