“Jesus saith unto him, ‘Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.’” (John 20:29, KJV)
My husband and I have been suffering from bad coughs for a couple of months. We concluded that this was due to the dust coming through the air ducts. We changed the filter, but no results. So we called an air duct cleaning company to service the problem.
Two men came. They surveyed the situation and said that air ducts to this newly renovated house had not been cleaned in years. They took photos of the air ducts, which were piled with years-old dust.
I sat in the living room while they worked. My back was suffering with much discomfort, but I could not lie down due to the men servicing all the vents in every room.
I was in so much pain and discomfort that I couldn’t think of anything else. Finally, I turned my attention to the Lord. These men probably did not know Jesus. I had a job to do. I had to endure the pain and get to the souls of these men for Jesus.
One of them was coiling up a hose. He was a few steps away. I asked him, “What’s your name?” When he told me his name, I said, “I hope that you know how important your name is.”
He said, “I know that it is in the Bible. My mother gave it to me in Spanish, but people have trouble pronouncing it, so I use the name in English.”
I then asked him, “Do you know Jesus?”
He answered, “I don’t believe in going to church. I visited one, but it was not for me.”
I responded, “I understand. It’s not easy to find the right church to fit into.”
He continued, “My mother does. She goes to church. My father is off and on with it.”
I said, “God is not asking you if you go to church. He is asking you if you know His Son. Have you ever prayed to believe in Jesus as your personal Saviour?”
He very openly said, “No, I have not.”
I told him, “Well, you and I are going to pray for you to ask Jesus to be your Saviour, so that you know where you will go if anything happens to you. If you don’t believe in Jesus, hell is the only other place you can go. It is only through Jesus that you can get to heaven. He died on the cross for you. That was a high cost for your soul, so you would believe in Him and be in heaven. You see He chooses you, not you Him.”
He stopped what he was doing. He walked right up to me and just stood there. He didn’t make a move. I was not too sure what he was doing, so I finally said, “Let’s pray.” Without making any movement, except for focusing his eyes straight onto mine and confessing Jesus as his Saviour with his mouth, this man dropped all to have Jesus, because he wanted Him so much!
Afterward, he smiled widely! We talked about reading the Bible. I told him, “Now you go home and tell your mother that you have believed in Jesus as your Saviour and have given your life to Him. She will be very happy.”
He smiled widely again and said, “I will.”
He then drew close to me and asked me about learning the Bible and going to church. I shared with him that when I believed in Jesus, I started to read the Bible and have read it and followed what God says in it for forty years now. And then I met other people who knew Him who invited me to church. I told him that, because my back was injured, I had to go to church online and sit in front of the computer screen with my Bible open and follow the preaching. He thought that this would serve him, because, where he lives, he can’t find a church.
I told him it was very important to be with other Christians and to find a church where God wants him. I said that Jesus would guide him and lead him to the right place. He smiled and said that this was good. He was ready.
By now my back needed relief from the pain. But I had to get the other man’s attention to tell him about Jesus. How was I going to do that? He was on the other side of the house, and I didn’t know if he was coming to the side where I was sitting.
I waited. After a few moments, he came to check on a vent in the area where I was. I asked him what his name was, and he gave me his name. I asked him what kind of name it was. He shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t know and off he went.
The man who had received Jesus returned from outside. We now had to sign the papers for the service. The other man was not returning. I had to manage to endure the discomfort and pain and go outside to look for the other man. I had to go down some long steps. So, I carefully stepped down to the end of them. There was a white van parked in the driveway. The man was behind it, cleaning the duct cleaning machine.
As I approached him, I wondered, “What am I going to say? How am I going to tell him about Jesus?’’ I finally reached him. He had shared with me that he had injured his wrist on another duct cleaning service and about the difficulty he had gone through.
I looked at him and said, “I was thinking about your injuring your wrist and the difficulties that you have had. You need someone you can call on to help you. And the only one who can help you is the Son of God. His name is Jesus Christ.”
He commented, “My wife is a Christian. She goes to church. I go with her just to accompany her.”
I asked him, “Have you asked Jesus to be your Saviour?”
He answered, “No, I have not done this, not all the way. You know how things are.”
I said, “I am going to pray with you right now, to ask Jesus to be your Saviour.” He kept right on cleaning the machine. Then all of a sudden, he stopped. He looked right at me.
I said, “Let’s pray.”
He confessed his sin of not acknowledging Jesus and gave his life to Him. This man had not known Jesus all the way to salvation. Now he belonged to Him all the way to eternal life!
No one is going to enter this home that God has given us for His service and leave without salvation in Jesus! No one!
“Abba, Father, how merciful You are to those praying women — one a mother, another a wife — to reap the salvation of one’s son and the other’s husband. Lord Jesus, You are faithful! The prayers of laboring knees, You do not forget. Thank you, Lord, for helping me through Your Spirit to help get my eyes off the pain that I suffer to focus on the fact that You are after souls! I would have lost the opportunity due to pain, had You not brought to my mind, “Claudia, I have brought two lost souls into your home; get your mind off your pain and get the job done!”