In first Timothy 2: 1- 4, Paul writes to young Timothy, giving counsel that we are to live lives of prayer, intercession for kings (presidents) and all under authority... and that we all should live lives of peacefulness and quiet (minding our own business and not be busybodies) and of holiness (being set aside to live in honor of God) because it pleases Him, our Savior. In verse 4, Paul states that all people must be saved and come the knowledge of Truth....

A question came to my mind once or rather, many times, why do we "witness" and to whom and why do we go to certain people? How do we know to whom to "give the Gospel"?  I ask myself this, because I've "watched" myself in the way I "choose" certain people over others, how I feel "compassion" for some and not others.

Here is what I'm driving at: You are invited into the office of a CEO with the assumption that the wealthier folks are saved and that the poor are not... or the other way around. Or I've known friends who look at motorcycle riders, who are scruffy, long haired, bearded, wearing leathers, assuming they are not saved. Sometimes it's just the opposite.

I had an acquaintance many years ago, a Jamaican, Samuel Hines, who pastored the All Nations Church in Washington, D.C. At a West Coast Convention (Church of God of Anderson, Indiana) I heard Hines tell the following story:

He had been preaching in a revival in a certain city in Jamaica. On the way returning to his motel, one of the tires on his rental car went flat. He was out in the pouring rain trying to change tires. A woman drives by, rolls down the window on her driver's side, and calls out, asking what he was doing. He responded that he was taking off a flat tire. She responds with the question; "Is your soul flat...?" She made an assumption that he was not saved...why? We will never know why she asked the question.

People have assumed that Indians, who wear long hair, dance in powwows and hold to certain traditional ceremonies, are not saved. Or that all brown people are unsaved or that all hippy looking people are unsaved.

In August 2010, I was sitting in my car with a severally swollen hand due to an injury to an arthritic hand while paddling a canoe on Manzanita Lake above Shingletown, California. The temperature was over one hundred degrees. I was thirsty, hot, sweaty and in great pain. A young woman walked by with a plastic water bottle full of water in her left hand. In her right hand, she had a "ton" of Christian tracts. She asked, "How are you doing?" "Uhnnn," I groaned, "I'm not feeling well...and it's hot."

IGNORING my words and seeing my obvious plight (or, it should have been obvious), she handed me a tract on how to be saved. What? I thought in my pain...why didn't she offer me some water? Why didn't she ask if she could something for me....? Aha...the light bulb flashed. This brought to mind the many times I've observed all I have written in the foregoing.

It's been a growing conviction for many years that we should (generally) exegete the culture of a People or get to a person and build a relationship. Yes, there are times that's not possible...and, then, the Holy Spirit will let us know to be discerning.

Let your light shine.... be salt and light to all around you.

Thanks for listening

John GrosVenor
Nespelem, WA