A Sold Out Life

Recently I attended a memorial service for a friend and brother in Christ. As I watched people arrive and fill the chapel, some known to me but most unfamiliar, I was so moved by how many individual lives had intersected with Bill's life somehow. We came together from so many different backgrounds and worldviews, to celebrate the life of a Jewish Christ follower. 

As I listen to people recall specific encounters with Bill, I heard over and over again these reoccurring themes: Bill loved the Lord Jesus Christ and he made it his every day ambition to share that love with people he encountered in the hopes that they would come to know Jesus and have life. Bill's love for Jesus was at the center of His life, and it was out of the fullness of that love, that He loved and served all of us as well as countless others.

Bill was a very simple man who, like all of us, had flaws. He wasn't perfect, he didn't have fancy degrees or initials in front of his name, and he wasn't rich and famous, yet somehow God had used an ordinary man to make a profound impact and help many come to know Jesus.

Bill's presence in our lives brought so many extraordinary memories, yet he was a simple man who led a simple life. As I remembered how Bill's friendship had impacted my life, I wondered, do I make the most of the opportunities the Lord gives me everyday, to share Jesus with those that don't yet know him? I so want to see and take those opportunities everyday, to love people, to serve them, to make an eternal difference. 

It is God's joy to use ordinary people like Bill, like you and like me...He is looking for people who are sold out for Jesus, to make an eternal impact in the lives of others. He did it with Peter and John and He is still doing it today! Lord help us each live a life sold out to you, and help us see and take those everyday ordinary opportunities to love people towards you!

 

Acts 4:13-14 (MSG)
They couldn't take their eyes off them—Peter and John standing there so confident, so sure of themselves! Their fascination deepened when they realized these two were laymen with no training in Scripture or formal education. They recognized them as companions of Jesus, but with the man right before them, seeing him standing there so upright—so healed!—what could they say against that?