(Child of God) Be an Ambassador for Christ
“So when it was evening on that day,
(The Gospel According to John 20: 19-22 NASB)
[on the day Jesus Christ was resurrected from death to new life]
the first day of the week,
[it was later on that same Sunday]
and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews,
[The disciples had returned to the upper room where they shared the Last Supper with Jesus.
After experiencing the cross of Calvary and seeing Jesus buried in the tomb, they were locked in tightly, fearful they would be next on the Jews’ list of who needed to die for the cause of Christ.]
Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
When I was a child of fifteen, we attended a fall revival at the country church where we regularly attended. Our pastor, Bro. Jim, was a man who believed hearts would turn toward God every time the Gospel was presented. Truthfully, I do not remember the name of the evangelist, and I cannot recall his message or the Bible passage he preached that particular evening. This night of revival occurred in 1981, and today, the spring of 2024, I could walk you into that church building and take you to the exact place I was standing where Jesus Christ became my Savior. Never will I forget that place, that night, or that life-altering change.
A few years ago, I stood in the same sanctuary, attending the funeral of a dear man of God, my husband’s cousin. As I stood there, singing hymns of praise, I found my eyes looking toward the right, seeing the place I once stood, sensing the amazing, beautiful grace of God all over again, even though I stood there for a man’s funeral.
After the funeral, we stepped out to the church cemetery for this man’s burial, as his body was laid to rest beside his wife and two daughters who died in a car crash years earlier. As I stood near the funeral tent, near his headstone, my eyes traveled across the cemetery to my dad’s headstone and to the grassy place to the right of where my dad’s body was laid to rest after the horrific tractor accident took his earthly life in 1999.
In those moments:
- The fall revival of 1981
- The vehicle tragedy of 1991
- The farming tragedy of 1999
- The burial of this godly man just a few years ago
I was reminded why God leaves us here (on earth) once Jesus Christ becomes our Savior and Lord.
In that fall revival at Pulaski Baptist Church, I stood with the congregation to sing the invitational song, and the Lord began to speak to me. He had spoken before, and had, in fact, been in conversation with me for a few years. However, in the times before, I had turned my attention away from His voice, listened to the lies of Satan, telling me that I was young and had plenty of time. On that October night of that fall revival, the voice of the Lord Jesus was faithfully there urging me, speaking to my soul, to accept Him as my Savior, to receive His free gift of salvation, & to confess I was a sinner in need of God’s Amazing Grace.
- I remember my hands on the back of the pew in front of me.
- I remember feeling my sweaty palms as I slightly applied pressure to my grip.
- I also remember the letting go, not of my grip but of my REFUSAL to receive Jesus.
Right there, while standing in that seventh row back of the right side of the building, as I stood near the right aisle by the church windows—the Lord Jesus spoke to me, just as He had spoken to His disciples on that Resurrection Sunday—“Receive the Holy Spirit.”
- My fears of disrupting those standing near me—disappeared.
- My fears of walking forward to embrace Bro. Jim—disappeared.
- My fears of not knowing what to do or what to say—disappeared.
- My fears disappeared as Jesus Christ Took Ahold of My Heart & Saved My Soul.
- My fears disappeared as Jesus Christ breathed His Holy Spirit into My Soul.
- My fears disappeared as Almighty God, the Creator of the Universe, became my heavenly Father.
Since that moment of that fall evening in 1981, my life has been changed!
Since that moment of that day Jesus Christ became my Savior, my heart has become anew!
Since that moment of that fall revival, my eternity has been made secure all because of what Jesus did upon the cross of Calvary and of how Jesus walked from the tomb, resurrected in new life!
(Child of God) Be an Ambassador for Christ
“Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
(The Gospel According to John 20: 19b-21 NASB)
And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”
(Child of God) Be an Ambassador for Christ
& as we are His Ambassadors, sharing our testimony with others who do not yet know Jesus as their Savior and Lord, they too might decide (as we did) to Accept, Believe, & Confess Jesus as their Savior.
Then, just as our Savior did that Sunday of His Resurrection from the dead, they too will be saved forevermore, when—“He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (The Gospel According to John 20: 22b NASB)