An encouraging step

I just wanted to share something encouraging that God did around and with us last week, on the language front and otherwise....

Eric and I were at the Wednesday "soup kitchen" that our church puts on every week. I was sitting next to a friend we'll call "Jacques." Jacques is around our age, a very nice young man who we had met before, and who doesn't speak any English.

On my other side was an older woman who also only speaks French. Suddenly, she leaned across me and spoke directly to Jacques. "If you were to die tonight, do you know for certain that you would go to heaven?"

Jacques leaned back in his chair with a bemused smile, and blurted out, "What kind of question is that? How can anyone know for sure where he is going after he dies? I mean, really!"

The older lady replied, "God told me when I was a young woman that he wants me to evangelize - to share the good news of Jesus with people, and I have done that ever since."

But Jacques was persistent, and repeated his question. This time, a gentle-looking intelligent French speaker on Jacques' other side began to answer Jacques' question. He spoke too quickly and quietly for me to understand very well, honestly, but it seemed he was talking about various passages from the Bible regarding this topic. I went to get our French Bible so they could refer to it, and couldn't help pointing out what I hoped were helpful passages as they spoke. Suddenly, the man stood up and said he had to go, but that Jacques needed to write down all the passages I'd shown him, learn them by heart, and reflect on them - and he was gone.

Jacques was truly intrigued by this time. In my halting French, with many hanging phrases and incorrect prepositions, for the next hour or so we talked about this question. Jacques had been through some major life difficulties lately and at that time had confirmed with God that he wanted Jesus to be his Savior (bear the penalty for his sins and take away his burden forever), give him eternal life, and be his friend and his Lord in this life... but he didn't have assurance that he would surely be saved, because he realized he still sins every day.

Then we talked about verses from the Bible - well, actually, I mostly just pointed to the verse, said something unintelligible, and he read it and said what he thought it meant:

-John 5:24, "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life."

-Romans 10:9, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

-Galatians 3:2-3, "Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?"

-Jude 24-25, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory....forever."

-even the Apostle Paul said: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." Romans 7:18-19

-nonetheless: Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Because Jesus took care of this on our behalf! That's WHY Jesus came! So those who receive Jesus may have their sins wiped away, clean....

-Romans 8:38-39, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

-1 John 5:13, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life."

Despite the language barrier, Jacques was very encouraged - actually, he was quite excited and was in no hurry to leave even though everyone else was long gone. He had discovered the unbreakable promises of God, who is no liar. We talked about getting him into a small group so he could learn from other Christians, and just today I found out that he has signed up and is still looking forward to it just as much as last week.

To put this in perspective, today we were invited to someone's home for lunch, and their 3 year old son understands and speaks better French than us! It is truly astounding what God can do, even using our incompetence to bring about the encouragement of a new believer in Christ.

Jesus said, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 2 Corinthians 12:9.