Character and Commitment (edit, back)
07/30/2009
I first joined the ASI family in 1993, and I can still remember my first ASI Convention. It was exciting to explore the exhibit hall and discover the many witnessing tools available. The “Members in Action” testimonies were filled with wonderful ideas as well.
In those early days, I had no idea of the many simple yet effective ways of sharing Christ. I was a newly baptized Seventh-day Adventist from a small church and I was anxious to tell anyone who would listen about Jesus. I’m sure the Lord probably cringed at some of my methods. But, praise God, He is always willing to work with each one of us.
One day, while I was asking God to tell me His will for my life, it was as though a voice spoke to me and said, “Plant a church in Copper Mountain, Colorado.” That was nine years ago. Over time our church has grown and been blessed in so many ways!
Every year people from all over the world travel to Copper Mountain for skiing in the winter, and for hiking, biking and golf in the summer. We invite them to Veggie Supper Club dinners, through which so many people have become aware of our church and have attended as a result.
Ellen White wrote, “A Christian character can be symmetrically and completely formed only when the human agent regards it as a privilege to work disinterestedly in the proclamation of the truth and to sustain the cause of God with means” (9T pg. 127). I’ve learned just how true this statement is. Only through a daily commitment to witnessing will we develop a Christ-like character.
Every day I ask the Lord to put someone in my path to whom I can witness. And it amazes me how someone will come into my office, sit next to me on a plane, or somehow come into my daily activities.
On the back of my business card is a website for Bible studies. The other day, a lady who works down the hall came into my office and mentioned the website. She then told me that she’d studied religion at university. As we continued to visit, I gave her the magazine Hidden Secrets. She took the magazine and said she would read it.
Every one of us is needed to help carry out the mission of ASI, to be actively involved in Sharing Christ in the Marketplace. Ellen White wrote, “Hundreds, yea, thousands, who have heard the message of salvation are still idlers in the marketplace, when they might be engaged in some line of active service. To these Christ is saying, ‘Why stand ye here all the day idle?’ and He adds, ‘Go ye also into the vineyard’ (Matthew 20:6, 7). Why is it that many more do not respond to the call? Is it because they think themselves excused in that they do not stand in the pulpit? Let them understand that there is a large work to be done outside the pulpit by thousands of consecrated lay members” (AA pg. 110, 111).
It is when we commit to sharing God’s Word with others that our characters become strong. As the saying goes, “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.” Together, let’s allow the Lord to develop Christ’s character in each of us as we commit to do the work to which He has called us.