"Be Careful What You Pray For"

hey guys i just wanted to take a minute and kind of give an update as to what god is doing in my life these days. i mean besides giving me tons and tons of great things, and blessing me more than i could ever imagine, god is starting to really challenge me and it sure is kicking my butt. sunday school continues to go well- and for the last two weeks we have even had food!! thanks stephen and sara.
on wednesday nights at our church we have a university system where we offer a bunch of different classes for people to take. this semester we have intro to guitar, creation vs evolution, cults, women's bible studies, us history, and an evangelism class called "the way of the master" (which is the same as the kirk cameron/ray comfort book- basically we have a work book and dvd to follow along with) so when this came out and i saw the lineup and thought, "oh yeah i could do that. it probably would be a good thing for me to learn to do..." uh yeah. well it is. but sure isnt easy. the first couple of weeks we have just learned about the good things that god promises us when we witness, and also we talked about what is/what isnt evangelism. since then we have gotten into some discussion about numbers(and being baptist thats what its all about right?) but just hear me out. on the baptist rolls there are 16.4 million people, of those only 6 million attend church, and of those most estimate that only 50%are actually christians(having accepted jesus as lord and savior) so right then and there i think provides a pretty hefty amount of people that we can witness to. but here is another number that just flat out embarrasses me-2. as is only 2% of christians share their faith. sadly i fall into the 98 rather than the 2. but as this class continues to move forward i have noticed more and more the people and places that i am in and the chance that i have to witness to people. and im sure if most of you think about it you will start to recognize it as well. then most of you will start to give excuses. well we covered that too. of all the great people in the bible we looked at daniel, jeremiah, paul, moses, isaiah and they all gave excuses when god called them. im too young, cant speak, im weak, i stutter, i dont know what to say. and in every single case god told them that it wasnt their power, but his. not their words, but his. and basically was saying- listen there is not an excuse you can give me, because im going to do the work anyways. and man thats tough to hear. so i kind of half heartedly started praying that god would give me some people that i could witness to. and i of course didnt think he would. boy was i wrong. all im going to say is be careful what you pray for. twice on saturday i was presented with an opportunity to witness to someone...and...well ill be generous and say i was 1 for 2. i was waiting to pay and a man was standing there and i could have easily said something to him, but i just didnt. and man did i cry afterwards. i was so shaken up by that. id never really experienced anything like it. talk about rattled. and then after the game on the way back to the truck my girlfriend and i were stopped by a man i thought need directions, but instead he was asking for money. once i realized what was going on i didnt care about the couple of bucks anymore all i saw was a chance to witness with this man. and i did the best i could, prayed with him, gave him the money and we went our own way. luckily we werent too far from the truck because i barely could walk. and yes i cried like a baby again. i dont know why either. it just whooped me physically and emotionally and lets not even talk about spiritually. so ive been praying that i dont ever get over the seriousness of the situation, but maybe if i could learn to control my emotions a little bit better afterwards would be great. im not gonna lie though im kind of scared because i see how god has answered my prayers so far. and even as i sit here and write- my hands are shaking pretty bad, my heart is racing, and ive teared up some just thinking about it. this really is something that i cant do by myself and i will be praying that god gives me what i need to do it. so pray for me, but be careful- you might be one that i come and talk to sometime. are you ready for that?
in his service
PUDGE