“Karen’s Notes!
Insights from a Glory-Bound Lady”

Selected Notes
Volume 7 Number 43 “When the Skeptic Met the Savior”

October 23rd, 2024
Post # 339

I love reading through my Karen’s notes of her personal Bible study journal as well as the material for ladies’ conferences, retreats, and special events. I have found an illustration that she used in several different retreats. This illustration came to mean a lot to her, and so today, I gladly pass it along to each of you.

One of the times this illustration was used was in a ladies’ conference where Karen was speaking on the subject of “Perspective!” In the three sessions she explored with the attendees the importance of our perspective in life situations in view of the fact that the Lord Jesus is Savior. Let me share the Bible verse and then the illustration she shared.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Karen was teaching: We are not speaking of perfection. However, when Christ comes into our lives, the change should be showing!

Karen’s illustration: Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910), looking out over his congregation one Sunday, was shocked to see a well-known skeptic in the audience. As they chatted after the service, Maclaren persuaded the man to attend church four more Sundays, for the sermons were on the main doctrines of the Christian faith. On the fourth Sunday, the man told Maclaren he had decided to become a Christian. The preacher asked which message had brought the man to that decision.

The former skeptic replied, “Your sermons, sir, were helpful, but they were not what finally persuaded me to become a Christian. A few weeks ago, as I was leaving church, I noticed an elderly lady with a radiant face. Because she was making her way with difficulty along the icy street, I offered to help her. As we walked along together, she looked up at me and said, ‘I wonder if you know my Savior, Jesus Christ? He is everything in the world to me. I want you to love Him, too.’ Those few words touched my heart, and when I got home, I knelt down and received the Savior.”

Michael’s observation: Isn’t it wonderful to see the Lord working through His Word and through the changed lives of His servants! If God could use this dear elderly lady with a sincere testimony, He can use you and me. I wonder who the Lord will bring across our path today that needs to know Him?