Anyone Can Come to Jesus Christ
Don’t ever write anyone off.
Not your prodigal child. Not your nonbelieving husband or wife. Not that crazy person who keeps giving you trouble each day at work, always antagonizing you. Not that person who has set himself, or herself, up as your enemy. . .
Jesus is for everyone. He can reach anyone. Someone may be in Satan’s control today, but they could be in Christ’s control tomorrow.
No Matter Someone’s Age
Some years ago, we had a Harvest Crusade in Santa Barbara. And when the invitation to come to Christ was given, a 90-year-old man walked forward at the urging of his grandchild . . .
His wife had died a few years before. She was a Christian and had prayed for him throughout her life. On her deathbed, she pleaded with her husband to give his life to Jesus Christ. She wanted her husband to know the love and peace she had experienced. But he turned her down.
But he ended up at the crusade. The event was coming to a close, and as I gave the invitation, his granddaughter said, “Grandpa, do you want to go forward?” He responded, “No!”
“Come on, Grandpa,” she said. He told her, “It’s cold down there. I don’t want to go down.” She said, “No, grandpa, I think you will like what you find when you get down there.”
The 90-year-old grandfather asked, “What do you think I’m going to find down there?” She said, “Love, peace, and life.”
So he went forward. He prayed the sinner’s prayer and asked Christ to come into his life. He said afterward, “Now I know what my wife was talking about. Now I know that I’m going to see her again!”
There’s so many stories like this, where we see that even the most unlikely people can come to Christ.
No Matter Someone’s Past
Michael Franzese’s conversion story is a testament to this truth. It’s one of the most amazing stories I’ve ever heard.
From being part of the feared Colombo crime family—a real-life mobster—to a born-again Christian.
While in a prison cell, a prison guard slipped a Bible through Michael’s door. Proverbs 16:7 stopped him cold, “I think it was like the Holy Spirit said, ‘Who are you kidding? You’re a mobster. Marrying a Christian girl doesn’t make you a Christian.’ All these things went through my head. And the last thing I remember thinking was, ‘But if you did turn to Me, I can take care of your enemies.’ And it really meant something.”
He came out of that prison a solid believer in the Bible and Jesus as his Savior.
Not even a mobster is beyond God’s reach. God reached into the darkness and completely changed his life.
Don’t Give Up on That Someone
We all have people we deem “unreachable.” But it’s my hope that these stories inspire you to keep praying for that someone you’re thinking of. Don’t give up.
This is not a time to retreat, but to take every opportunity we can find to let God’s light shine through our lives. In fact, why don’t you invite your loved one to this year’s crusade, happening on July 19.
If God can get hold of a man even in his old age, or a man with a past like Michael Franzese, He can reach anyone.
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