As a part of my training to work in a retail store, I had to watch a series of video clips.
The challenge was to try and identify the ‘shoplifter’. I watched as a selection of customers entered the store.
At the end of the video, I had to choose the person or persons who were stealing.
Stunningly, there were as many shoplifters dressed in suits and ties as there were dressed in raggedy shirts and jeans! The obvious lesson was that shoplifters have no particular ‘look’; they come in all socio economic levels, all types of clothing and all kinds of hair styles.
As I closed my locker, preparing to go home after the video lesson, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. He pointed out to me that the same truth applies to those who don’t know Christ as their savior.
Obviously, the dude standing on the street corner with long hair, tattoos, body piercings and a dirty T-shirt needs Jesus and the business man standing beside him, dressed in a suit and tie doesn’t; right? Wrong! Everybody needs Jesus, not just the ones who look “needy”. (Romans 3:23)
Satan is an equal opportunity destroyer; he has no economic or social preference of who he wants to keep from having intimacy with Christ. When ‘we’ as Christians seek to evangelize, we need to focus as much prayer and witness to the wholesome family up the street as we do the drug addict and the whore.
Hell does not embrace only the destitute and addicted. It also welcomes housewives, business owners, lawyers, store clerks and barbers. It is odd how it is often easier to witness to a homeless drug addict than it is to the co-worker at the desk beside us or the person cutting our hair once a month.
Matthew 19:23-24 says that it is almost impossible for a rich person to get into the kingdom of heaven! Yet, how often do we stand outside up town stores and custom car shops and hand out tracts? Every person we meet is an opportunity; no matter what they look like or where they live.
Why is it often easier to do street witness than to tell family and friends about Christ? Perhaps because we have no fear of rejection from the person who is obviously not as well off as we are; and we will probably never see them again after right now, anyway.
If our family, neighbor or co-worker rejects Christ, we feel the rejection personally. We also have to live with that knowledge of rejection every day as we continue to live and work beside them. (Luke 10:16)
It is important that we make every effort to win the poor and homeless to Christ but it is equally important that we share Christ with those we live and work around. There is only one Hell and ALL who do not have Christ as their savior will spend eternity there. Some of them will be dressed in a suit and tie.
Romans 3:23 For ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God.