Pastor and author Greg Asimakoupoulos shared this dramatic true story truly seeing people in need.
In 1992, a Los Angeles County parking control officer came upon a brown El Dorado Cadillac illegally parked next to the curb on street-sweeping day.
The officer dutifully wrote out a ticket. Ignoring the man seated at the driver’s wheel, the officer reached inside the open car window and placed the $30 citation on the dashboard.
The driver of the car made no excuses. No argument ensued – and with good reason. The driver of the car had been shot in the head ten to twelve hours before but was sitting up, stiff as a board, slumped slightly forward, with blood on his face. He was dead.
The officer, preoccupied with ticket-writing, was unaware of anything out of the ordinary. He got back in his car and drove away.
Many people around us are what the Bible calls “dead in their trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). What should catch our attention most is their need, not their offenses. They don’t need a citation; they need a Savior.
Every day we are surrounded by people who are “dead in their trespasses and sins”. They are lost without Christ, headed for an eternity of judgment and suffering, with no hope in this life or the next. Their attitudes, values and lifestyle may be foreign, even distasteful, to us. But let us love them to Jesus.
They do not need words of condemnation. They don’t need to be rejected. They are simply living the life that we would still be living if not for the miracle change that Jesus has made, and continues to make, in our lives. Without His intervention, we would still be just as lost as them.
Instead, we have received the life-changing gifts of grace and mercy and forgiveness and cleansing, and Jesus calls us to pass them along to others. Because what God does To you, He also wants to do Through you! Have you received Salvation? Pass it along to someone else in need of salvation. Have you been set free from sin, from all that held you in bondage? Pass it along to someone else in need of freedom from sin.
Can you make a difference? Yes! That is the lesson of this modern-day parable. “An old man, walking the beach at dawn, noticed a young boy ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the youth, he asked what he was doing. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. ‘But the beach goes on for miles and miles, and there must be thousands of starfish,’ countered the man. ‘How can your effort make any difference?’
The boy looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. ‘It makes a difference to this one,’ he said.”
You may not be able to make a difference for a multitude, but can you make a difference to just one? One family member? One coworker? One neighbor? One classmate? And the Good News? It will be an Eternal difference!
This Sunday, May 22, we will continue out new teaching series that will last until Pentecost Sunday, June 5. Entitled “AND”, this week we will focus on the Holy Spirit AND Evangelism with the beautiful account of Philip and the Ethiopian official (Acts 8:26-39). Please join us at 10:35am in the building or online for the Live broad-cast on either Facebook (Honolulu AG) or our YouTube channel (Honolulu Assembly of God). We Livestream to both locations every Sunday morning.
In the Adult Bible Class that meets at 9:30am each Sunday, we will continue our new teaching series: an 8-week study on Spiritual Gifts. This week’s emphasis is on equipping the saints for ministry (Ephesians 4:1-16).
Coming Up: If you are interested in being baptized in water, please let me know. It is coming up soon.
Aloha ke Akua!