So it stands to reason, that for the devil to have a chance at winning the fight against love, he must do everything he can to keep people away from a decision to accept Jesus Christ. He must keep them too busy, too skeptical, too disoriented, too distracted – anything he can use to avoid a call that might lead one lost soul to the throne of grace. Once a lost soul accepts the gift of faith granted by Christ, the devil will forevermore be fighting a losing battle. Anything that would point a lost soul to Christ, is something that is sure to meet with the intensity of hate as nothing else on planet earth can warrant. For it is nearly impossible to pluck one dear person from the protecting hand of our Father God. Our God is jealous to protect His own, and faithful to save us to the uttermost. The devil knows this, he has lost too many souls to the simple love of God. So he must spend his energy warring against the witness of a changed life.
How then does a lost soul come to find the Lord, when the devil is so determined to keep them away from the source of all salvation? Perhaps the most common method is the personal testimony of a caring friend or family member who has experienced it firsthand and can tell of the saving power of Christ to take pain away from our lives. When Andrew found Christ, He quickly went to call his brother Simon Peter to let him know the good news. Even today when Christ actually saves you from a sin which you had no power over, and brings you victory you did not deserve but were given anyway – the freedom from pain this brings is enormous and MUST be shared. So today the power of personal testimony has not lost its edge, we still desire to share the good news we have found with those we care about.
Sometimes however, a lost soul is not fortunate enough to have a close friend who has personally experienced salvation and can tell them firsthand what it means. In these situations, God must rely on other means to reach the children He so desperately wants to save. As our eyes and ears are bombarded everyday with stimuli from Internet screens to TV; from iPods and satellite radio to cell phones and twitter updates; we process information and try to make sense of it all. Satan uses this to keep us occupied, but God uses this as well to slip in references to His word, and His love. It comes as television programming dedicated to spreading the word. It comes as internet sites dedicated to ministry of Christ. It comes over the radio waves as music from every sub-genre and style popular today, but by musicians dedicated to the cause of Christ and with lyrics designed to uplift one to the throne of grace. Messages to the masses, hoping that just once, the long lost child of God will pay attention and be drawn to the source of all love.
It really does not matter so much “which” message a person hears that leads them to Christ. It is enough that they are led to Christ. All of us find God with many erroneous ideas, many mistaken assumptions, and thinking that has long been corrupted by evil. It takes time for God to undo in us what must be undone. It takes time for Him to show us how to let go of pain, and our erring ideologies, and allow Him to lead us to truth. But the journey cannot begin until we decide to begin it. That greatest day must occur before growth can occur. That greatest day must occur, before we have a chance to find deeper truth, and an even better definition of love than we thought possible. Should we as Christians really care, if a person finds God through the sermons of Billy Graham, or Oral Roberts, or the Pope, as long as they find Christ? Does it really matter “which” Christian musician inspires them to seek the Lord of Love, so long as they seek Jesus? Do we care which internet site it was that led a person to a knowledge of Christ, if that knowledge begins their journey?
Too often Christians set expectations for new converts too high. It is not enough to merely find Jesus, one must find Him in the proper way, using the proper doctrine, and be completely devoid of even the appearance of incomplete truth. Yet none of us has complete truth if we were honest. Our own limitations keep us from it. Truth, like salvation from evil, is a process. It has a beginning and a fulfillment. It is a journey. And what we can completely rest assured in, is that our God desires ONLY to save us. He will not lead us into error as we move forward with Him. He will not lead us to slaughter, but to truth. Our Shepherd does not allow His flock to go astray, He leads them beside the still waters and restores our souls. Restoration of that which is corrupted by evil to the state of perfection He intended. But He does not do this in the blink of an eye. And He does not expect us to wait to come to Him until we are sure that we know it all first. He expects us to be ignorant, mistaken, and full of woe. He knows our condition. It is not a secret from Him. But to fix us, our journey must have a beginning. It matters little if the vehicle that brings us to Christ is a perfect one, it only matters that it gets us started.
The tendency of a Christian to believe their version of truth is the best one around, or their version of worship style is the only one acceptable to God is too great in our world. Thus we fall into the trap of ridicule over ministries not of our own designs. We disparage musicians who play a style of Christian music we do not personally equate to, particularly if it is similar to music that is not designed to uplift one to God. We are not happy about the ministry of other denominations, fearing that “they” are leading people astray while only “we” have the right take on how to get to know Christ. The problem with all this thinking is that it is “me” centric instead of Christ centric. We forget that it is Christ who leads the captive soul to truth, not me. We forget it is only Christ who can remove a sin from someone, no matter what I do or say, only Christ can actually bring someone a change of mind and heart. We forget that Christ has more of an interest in saving a person than we ever will, no matter what our relationship is with that person. In short we take our eyes off of Christ, use our own judgment, and begin to condemn what should have never been condemned.
Consider the alternative; would it be better that a person never came to accept Jesus Christ, than for them to be introduced to salvation by a Christian Rock artist, or Christian Rap artist, or a Christian poet or actor, or a Christian pastor of another denomination or faith? Is it better to see a person denied the freedom and truth that Christ would lead them to, because WE do not approve of the tool used to bring them to Christ in the first place? Better for darkness to reign, than to give the light a chance to break through; surely not. I would rather walk down the streets of gold and find you there no matter how you first met Christ, than to debate with you if that method should have ever existed in the first place. The devil has ZERO interest in seeing people led to Christ. No matter what we think about the style, or completeness of truth of the vehicle that leads one to Christ – at least the person will have a chance at salvation because of it. There is only one Jesus Christ. There is only one decision that matters. And there is only one result that occurs when a person surrenders to Jesus, they are saved from evil – all evil – in every form. Truth will out. People will change. But it must all start somewhere.
The only appropriate response to a lost soul who finds redemption in Christ is one of exceedingly great joy. The angels rejoice in heaven for even one soul, think of it, just one is precious. Those heavenly beings who know how to love in perfection understand the value of even one soul who finds his/her way to Christ. It is the greatest day of that person’s life, and will be followed by greater and greater days as the grace of Lord is revealed in them. If heaven rejoices, how can we begrudge? If angels sing, how can we condemn? It is more revealing a portrait of those who can criticize a person for the method in which they found Christ, than it is the object of their criticism. Love understands that truth and change come over time. Love does not expect perfection first, but instead sees it occur over a distance. It is a metamorphosis that occurs because of the proximity to Jesus Christ. And for each of us, our story has a beginning. Let us rejoice the end of our journey is the perfection God intends, and rejoice that any method that works, helped a lost soul reach the Lord.
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