Dodgeball Salvation Call.

This weekend I had the privilege to be a leader at a weekend youth conference. I still am sleep deprived, I have yet been able to remove the grime from my fingernails, and if I listen quietly the sound of children calling my name is still ringing in my ears. I had a wonderful time.

At one point in the weekend a group of kids went to go play dodgeball. After a while, I found a 3 7th grade boys sitting off  to the side in defeat and asked them why they weren’t playing. One boy turned to look at me revealing his red, ball-stung face, and preceded to tell me the horror story about how his face was rearranged to a pulp the rubber projectiles of the high school boys.

“Then lets go on an adventure.”  They boys sprang up in acceptance to the special invitation and we proceeded to go on the greatest human adventure encountered by man… we went and stood on a deck throwing rocks into a river.

“Do you remember what the speaker talked about today?” The kids bounced there heads in response, jolting sediment into the water. That morning, our group speaker had told the story of Rahab. A prostitute that was the most unlikely to receive deliverance because of her sin, yet her eagerness to do what Joshua had said by tying a scarlett thread to her window saved her and her household.

I went on to explain the significance of the “Scarlett” thread; the meaning of atonement. I went into the gory details of the Levitical sacrifices and proceeded to explain why it was necessary for the blood of Christ to be shed. They remained quiet, except to make comments about the gore of the animal sacrifices. I wondered if anything I said made any difference. I explained it in a way they would understand, but did the Holy spirit move? Did my words fall on deaf ears? As we walked back to our cabin, this verse came to mind:

   “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
   and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
   it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
   and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
                                      -Isaiah 55:10-11

That night while the speaker was talking he asked a question to the group about Judgment day, and what will be required for God to see us as his children when we stand before him.

For a moment no one raised there hand.

Then the hand of one of the boys I has spoken to earlier appeared above the silent heads. The speaker called on him not knowing what to expect. The boy wasn’t a christian, he wasn’t one to speak unless he made a joke, and he always found himself in trouble. But his answer heads turn all around him.

“Atonement.” He began, ”God has to look at us and see the blood of his Son Jesus, because thats the only thing that can cover our sin.” 

It may have been the honest humility in his voice, or the fact that the speaker had yet to explain atonement, or maybe it was because he had little understanding at all of what the bible teaches.  But this boy who had little experience in church, not only heard the words that I had spoken earlier but was able to understand it in the context of his salvation; chills shivered down my spine.
This weekend he asked Jesus Christ to be the Lord and Savior of his life and is being baptised in May.

So many times I feel in my ministry that my words fall to the ground in vain. But God is faithful.

Don’t be discouraged when you feel that you have no impact, because you alone can do nothing outside the will of Christ and by the movement of the Holy Spirit.
Dont feel like God cant use you because He can. Dedicate your mouth to the word of God.
He is so faithful.