Why Not Julie?

“I believe if God doesn’t give you a miracle, you are a miracle of God for somebody else’s salvation.” – Nick Vujicic. 

Julie is the person next to me at Starbucks trying to decide what to order: “May I have a grande blonde, iced, sugar-free, cinnamon dolce latte with soy milk, half-sweet, 10 pumps vanilla and no foam, please?” Or Julie is a colleague or a fellow student. Julie is a relative, friend, acquaintance that you spend time with or a complete stranger who crosses your path for a few moments. Julie is all the broken, hurting people searching for meaning and hope in all the places except for one: the peace that can only be found in Jesus and the forgiveness He offers.  We all have Julie’s in our life. We may not be able to change them, but we can tell them that God loves them and let God do the rest.   

Every Christian wants to make a difference. It’s part of our spiritual DNA. We know the Julie’s in our lives need the good news, but we have a hard time opening our homes and opening our mouths to make the gospel known. There is a fear of evangelism. We dread the thought of confrontation. We fear rejection. We don’t want to be labeled religious fanatics or Jesus freaks. We don’t want Julie to be angry.  And many simply don’t know how to share their faith. If that is you, consider slowly hacking away at those obstacles. For instance, you might be fearful of what people think of you or how they will react when you talk about God. It’s probably not doable to just stop being fearful. What you could do, however, is to start with something small—say, working up the courage to give your testimony in your small group. Having done that, you will feel more at ease on this issue in your life. If you are wondering how to “start the conversation ” about God with Julie, just ask her if they would like to attend church with you.

As Christians, we all long for Julie to know what we know: Jesus Christ is Lord. We’ve been made to know and love God. All of us fall short and deserve eternal punishment. But God, in His love, made a way of escape. Jesus lived a perfect life and, therefore could die as a perfect sacrifice in the place of all who would turn and trust in Him. His resurrection proves He really is the Son of God, and now all are called to follow him. That is what we want Julie to hear and believe. If Julie doesn’t hear it from us who will she hear it from?  

We should want to share Christ with our Uber driver, our barista, and anyone that crosses our path. That is probably not feasible. But we can be faithful to the Julies that God has planted in our life. These are our colleagues, friends, relatives neighbors, and we have the responsibility to tell them about Christ.  

Discussion Questions:

1. Take some time to ask God to open your eyes to the people who are in your life that need Christ…and then be patient and persistent with them looking for ways to share the good news with them.