[Tuesday's Devotional] - What An Invitation!

What An Invitation!   We can only fathom a guess at the number of people whose lives were touched through hearing Billy Graham's invitation to know Jesus.   He was once asked: "How many people have you saved over the many years of your ministry? I know you and your colleagues have done a lot of good, and I suspect you've saved more people during your lifetime than any other evangelist?"   He replied "I'm thankful for your interest in our work—but the truth is, neither I nor my associates have ever saved even one person during our evangelistic ministry.  Why do I say this? The reason is because only God can save someone and bring them from spiritual darkness into light. All we can do is point them to Christ and then trust the Holy Spirit to bring them to faith. I often think of what the apostle Paul said concerning the work he and one of his fellow missionaries had done: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow". 1 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV). Only God can save someone—and only He should get the glory."   Those who have done the Alpha course may remember the story of Albert McMakin, a 24yr old farmer who'd recently come to faith. He was so full of enthusiasm that he filled a truck with people and took them to a meeting to hear about Jesus. There was a good looking farmer's son whom he was especially keen to get to the tent-revival meeting, but this young 16 year old was hard to persuade – he was busy falling in and out of love with different girls and didn't seem interested in Christianity. Eventually, Albert managed to persuade him to come by asking him to drive the truck. When they arrived, Albert's guest decided to go in and was 'spellbound' he began to have thoughts he had never known before. He went back night after night until one night he went forward and gave his life to Jesus Christ. That man, the driver of the truck, was Billy Graham.   We cannot all be like Billy Graham, but we can all be like Albert McMakin – we can all offer an invitation to meet Jesus.    'Preacher said, Jesus said'  YouTube [3 min: 56 sec] (Written and performed by Johnny Cash & Billy Graham)                                                                                                      Dawn Milward   Twitter Website Copyright © 2018 St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email as a subscriber to the Daily Devotionals Our mailing address is: St. Matthew & St. Oswald's Church 1a New Street Rugby, Warwickshire CV22 7BE United Kingdom Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Want to be added to our mailing list? - sign up here!