2 August 2013 Novi Sad, Serbia [Yvonne Bauwens, tedNEWS] Voting. I am sure many of you have in your life. Pastor Patrick Johnson tells Friday evening’s participants about three possible options for electing a new world leader, and their vote decides the fate. Ha! No pressure! The first two of our candidates have questionable lifestyles including heavy drinking, chain smoking; cheating on their wives, and one is an opium user. Candidate No.3 has many medals from the war, does not smoke and has never cheated on his wife. So whom would you choose? Like me, does your conscience scream candidate No.3? If yes, Adolf Hitler is our new leader!
It is so easy to judge a book by its cover. I am guilty of it! Recently, I caught myself being exasperated by a car abandoned in the middle of the road. In actual fact, the force from another car smashing into it had pushed it half way across the road! With this vital piece of information, my guilt of judging him certainly had an impact on me! In the same way, Pastor Johnson’s sobering message using the story of the Samaritan
woman at the well (John 4.3-42) and how Jesus made a difference in her life, left an impression on everyone, especially the eleven candidates for baptism. The Samaritan woman, after hearing about Jesus’ offer of living water, leaves her jar at the well, a sign that she will return.
Regardless of the labels in this life, Jesus looks past the outward appearance and sees the inner qualities and the true state of our heart.
Starting with one little phone, torches beamed brightly around the arena while a choir sang ‘This Little Light of Mine’. The light of Christ’s love in our hearts was carried out to the open-air baptistery pool. There, an original eleven young people from different countries became twelve and publically said ‘YES’ to Jesus! They cast their vote for the Lord Jesus while the enthusiastic band led 3000 witnesses in song, and joined the millions of heavenly hosts’ celebration!