The person of PEACE…

Jesus urged his disciples to “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matt. 10:38)

Six of my roommates gathered around to pray for our Christmas break. Each girl shared a request. One of my requests was that God would open the door for me to share the Gospel with 20 people during my trip from Lynchburg, VA to Brisbane, Australia.

I believe one of the main strategies of the enemy is to proclaim Jesus everywhere so that everyone has heard about him and even believe in him, but there is no repentance, there is no turning from sin and becoming a new creation.

So on this trip I prayed that God would use me to share the Gospel, and tell everyone I met how to become a Christian. When sharing the Gospel we must earnestly ask the Lord to send us out into his harvest field. We need to go in God’s strength rather than our own confidence. We must also look for the person of peace, as Jesus said, “And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you” (Matt. 10). To be worthy indicates someone who responds in peace to the gospel message.

Over the course of my 30 hour trip the Lord of the harvest brought many people who were worthy to hear the gospel. One lady, Jill, had pink hair and tattoos all over, I asked her about her trip and she told me all about her travels around the world and how she lived in a Hindu temple in India for a year. She had grown up in an American Lutheran home, but became a Hindu in high school. At the end I asked if I could share the Gospel with her and her teenage son and they were open to hear it. When I finished I asked them if they had ever heard how to invite the Lord Jesus Christ into their life, they had never heard how to do it.

As I boarded my flight from Charlotte, North Carolina to Las Angeles, I prayed and asked God that whoever I sat next to would become a Christian. I sat next to a man from India, named Rajesh. After talking for a while I share the Gospel with him. He had heard that Jesus was part of a religion called Christianity, but he had never heard the Gospel! Over the course of the trip we talked for about 2-3 hours.

I explained the Gospel and read from the bible explaining the Scriptures to him. He said he had no peace and was ready to accept Christ Jesus as his Savior. I prayed and he repeated the prayer of salvation. I believe he sincerely prayed from his heart. Afterwards, he said he felt peace and looked at me and said he was refreshed. I truly believe he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, the ONLY way, truth and life.

“The Lord opened her (Lydia’s) heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.” I believe God opened Rajesh’s heart to pay attention and receive the Gospel message, just as Lydia did in Acts 16:14.

Please pray for Rajesh as he starts this new journey. I pray he will one day take the Gospel back to his people in India, as I believe they are an unreached people group.

I also shared the gospel with an elderly lady from Florida, a college girl, Jess, who has been involved with the church some, a Muslim man, Fazel from Afghanistan and a Catholic lady from the Philippines and her agnostic American finance. I blessed some people from Mexico. I was surprised to hear many of them knew about Jesus, but none of them had heard about repentance or inviting Jesus into their life as Lord and Savior. They all thought that being a good person or going to church and being baptized was enough for salvation.