I want to share with you a way to lead people to Christ where they won't even know when they started to believe in him. In this way Christ will come deep into the heart of people. If we start by telling people, "You need to accept Christ into your heart" and work purely on an external basis it won't work! It needs to start from the inside and work its way out. When we are sharing our faith with others we don't want to do it in a way that people don't understand or that cause people to follow in ways that are foreign to them.

Every single day I want to meet a new person and I write his name down. Today I met a new person and I wrote his name down. Each month I meet 30 new people. We need to have vision and foresight as to where we are going to share next. With all these new connections I don't have any shortage of places to go and follow up.

One time I was riding the bus to Bangkok and there was a beautiful young lady seated next to me, very pretty. She was seated next to me but was leaning in the opposite direction as much as possible as if she was afraid I was contagious. God gave me some words to share with her. I asked her, "What newspaper are you reading?" She said, "Thai Rhat²" I asked her, "Have you heard the news about the person who died and three days later came back to life?" "What? Where is that?" See? You need to build some interest in other people first. "Tell me all about it" she said. "Where can I get that paper?," She put her paper down and started to ask questions. This is the principle - get people to be interested.

Planting churches and sharing the good news is the responsibility of all of God's children. Every one of us! Just ask God for one person each month. In one year you will have twelve contacts. Your church will grow. If you do your part, God will do his.

As Christians we need to know what we believe. Some believers are asked, "What does it mean to believe in God?" They can't answer! "In that case," the inquirer thinks, "I won't believe since it must not be much." People get the wrong impression about God - that he sort of flies around but can't be described or known. Christians don't have the words because they haven't prepared themselves - they haven't studied the word.

Many Christians listen to teaching week after week every Sunday and that's it. They hear the preacher and go home. Ever notice the water buffalo? It goes out and grazes all day and then you bring it back home and there it is still chewing on the cud - all that saliva dripping down. How many people are like that? They eat and eat and eat but if it doesn't change life and get shared it doesn't do any good.

Christians have a problem. Satan uses them a lot more than God does. Talk about the lottery and they've got lots to say. Talk about their husbands, talk about neighbors, talk about other people - what a lot of juicy chat! But talk about God - sudden lockjaw! Zipped shut. Not a word! Carrying a Bible to church, someone asks them where they're going. "Oh, I was just going to get something to eat." Because we don't open our mouths nothing comes out.

If we want Jesus to be born again in us we need to share him with others. But we get lazy. I ask if people have shared with their friends they say, "What's the use? They don't believe it." Have you talked to your neighbors across the street? "Teacher, those people don't believe." We decide in advance that they won't believe. Our role is to share. Decide right now and pray that God will lead 10 people to you to share with this year.

Grandma Noo, from Nong Lak village is another one. This woman does one thing. She talks about Jesus. Wherever she goes she talks about Jesus. She goes to the doctor to get a shot but it's the doctor who gets an injection of Jesus. She asks the doctor, "Do you know where the needles come from? And how about all the rest of this stuff: the syringe, the medicine, and the equipment? God gave it to you to use. Did you know that, doctor?" Because of her churches have been started. People have become believers because grandma shares with them in the hospital. And so God has allowed Grandma to be ill quite often and to stay in the hospital so that others could believe. God has called her to be the evangelist in that hospital.

I share this to encourage us all to understand and believe that God is really with us! Sometimes we doubt. Is he is really there? We doubt; we have fears. I want to thank God today for fifteen new brothers in the Lord. They are all in the Udon Thani jail. At first five became believers together. The policemen brought them to my house one day. I saw the police car drive up and I was really startled. I wondered what was going on! I was scared and asked why they came. The jail warden came to the door and said, "Teacher, I just wanted to come by and ask you what medicine you are using on these men. They've stopped drinking and smoking and they are different. What is it? Will you share it with me too?" Four police officials had come together with them. "Yes," I answered, picking up my Bible, "I have something that will help. You don't have to buy this medicine. It works for a whole lifetime and has no bad side effects." I read them from John 3:3; Whoever has not been born again will not see the kingdom of God. "Oh, is that it!" At that point three more believed and today there are fifteen altogether.

That is our task - let God's power work. If we stop what happens? We get lazy and the word doesn't go anywhere. Our job is to share the story. When we go out and work in the fields, do you meet people there? Tell them God's story. When you go out looking for fish, are there people around? Tell them God's story. When you collect grass for the buffalo, do you see people? Tell them God's story. Our role is to talk. Ask God, this year how many people do you want me to tell? You have to have a goal.

