Our church in Portland was involved in an evangelism campaign in Portland to reach the lost. Over the phone, I contacted a man who was interested, a black Muslim. To follow up, I prearranged a visit to his house. Wow, a black Muslim! How do I prepare for what to say to him when I meet him? I studied the basic theology, about Isaac and Ishmael, and I had some previous knowledge I learned in school about the Nation of Islam.
At the time I was to meet him, one evening, I parked my car across the street from his house. In the car, I prayed for our encounter. Then, I left the car to go up to his house. We greeted each other on his porch. I started to talk about Theology but he was not interested in that. He already knew the Bible. What he was interested in was how God works miracles. I felt sort of sorry that I could not point to a lot of miracles, but I told him about how God changed my life. I had been in trouble when I was younger but since I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior, I didn’t do that anymore. He was impressed by that, but that was all I had.
I went back to my car, but realized I could not get in. I had locked my keys in the car. I asked someone and they said I needed a wire hanger to get into the wing window of my 1968 Falcon. I prayed for a solution to my predicament. After looking on the ground for some sort of wire around the neighborhood, and in the Fred Meyer store [“Did you find what you need?”, No.] I went back to my car. What else could I do? Who else could I ask for a hanger but the one person I knew in this neighborhood.
While I did not want him to see me as representative of a stupid Christian who does dumb things like lock themselves out of their car, I had a need to get home. I went back up to his porch, knocked, and told him about my problem. He said he could help me, his room mate had done some time in jail, and could do it. With skill, the job was done and we were happy. Then, he quoted that “verse”, “God works in mysterious ways”. Yes, he realized he witnessed the miracle he wanted to see.
Isn’t it odd that Christians, who are suppose to be serving others, actually connect more easily with nonbelievers when they ask them for help? Conventional thinking is that Christians have all the answers that the world needs. God is great, and Christians would appear weak to ask help from nonbelievers. However, Jesus showed in John 4 that asking for water from a half pagan (?) woman was OK. Jesus had the living water, but he still asked her for a drink.
Would Jesus agree with the statement, “Jesus is all you need”? Or is there a purpose for needs we have in this world? While our ultimate need is the Living Water (or Jesus), we are still in the world, and interact with the world. God, in His sovereignty, allows us to need specific things from others. Such humility aids us in connecting to the lost. Both believers and nonbelievers have needs - like water, and those needs open the door to meeting the inner needs.
