Tomorrow, June 28, we will buy lunch and eat with the maintenance staff of the apartment where we are staying in Bangkok. Four of the ten people we will be eating with speak Khmer, and the other six speak exclusively Thai. The Lord put this idea on my heart a few days ago, and I am praying that this time of fellowship will help us cultivate a good relationship with all of these people, and that it will help prepare their hearts for the time that I will, Lord-willing, speak to them about Christ.
I firmly believe that until people truly believe that we care about them personally, they will not be receptive to the message that we preach. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, one of the first characteristics that a lost person will sense in us is the love of God. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love...." (Galatians 5:22). It is interesting to me that of all the characteristics that God could have mentioned first in this list in Galatians 5:22-23, love was His choice. I believe at least one of the reasons that God placed love at the top of this list is because He knows that people respond to genuine love. Sadly, however, untold millions in this world live their entire lives without ever coming face to face with a Spirit-filled Christian who is overflowing with the love of Christ. I pray that after we leave this place, these people whom we have had the privilege to meet and know will say of us in their hearts, "Those people love us." Better yet, I pray they will be able to say, "God loves me, and I love Him."
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When Bro. Shull first moved to Cambodia, he would take a glass of cold water outside every day to a man who was waiting in the hot sun for moto customers. Although he could not yet speak Khmer, he showed the love of Christ daily. Years later, that man is now saved and one of the most faithful men in his church.
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