I’m not even sure what made me pause today, before rushing on with my own Bible reference search, but I happened to take note of the verse(s) “in focus” on my Bible program. They were:
“Making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.” (Eph 5:16);
“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” (Col 4:5)
Of course the word “opportunity” jumped out at me, as it was supposed to, and next thing I know I’m looking through my illustration file under that subject heading. I want to share these two with you. They are both true, although 600 years apart, and both speak to the fact that we NEVER know what opportunity may lay before us!
In 1269 Kublai Khan sent a request from Peking to Rome for “a hundred wise men of the Christian religion…And so I shall be baptized, and when I shall be baptized all my baron and great men will be baptized, and their subjects baptized, and so there will be more Christian here than there are in your parts.” The Mongols were then wavering in the choice of a religion. It might have been, as Kublai forecast, the greatest mass religious movement the world has ever seen. The history of all Asia would have been changed.
But what actually happened? Pope Gregory X answered by sending two Dominican friars. They got as far as Armenia, could endure no longer and returned home. So passed the greatest missionary opportunity in the history of the church.
~ Dunkerly, in Resource
We missed him. Our chance to change things came and passed and we did not know it was there. A dark-skinned little boy sat through Sunday School classes for three years at a great Baptist Church (First Church, San Antonio) but someone missed him. His name was Sirhan Sirhan, and at age 24 he shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy. In a welter of words and the shudder of grief throughout our nation, the persistent thought keeps recurring…someone missed him.
~ Dr. Jimmy Allen, former pastor of First Baptist Church, San Antonio, Texas, in Pulpit Helps, May, 1991.
Would you pray right now, and every day hereafter, that God would give you at least ONE opportunity to touch ONE life? Even if it’s something as simple as, “Hey, may I pray for you?” We never know where someone has been, nor where they are going – but God does!
In His All-Knowing Grace,
Pastor Scott
Grace Notes 