"One at a Time"

“One at a Time”

In 1997 I attended our church fellowship’s Annual Conference in California. As it was the 50^th anniversary of the founding of our Association it was a time of celebration but also challenge to reach out into our communities through prayer and actions. When I returned home our elders discussed what we could do to penetrate Manchester and the surrounding area. Among other efforts two of our men spearheaded a tract distribution ministry and we began plans to call a Youth Pastor (which happened two years later). We also began a weekly prayer time specifically directed towards those relatives and friends we wanted to see come to Christ and made a seven column list of first names so each would be brought before the Lord regularly (I still pray through the last update prepared before we moved in June 2009).

God further impressed on me the desire to drive down every street in our city and pray for those who lived, worked, played and went to school on each one. As I did this I had to fight the enemy’s taunts that the task was too big and our Body too small to make a dent in our community’s needs. God overcame this sense of being overwhelmed by telling me, “I still reach people one at a time”. This encouraged me (and I hope it will you too) to see individuals rather than the crowd and use us as instruments to impact people “one at a time”.

As I made my way around town I found streets I‘d never heard of, some less than a block long. I also discovered some so new they weren’t yet on the map! Does this mean they weren’t important? Just as the blood in our bodies fills the smallest and out-of-the-way capillaries God’s grace fills the smallest and least known streets because people are there for whom Jesus died. That makes them significant, doesn’t it?

There’s no place on earth where God’s presence is lacking. In Psalm 139:7 King David raises a rhetorical question: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” The answer: Nowhere (see verses 8-10). Does size matter? Check out Jeremiah 23:24: “’Can anyone hide in the secret places so that I cannot see him?...Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord.”

God has empowered us with His Spirit to be His representatives (Acts 1:8) on the busy and quiet streets of our towns. Will we commit ourselves to touching lives “one at a time”?

Grace and Blessings!

Jim McMillan