The other day I was travelling back from Whangarei, and just out of Wellsford, on the open road, was a hitchhiker.

He was a Maori, mid 30′s, unshaven, rough looking, pony tailed, with a small bag (not like the guy in the picture at left!).

As soon as I saw him I started the classic ‘would I, won’t I’ dialogue in my head. I looked over at my passengers seat and it was covered with bits and pieces. As I drove passed him I decided it was ‘No’.

But driving away from him, the account of the good Samaritan came to mind. In that parable, all the characters who passed the man on the road had an excuse not to get involved. With that, I braked, did a U turn, drove back a KM or two,  and picked him up.

He was ecstatic – and smelly. I drove the rest of the way with one of the windows down a bit, and we just chatted about everything and anything. Let’s call him Jim.

Naturally, I guided the conversation onto spiritual things and showed him the gospel on my iphone which is what you can see on the web site www.biblein11.com.

Because we had so much time, we were able to talk about various aspects of the gospel message in detail, answer questions etc. It was bliss! There was no pressure for time.

Now, this is where it got really interesting.

It turns out his wife is a Christian and so are ALL the rest of his immediate family.  They have been so for many years. He told me quite a bit about them, and how Jesus had changed their lives and he could see the change.

I wondered if people observing my life would give the good report Jim gave about his family!

I was reminded again of the importance of ‘ploughing’ the soil in the hearts of non-Christians around us though our lives, attitudes and behaviours.

After hearing Jim speak so positively about this Christian family members, I felt convicted to raise the bar in this area of my own life.

Yet, even though his Christian family were a good example to Jim, none had shared the gospel with him.

How interesting.

The family members probably thought that my being kind and loving and Christ-like around their brother Jim would bring him to faith.  Yet, as Jim and I discussed the gospel message he’d just seen, it was obvious he had not a clue about what Christianity was REALLY all about.  Prior to hearing the gospel,and our discussion, literally everything about Christianity was a mystery for Jim. The only thing Jim was clear about was that one became a Christian to become a better person.

He had reasoned, prior to hearing the gospel in my car,  that if you tried to become a better person  in your own strength and succeeded, you had become a Christian!

This was one of the reasons Jim had not converted up to this point – he felt he had too much baggage to complete the clean up job his family had succeeded with. He had reasoned that they had done it, but that he couldn’t.

This whole encounter with Jim re-inforced to me again why we must preach the gospel AND walk the talk.  Both are commanded by Jesus. Both are critical elements of our walk.

The gospel message alludes to so much that could never be figured out just by observing the good lives of Jim’s family: that God made the world, that he is a God of Justice, and one day all of us will be judged by him, that his death on the cross was sacrifice for sin (opened the way for justification), that through Adam and Eve the whole world stands guilty before God, except those who are acquitted through repentance and faith, that Jesus is Lord of all the created order, that real change comes through the power of the Holy Spirit, not through self effort alone,  etc etc.

When we got to Auckland, I asked him where exactly he wanted to go.

It turned out that it was quite a long way from where I was going.  Here was another challenge. Was I just to drop him off near my home wave good bye (smiling and saying ‘bless you’), leaving him to hitch hike through Auckland as night time neared? Or was I to go out of my way. I started to feel anxious.  I had things to do before nightfall, petrol is expensive, I was hungry, etc etc I’d already spent two hours with Jim – is this not enough?

At this point some clear thoughts came into my mind: my time is not my own. Life itself was given by God. I was born by virtue of his sovereign grace and goodness. My life is sustained by the same. My car is not my own. I am just a steward of it. My petrol is not my own. It was provided by God through faithful supporters. Not even my body is my own – I have been bought with a price, and now belong to the Lord. I am a slave of Christ, left here on earth to do his work.

These thoughts calmed me down and helped me pull myself together.

Then I thought about the seminars I run.  I teach a lot about ‘watering’ the seed of the gospel planted i.e. providing conditions favourable for the seed of the gospel to grow. Here was an opportunity with Jim. By going out of my way with Jim, taking him where he wanted to go, I was ‘watering’ the seed of the gospel he had just heard on my iphone. Was I going to just talk about ‘watering’ and teach about it, or was I going to live it?

You know the answer.

Well, as I drove through Auckland taking Jim to where he wanted to go, he wanted to talk more about the gospel. Just before I dropped him off, he asked me to lead him through the sinners prayer.  I gave him a follow up booklet.

So, what do you think is the answer to the question ‘Should Christians Pick Up Hitchhikers?’

Ask each of Jim’s family members now, especially his wife.

What are the lessons here? There are at least six.

(1) Each time God ‘spoke’ to me, he referred me to scripture. Some scripture or thought from scripture came to mind. What’s the lesson here? God speaks through scripture. But we need to read the Bible in order for the Holy Spirit to guide us. Those who don’t read their bibles limit their usefulness to God.

(2) God really does care about non-Christians. He loved Jim so much he arrested me to help him. He overruled my selfishness in order to set Jim free.

(3) We need to walk the talk. Thank God for Jim’s family. Unwittingly, they have been ploughing Jim’s heart. What they didn’t realise was this is only half the job. The other half is proclaiming the gospel.  We won’t get a harvest from a field which is only ploughed.

(4) Selfishness is a cruel master. My natural instinct was to not pick Jim up. I would have justified it, sure. But if I hadn’t picked him up, my trip to Auckland would have been pretty boring. Picking Jim up was the best thing that happened to me all week! I might have missed this. How many other blessings are we missing every day by living selfishly?

(5) The gospel really is ‘the power of God for salvation’ (Romans 1:16).  What Jim’s family couldn’t achieve through many years of good works, the Holy Spirit wrought in a matter of hours through the gospel. When are we going to get this?

(6) God answers prayer. Imagine how Jim’s family would have been praying for this lost sheep in the family! We can all be the answer to someone’s prayer. God works through people to answer prayer. Spurgeon said ‘action without prayer is presumption, but prayer with action is hypocrisy.’ If we pray for the lost but never go to them with the gospel, what does that make us, according to Spurgeon?

If you can think of more lessons, please write in. I’d love to know!

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