Just before Jesus ascended back into the heavens, forty days after His resurrection from the tomb, He instructed a handful of His disciples: “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the world.” (Acts 1:8) We have not reached the uttermost part of the world yet; His commission is still in effect for all of His followers.
As a youngster, Robert Louis Stevenson, looked upon a dark street in Edinburgh and suddenly cried out, “I see something wonderful; I see a man coming up the street, and he is poking holes in the darkness!” It was, of course, the lamplighter who was lighting the gas lamps on the dark streets. What that lamplighter was doing with a lamp lighter, each believer ought to be doing with the gospel of Jesus Christ: poking holes in the darkness with the message of the Light of the world.
We are, Paul says, “ambassadors” for our Lord and Savior.” (II Cor. 5:20) There is a story told of an old preacher who walked up to a lady on the mezzanine floor of a hotel and said, “Lady, Lady! Are you saved?” The startled lady began to cry as he quoted a scripture verse and walked away. When her husband came and found her crying, he asked, “Dear, what is the matter with you?” “Oh,” she said, “a man walked up to me a few minutes ago and asked me if I were saved.” Her husband then said, “Why didn’t you tell him to mind his own business?” To which the shaken wife said, “Oh, but dear, if you had seen him, you would have thought he was minding his own business.”
“A college professor who was noted among his fellow-teachers for his habit of addressing young men upon their personal relations to Christ, was asked by one of his fellow professors, ‘Do they not resent your appeals as an impertinence?’ He replied, ‘No! Nothing is of such interest to any man as his own soul and its condition. He will never resent words of warning or comfort if they are prompted by genuine feeling. When I was a young man, I felt as you do. My wife’s cousin, a young fellow not yet of age, lived in our house for six months. My dread of meddling was such that I never asked him to be present at family worship, or spoke to him on the subject of religion. He fell into the company of a wild set, and was rapidly going to the bad. When I reasoned with him of Christ, he said, ‘Do you call yourself a Christian,’ assuming an astonishing look. ‘I hope so,’ I replied. ‘But you are not. If you were, He must be your best Friend. Yet I have lived in your home for six months, and you have never once named His name to me; no, He is nothing to you!’ I have never forgotten that rebuke.” (copied, Epworth Era)
I have a cousin who was reared in a home where the father was an alcoholic. Jimmy, as I called him when we were children, sadly, grew up to follow in the steps of his father. Jim had a bright mind but largely wasted it; and, due to his addiction, he lost at least one wife, as well as many good jobs in the publishing business. He finally did come to know Christ as his Lord and Savior, and his story has been broadcast on the Moody network in their series of programs called “Unshackled.”
“Before Jim’s conversion, and even some times after—as Jim was still struggling—my oldest sister often kept Jim in her home. Mary Ann and her husband, Tom, as they did for so many, even to some strangers, offered Jim kindness, hospitality, grace, and, of course, the gospel. When Jim, later in life, heard of the passing of my father, Jim’s uncle, he wrote the following (unedited):
“Thank you for letting me know about your Dad. I understand your supernatural sorrow, but thankfully I also understand the supernatural comfort that can only come from the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And while I know it cannot replace the sense of loss, his earthly legacy will not be forgotten soon. Your Dad is one of a very few people in this world that I don’t believe I have ever heard anyone speak unkindly about. His love of the Lord and his outlook on life made him a joy to be around. I tell the story often that while I was staying in your home 15 years ago, when he and your mother would come to visit, I would say, ‘How are you doing this morning, Uncle Ted?’ He would smile and reply, ‘Well, Jim, I woke up this morning, and I knew I was off to a good start.’ [Dad lived to be 94 years old.]
He was the first person to share the gospel with me, and while I was stiff-necked and impenitent for so many years, it was those seeds that eventually took root and produced fruit for the Lord. And I feel certain that if it were possible to compile a list of all the people who had been so influenced by your father in his lifetime, the Lord would have to tarry long before we would have time to finish reading it.”
Dad never taught a Sunday School class. Never sang in a choir. Never attended Bible college or a seminar on how to witness for Christ. A factory worker most of his life, he spoke few words. But he did let his light so shine before men, as Jesus encouraged all of us to do, that men glorified God because of his witness.
How are you doing, Mr. or Ms. Ambassador?
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” (2 Cor.5:20)
YOU and GOD 