Can you do it? That is the main goal of the servant of the Lord. Ask God to do it through you. I don't want people to think, "That can't happen." When Jesus is reborn within us we have three inner changes. First of all, we have a new person we can depend upon. After this we have 2) new values and 3) new attitudes. If all three of these have taken place then external changes will start to happen. All of the external changes will come from the internal ones first.

Father Bua was from Dat Hai Village. In the past people in Father Bua's village here used to call him Uncle Whiskey Jug³. Thank you, please be seated. A real drinker, smoker, everything. I never once told him he should stop drinking. He became a believer. He received a new source of dependence in Jesus Christ. He could ask what he needed from him. You can ask him to help you in your areas of need. Don't start building up religion from the beginning. Start with believing in Jesus from the very first day.

The first day I became a Christian I was told, "You're a Christian now, you must stop smoking." So I stopped but I nearly died from it. I was too afraid that I wasn't going to be saved if I smoked. It is more important to teach our church members about the internal change first. When we have that new source of dependence, of power in us, then we can let Jesus do the external changing.

One day I was driving to Nong Khai with my son. We saw a man pushing a motorcycle along the side of the road. I asked my son if we should stop and help and he said no, because there was a gas station just a few meters up the road. On our way back from Nong Khai we saw the same person farther up the road still pushing the motorcycle. So we stopped. "Why are you pushing your motorcycle?" "I don't have any money to buy gas," he said. "I waved at several people to stop and help but no one did." He hadn't waved at us but we stopped. I didn't have any money with me but I did have some from the church so I said, "Here is some money for gas, but it isn't mine. It belongs to Jesus." "Jesus' money? Am I allowed to use that?" he asked. "Yes, you can use it." He was afraid that Jesus money wasn't transferable in this life but in the next. So I gave him 30 baht.

"That you, Father," he said, "If there is anything I can do for you please call on me."

I asked what level of education he had graduated from.

"I graduated S.B.T.N.⁴"

"S.B.T.N.? What's that?"

"Suan Po Tom Na," (Jute plantation and rice fields - in other words a field laborer). He had not studied but we had a chance to share God's love with him. Normally no one would stop to help him. We took him to his village and were able to share the gospel with him. When we left he had tears on his cheeks, "No one else came to help me" he said. With the love of Jesus we can do it. Even going as far as loving our enemies.

There was a neighbor of mind who despised Jesus. He knew I was sharing Christ everywhere so he would come into my yard early in the morning and (excuse me) defecate in front of my door. For the first three days I kept asking my kids who was doing it and they wouldn't say. Finally on the third day I was up early and caught him in the act so I knew who it was. He was a troublemaker in the neighborhood. I asked God what I should do. God told me. If I called in the authorities it would only become a major issue and we would still have problems living near each other. God told me, "My child, it's not that hard. Go buy a kilogram worth of fish and present it to him." So I got a nice big delicious snakehead fish and gave it to him. After that there was no more poop on my doorstep.

When we're in Jesus we look for ways to show love. Normally when we are dealing with our enemies we want to seek justice. We want to call in the authorities and protect our rights. We want penalties to be paid. We want to call in the law. Well, I used the law - the law of Jesus Christ, the law of love. If we call in the police we'll never see the end of it. Let Jesus provide us with his solutions to our problems. God wants to resolve our issues and provide for our needs if we will just let him.

I had been working in church planting in Udon for seven years when a Chinese believer came up to me and asked, "Teacher, do you have any land here in Udon?" I told him I did not. He offered to sell me a plot for 30,000 baht. I told him I didn't have that kind of money. "How about for 5,000 baht?" Well, even 5,000 was more than I had. I was just a poor evangelist. "Well, how about this. Can you pay on installments of 50 baht per month?" God gave it to me! Later on, after I had paid 2,500 baht the Chinese man was going to move to America with his children. "That's enough" he said. He signed over the title to me and that is where I have lived ever since.

I believe that God will lead us when we follow him. Usually when we think of serving God we worry about what we won't have. Believe in what he wants to do in us. I thank God for what he has done for me and pray that God would be exalted in my life every day.

Endnotes:

1. This was originally part of the first hour of a four hour seminar by Rev. Tongpan Phromedda at the Isaan Congress II, Khon Kaen, Thailand October 18, 2000 2. Thai Rhat is one of the foremost selling newspapers in Thailand specializing on sensationalized news. 3. ????????????? 4. ????? ???? The jute plantation and the rice fields, in other words a common laborer.