Call to evangelism

(Continued from My Journey Into Missions)

Ray Comfort, well-known evangelist and author of Hell's Best Kept Secret

About this time, while I was looking for my life's destination in a geographical location, God's call to my life came clearly--and I disobeyed it.

I was 15 years old and had attended a friend's violin lesson with her so that her teacher could help us with a violin/piano duet we were playing. After the lesson was over, we all walked out to the parking lot together, including the teacher, because it was her last lesson of the day, and we were going to go home.

My friend casually asked her teacher what her license plate meant. It read "Y4MS."

"Oh! Okay, I'll tell you that story," her teacher said. "My boyfriend and I were reading Shakespeare together. It was Romeo and Juliet, and I came to the line where it goes, 'Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou?' But I accidentally misspoke and said instead, 'Romeo, Romeo, whyfor art thou?' That made us both start laughing, but it ended up sparking a really serious conversation. We started asking 'whyfor'--why are we here? What is the purpose of life? Why are we on this earth? So I put 'Whyfor (Y4) am us (MS)' on my license plate."

At this point, I saw how naturally a gospel presentation would flow into the conversation. After all, I knew the answers to the questions she was asking--or at least, I knew that the Bible contained them, and all I would have to say was, "Well, you know God offers you the answers to the purpose of life," and then talk about the gospel.

God was prompting me to do it. Words were welling up in my throat like a burning fiery pressurized bomb, and my spirit felt so impelled, so yearning to do it, that I could scarcely resist.

But I couldn't get the words out, either. Fear overwhelmed me and swallowed me up. "I'm too shy. I'm too young. She won't listen to me. I don't know what to say."

Into my thoughts came the voice of the Holy Spirit, not audibly, but clear as a bell. "This is ME. God. This is coming from me. Don't resist. Obey me. Open up your mouth and speak!"

"How dare I say no to God?" I wondered within myself. I knew that He would be with me, that all I had to do was say the first few words and He would turn on the flow and I wouldn't have to think of what to say or search for the wording. I almost just took the plunge and did it. If I had done it, I have no doubt the course of my life would have been different. The rest of my teen years could have been far more fruitful and who knows what I could have done for God? I will never know. I need not inquire, for there will be no answer.

But I kept the words back. God warned me again, solemnly. He warned me about the lost fruitfulness I would experience, the lost possibilities. But my flesh flashed out in fear and said, "God, you're just going to have to understand. I just can't. I can't."

I didn't. The conversation was over, we got in our cars, and we drove away, never to see each other again. Surely God lined someone else up to talk to that woman, but I lost something that day. I lost an opportunity to participate in God's work that day, and it set up a pattern that I would unconsciously follow for years.

Next post: Going Overseas as a Christian Tourist