I was sitting at Whataburger in the drive through line waiting for my lunch to be prepared, and saw a newspaper box for the Tulsa World sitting by an entrance to the building. And on it was a sticker that someone had stuck on the side of it which read Jesus: The Way, The Truth, The Life, John 14:6.
And it made me wonder, is this what Jesus meant when He was telling the story about the man who put together the big supper and invited people from all around to it. (Luke 14:16 - 23)
Most of the people who were invited declined his offer, and so he sent his servants out to compel anyone they could find to come to the dinner. I have always heard this taught that we should go and compel people to come to the Lord.
But when I saw this sticker, it really set me to wondering if this is what Jesus meant when He told this story. Does sticking a sticker on a newspaper box compel someone to come to Jesus? I don't really think so. The word compel means, "to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly". Seeing this sticker does not compel me to do anything, well maybe it does, it makes me kind of want to find the person and smack them in the head and say, "What were you thinking?"
The thing that bothers me about this, is that the person who stuck this sticker on the newspaper box, probably walked away thinking that they did a service for the Lord. I'm sad to say that most people wouldn't see it that way at all. Let's get people in the Kingdom, but let's do it by getting to know them, forming a relationship and letting them see Jesus in us, the hope of glory. Then they'll ask us about why we're different, and decide they want that too.
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