Prepared For the Moment

How can you believe in someone that didn't exist? I don't see the evidence. I don't see anything like that about God ever existing. And I could tell this person was educated, that he's heard things and he told me about his professors in college and what he went through. He was raised and not believing in God and he has his whole experience in life, not believing in God. What this person didn't realize is that the last five years God has been preparing me and giving me books and learning about the testaments of our faith and what we believe on why we believe it. Welcome to the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast, where Barry's book and passion for spreading God's love are guaranteed to ignite your life. Now listen in and prepare to have your life ignited. Hi, so my name is Jason Wallace. I do commercial refrigeration for living and if you don't know what that is, it's just anything that's cold or frozen in the supermarkets, that's what I work on. You know, I've had a lot of experience over my life, my young life, but one of my best experiences sharing the faith, sharing the gospel with some of my just met just on the street. So you know, I was just out at an outreach. I wasn't expecting to share the gospel with anybody. My job was to watch the kids. We had youth. My job was to watch the kids. Wasn't the preach. Wasn't the pray. Wasn't doing like that. It was to watch the kids. So it was break time. We were cleaning up. You know, I was walking back to my truck and this young guy comes up to me and he's like, hey, what happened here? What are you guys doing here? You know, we had an event for the church. He's like, what kind of church? I'm like, we're a Christian church and I saw my opportunity to present the gospel, but this guy did not want anything to do with the gospel. He's like, you believe in God and I'm like, I do. I do believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe he was a real person. And this person got real defensive immediately and he said, there is no God. How can you believe in someone that didn't exist? I don't see the evidence. I don't see anything like that about God, every existing and I could tell his person was educated, that he's heard things and he told me about his professors in college and what he went through. He was raised and not believe in God and he has his whole experience in life, not believing in God. What this person didn't realize is that the last five years God has been preparing me and giving me books and learning about the testaments of our faith and what we believe and why we believe it. How Jesus was a real person, how he existed, how he died, how he was a son of God and he was God incarnate. And we went through these different conversations of the evidence of God and creation of the universe, the fine tuning. We got really deep into our conversation about how God does exist. I think this conversation, this young man said, you know what? You've been nothing but kind of compassionate to me. I met other people who shared their faith and they condemned me immediately, but you weren't that person. You're different. You showed me kindness and compassion. You heard my story. You treated me like a person. You didn't see me as just somebody walking out the street who hates God. You saw somebody that needs help and he said, I need help. I hate God and I don't even believe in him. How does that even work? Can you help me? And I said, I can't help you. I'm just one person, but I know somebody who can help you. He's my best friend. He's Jesus Christ. Can I pray for you? And we prayed right there in the street and this young man said, you know, I have a lot of things I'm dealing with, but you know what? Can you help me? Can you give me some books to read? So I gave him some of the books I read the last five years that I didn't know God was preparing me for. I didn't know why God put on me five years ago, five years before that. I need to read these books on what we believe and go deeper in my faith. But I realized in that day that was it. And this young man, we still keep on touch every day. He eventually gave us heart to the Lord. It took years because he had to go with what he was raised as and what he was just learned on the street until he finally opened his heart to God and the Holy Spirit moved in this young man's life and he gave his life to Christ. And that to me is what why I do this. I mean, I don't do it for the praise. I don't do it for the glory myself. I do it because I believe in Jesus Christ because He saved me. And He saved this young man. And I wasn't expecting to preach that day. I wasn't expecting to show the gospel really get deep in my faith, but isn't that how it usually goes? When you least expect it, that person who never believed in God comes as Jesus says, why do you believe in that? And you're maybe not ready. You're not prepared. But God prepared me. And God wants to prepare you too. So I can't tell you how exciting he's like, you probably see me sweating because I'm excited to talk about the faith. I love talking about Jesus and I love it. He died for me. Maybe I live in my life. Actually in this same day, this event was over. That's where I met my wife. I wasn't expecting to preach or meet my wife in the same day, but I did it because Jesus called me to be an amazing person of God because I love Him. And that's my story. If you enjoyed today's episode, let us know. And don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review to help us reach more listeners. Remember, sharing your faith, ignites your faith. See you next time on The Ignite with Barry McGuire Podcast.