demonstrate that He is in us and with us. In 2nd Corinthians 3, we can read:
3 clearly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.
4 And we have such trust through Christ toward God.
5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,
6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
We have been brought into a love relationship with Jesus Christ - He has made His love known to us and He tells us about His love and His truth as we apply ourselves to careful study of His Word. He is speaking to our hearts and He is speaking through our lives. We have to be attuned to Him so that we might hear what He has to say and to consider how to incorporate that truth into our lives - we are in partnership with the Holy Spirit, who teaches us, who empowers us, and who equips us to be effective ministers of the gospel.
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We can know that God is working, and He is speaking to the hearts of people - and one of the principal ways that He speaks is through people. 2nd Corinthians 2 says:
14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.
15 For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.
Tonight in Rio de Janeiro, the Summer Olympic Games will begin - at last. Athletes from all over the world will proceed into the stadium tonight, and the most decorated Olympian of all time will be the flag bearer for the American delegation, according to TeamUSA.org. That would be Michael Phelps, chosen by his fellow Olympians to bear the flag...he made history in Beijing in 2008 by winning gold medals in eight events; by the time the 2012 Games in London were over, he had 22 career medals, including 18 golds. He will compete in three individual events in Rio.
But while he may have been the greatest in the pool, that stood in contrast to his personal life. A GodReports.com story recounts that after a damaging photo of Phelps showing him smoking drugs through a bong and two DUI arrests, his life hit bottom. He told ESPN, “I was a train wreck,” adding, “I was like a time bomb, waiting to go off. I had no self-esteem, no self worth. There were times where I didn’t want to be here. It was not good. I felt lost.”
After his second DUI, he spent the next week in his Baltimore home curled up in his bedroom, with thoughts of suicide going through his mind. But, a legendary athlete from a professional Baltimore sports team placed a life-changing call. Longtime friend Ray Lewis, who had played with the Ravens, was prompted by God to call. The story says...
Immediately, Lewis sensed the hopelessness and despair in Phelps.
“This is when we fight,” Lewis told Phelps. “This is when real character shows up. Don’t shut down. If you shut down we all lose.”Lewis convinced Phelps to seek rehab at a facility in Phoenix. Before he entered, Ray gave him a book - The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. Phelps told ESPN, “It’s turned me into believing there is a power greater than myself and there is a purpose for me on this planet." After a couple of days, he called Lewis and said, "Man this book is crazy!” He added, "The thing that’s going on…oh my gosh…my brain, I can’t thank you freaking enough, man. You saved my life."
Lewis was encouraged - he said, “I could see he was coming out of it – he will make it. Then he started calling me with things he was reading and I thought, It’s sinking in.” The book also played a role in Phelps seeking to reconcile with his father. After emerging from rehab in 2014, he asked his longtime girlfriend to marry him; they now have a child together, even though, unfortunately, they did not wait until they were married. USA Today reports that the wedding will take place after the Olympics.
Even though it's hard to know where Michael Phelps is spiritually, he is in a remarkably better place than he was following his second DUI in fall of 2014. And, you would hope that as he has been exposed to the principles of the Rick Warren book, that he would seek the Lord and accept Jesus as His Savior, if that has not occurred already. But, it's clear to me that God is at work in his life, and he has not been timid about going public with that.
Isn't it great that God will use a host of means to bring a person into a relationship with Himself? He loved each of us so much that He sent His Son to die for us as an act of ultimate, sacrificial love. And, He desires for all to experience it. He will work in a number of ways to get that message across.
One of those principal ways is through Christian believers. That is why Jesus gave the Great Commission; He emphasized in His teaching the importance of people being willing to go into the harvest fields. Perhaps a speaker, such as a local church pastor or an evangelist, will minister the Word of God in a compelling way and people will be saved. Maybe it will be the Word spoken through a Christian radio station. Or, a devoted friend who knows Christ will be used to share and live truth, as Ray Lewis did for Michael Phelps.
God will also use circumstances to cause people to look to Him. You hear stories of how life has fallen apart for people who have relied upon themselves and come up empty. And, when their lives have hit rock-bottom, the Lord is there to pick them up. And, perhaps He will express Himself through a messenger placed in the right place at the right time.
Finally, we can be aware that the Holy Spirit is orchestrating the way for a person to come to know Christ. He is speaking, He is leading, He is making arrangements, and I think we have to pray that people are sensitive to be able to hear from Him and follow. And that's true for our lives after we come to a saving knowledge of Christ. We can discern that He is working and depend on Him to determine how He would have us respond.
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