Written by Pastor Jack Wellman– Harry Emerson Fosdick
When people are throwing up their hands in frustration that “it can’t be done,” they are often interrupted by someone who says “I’m doing it.”
Witnessing to Family
This is one of the hardest things any of us can do. Witnessing about Christ to our family seems impossible, but, interestingly, someone else has usually already done it. Those who are closest to us are often those we find it most difficult to share our faith with because in many cases, familiarity does breed contempt. As Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household” (Matt. 13:57), and in parts of the world, “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death” (Matt. 10:21).
Visiting the Prisoners
For the longest time, I tried to visit a man I was writing to in prison. Since I was in that same prison myself in my youth, they didn’t allow former prisoners to visit the same institution in which they were. That seemed totally unfair to me since I hadn’t committed a violent crime. Plus, I had paid the debt that I owed to society, and now it was like double jeopardy. The interesting thing was that a former prisoner from another prison within the same state could. I thought I’d never get to bring the Gospel to him in person, but someone else had already done this, and that’s good because this is the work of Christ, as Jesus said of His servants, “‘When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (Matt. 25:39-40).
Attending Church
I had contact with a former Muslim not long ago, and he wanted to know who Jesus was. That was so exciting, and I told him from the Scriptures Who Jesus is (Rom. 10:9-13, etc.). He finally rejected the Islamic faith and placed his trust in Christ. The only thing is, he thought he couldn’t ever attend a church because where he lived it was illegal to not only attend a church but for a church to even exist there, so I thought I could send him links to our church sermons and he could hear biblical messages and worship with us through the Internet. What he had thought was impossible was already being done through the Internet, and he now gets to feed on the Word of God and is now part of the universal body of Christ.
World Religions
Every religion in the world is “do, do, do,” but only in Christ is it “done!” This is why so many other religions have little or no hope, because they’re never sure that they’ve done enough, but the good news is that our works can’t save us since it is a free gift from God and cannot possibly ever be earned by works anyway (Eph. 2:8-9). What they thought couldn’t be done is done already by Christ on Calvary. What they didn’t realize was that it’s not about religion; it’s about a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Conclusion
God can do the impossible and improbable so that He receives the glory. It really is true: The one who says it can’t be done is often interrupted by someone who is doing it or already has. Praise God for that!
