Before I got saved, I was the biggest coward ever. In fact, without even being consciously aware of it until after I became a Christian, for many years, I walked with my head down, looking at the ground, to avoid even having to make eye contact with people. If I was ever called upon in school to answer a question, or if I ever had to speak in front of people for any reason at all, then my head would literally spin, and I honestly felt as if I was going to pass out.
Well, when I became a Christian and read what Jesus said about those who are ashamed of him and his words or how Christians ought to confess him before men, I decided to do something to sort of force myself out of my shell. While I was at a Flea Market one day, there was a man there with an airbrushing booth, and I had him airbrush me a t-shirt which simply said "Jesus Saves". I still remember the first time that I wore it. At the job that I was working at back then, they had a "Dress Down Friday" every week where you could come to work in casual clothing. Well, I showed up to work wearing sneakers, and jeans, and my "Jesus Saves" t-shirt. I literally felt as if I was going to black out several times during that day, but that was my first attempt at trying to publicly witness for Christ. In fact, my first attempt to publicly confess Christ didn't go unnoticed. To my surprise, the janitor in our building commented on my t-shirt, and he and I briefly engaged in a conversation about Christ.
Now, I'm free from the fear of man that imprisoned me because God has done quite a work to liberate me internally from the same. To this day, however, I still regularly wear Christian-themed shirts, hoodies, and ballcaps, and they definitely have worked as "ice-breakers", or "door-openers", or they've definitely helped to pave the way for me to have conversations with a bunch of different people about Jesus Christ.
Some of my experiences have almost been comical, and this following one is the one of them.
I was actually having a conversation about Jesus/Christianity with my younger sister many years ago while we were driving together on the highway in her car. Well, she didn't like what I had to say, and she literally threw me out of her car on the highway. We were about an hour's drive from my home at the time, and several hours away in walking distance. Anyhow, I was wearing a t-shirt that day that depicted a man lying dead in the street with tire tracks on top of him, and the t-shirt said in bold letters above the image "DON'T BE CAUGHT DEAD WITHOUT JESUS". Below the image it read "For unless you believe that I am he, you shall die in your sins" (John 8:24).
To my surprise (I had this shirt many years ago), I just found an image of the t-shirt after Googling it:
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This incident occurred before cell phones, so I started my trek along the side of the highway towards a Mall that I knew was approximately a 30 minute walk away so I could use a payphone to call a friend to hopefully pick me up and drive me home. So, I'm walking along the side of this busy highway, and who do I see walking along this same side of the highway, but in the opposite direction, or heading right towards me?
A bunch of Hasidic Jews.
What in the world they were doing walking along the side of a highway I'll never know, but I do know this:
Eventually, we all met, face to face, and every one of them glanced at my t-shirt and read it.
They say that "A picture is worth a thousand words", and I'll never forget the looks on their faces after reading my t-shirt.
Anyhow, incidents like that make me wonder if they're not some sort of "Divine appointment" or "Divine encounter".
Jesus said to preach the gospel to every creature, and I'll use every means available to try to reach someone for Christ...even if/though most people think I'm crazy or "beside myself".
II Corinthians chapter 5
[
13] For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
[
14] For the love of Christ constrains us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
[
15] And that he died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.
Live4Him.
