Can shure tell ‘stuff’ is in the air.  Not only is it tripping the allergies, there is a haze over us.

Still, we got some things accomplished this morning, outside.

Luke 14:1 And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.

that they watched him

When we proclaim the salvation of Christ and our love for Him people watch us, just as they watched Him.

They want to see how we handle adversity, people that are less than pleasant, how we go about doing our job and anything else that will show them what our character is.

Some are watching, hoping that we will make mistakes that we will be less of an Ambassador for Christ and more of an embarrassment to Him. 

They want to point out that we are no different than them.

That the assertions we make, as to our faith in Christ is hypocritical.

Others want to see if Christ does make a difference.  And want to see that He indeed does.

It is a good chance that the Holy Spirit is working on both types of people and touching their heart in an attempt to break through their unbelief.

So, everything we do must be done with the understanding that someone is watching, and our actions may help the Holy Spirit to convince them of Christ’s love and sacrifice.

I received a notice today stating my account was past due.  Since it is a reoccurring payment taken out of our account each month there was no reason for the notice – or lack of payment.

The bill does get charged to my credit card, but I had called them with the changes in the card and new expiration date.

So, I called their customer service number.  I was not happy because in addition to ‘blaming me’ for the problem I was charged an extra amount of money for being late.

The young man that I talked to was very diplomatic.  These companies must do a psych test on these people to make sure they stay calm under pressure.

I expressed my displeasure, but was careful not to ‘take it out’ on the person.  I explained that I had called and given the changes to a young lady over a month ago.

As we talked he was going through my account and said the new information had been recorded but somehow my status of pre-arranged monthly payments had been changed and therefore they didn’t charge the account – and of course, I didn’t pay them as would have been expected.

We talked for a bit, and laughed – usually these people can do their computer work and talk at the same time.  I always enjoy finding out what part of the country they are from and a little bit about them without getting too much into personal info that I am sure they have been taught not to give.

After he was done with the computer work, crediting my account and getting it reset he said, he just wanted to give a word of encouragement.

“Don’t let someone take away your Joy; chances are that they are not the ones that gave it to you.”

I then told him my Joy was in Jesus Christ – we had a good exchange, he said they work from a script and aren’t supposed to deviate but he was glad I picked up on his reference.

Made me glad I hadn’t been a ‘jerk’ and was able to share our mutual love of Christ.

Even when we are not happy and feel we have been ill-treated, we never know who is listening in and we may have missed a chance to tell them about our Savior.

It was also a reminder that no matter what the company ‘rules’ say about discussing religion, there are still ways to proclaim Christ’s love without violating those rules.

that they watched him

Later, Art :-)