The Unexpected Adventure: Share

Day 15 Adventure ~ Mountaintop Experience
MARK MITTELBERG

Few places are as beautiful as Montana’s Beartooth Mountains in midsummer, and no outdoor activity is more fulfilling than backpacking among the craggy peaks, where the sky is clear, the air crisp, and the aroma of pine needles fresh and fragrant. Then there are the high-altitude flowers, with shapes, colors, and sizes you just don’t see down in the lowlands.

One summer, Heidi and I enjoyed a nearly week-long trek into this region. We set up a base camp next to a sparkling mountain stream and took hikes each day, exploring in various directions.

A few days into our trip, we met Dan, who had come up alone and set up camp nearby. We introduced ourselves and invited him to join us the next morning for a day hike up a mountain that overlooked the area. He accepted, and we met him soon after sunrise.

It was a beautiful morning. We walked along, chatting and enjoying the alpine scenery, and the higher we climbed the more mountain flower variations we noticed. After we had all commented about how amazing they were, it struck me that I might be able to bridge the conversation to more significant topics. So I decided to throw out a line and see what happened.

“You know, God must have quite an imagination to create such beauty,” I began. “We keep seeing all these incredible shapes and colors of flowers. The Creator must really be creative.”

I still have a clear mental picture of the scene: we were on a gentle incline, walking single file on the narrow trail. Heidi was up front, Dan was in the middle, and I was in the back (somebody had to guard our group from the grizzly bears). When I made my comment about God’s imagination, Dan glanced back at me and said, “Well, I guess that would be true if you believed in God, but I don’t.”

End of discussion. Or so he thought.

Dan didn’t realize it, but I’m an intellectual-style evangelist who was looking for an atheist to interact with in the mountains. Finally, something really interesting to talk about, I thought. Enough about floral life; let’s talk about eternal life.

It wasn’t hard to keep the dialogue going. I simply replied, “Really? You don’t you believe in God? Why not?” As I expected, he was more than happy to explain his rationale to Heidi and me.

In fact, the rest of the way up the mountain he did his best to lay out the reasons we shouldn’t believe in God, why he couldn’t exist, and how we can live without depending on some manufactured deity. We listened patiently, asking a few questions to gain a clear picture of his beliefs and waiting until it seemed right to offer some of our own thoughts.

That opportunity occurred during most of the hike back down the mountain. As persuasively as I knew how, I tried to answer the objections Dan had raised and to present what I considered to be compelling evidence for God’s existence. We talked about science, logic, philosophy, history, and archaeology, and I tried to explain how all of this — and how knowing Christ in a personal way — had impacted our own lives.

Our discussion lasted all the way back to our base camp, where we started a campfire and talked for a -couple more hours. I wish I could report that at the end Dan fell to his knees, confessed his sins, and then begged us to baptize him in the nearby babbling brook as the fish jumped in the warm glow of the late afternoon sunshine.

That didn’t happen. I do believe, however, that Dan heard some information he hadn’t encountered before. And I trust that God will use that conversation whenever Dan reflects back on our time together.

That said, I think we might meet Dan again in heaven someday. Why? Because there’s one more part to our mountain experience.

Heidi and I had to pack up our stuff and head back down the several-mile journey to where our car was parked. We got everything together and stopped to say good-bye to Dan and to encourage him about what we’d discussed.

Then, about halfway down the trail, we stopped at a little stream to rest and get a drink of water. While we were there we met five big, athletic, and very friendly guys heading up the trail to enjoy a few days of camping. As we talked with them, we found out they were also Christians — and not just any old Christians; they were leaders in the famed Navigators ministry. In other words, they were sort of like Green Berets for God.

As soon as we found that out, we figured God was up to something — maybe a revival in the Rockies — so we told them about meeting Dan, filled them in on our conversations with him, and even drew them a map so they could locate where he was camping. Then we sent them off with a challenge.

“Look, fellows,” I said, imitating the tone of a drill sergeant, “we got this thing started. Now you guys go find Dan and see if you can finish the job.”

It might be my imagination, but I think those guys were salivating as they bounded up the trail, swiftly heading toward the spot we had scrawled on that makeshift map.

Now you know why I think Dan might end up in heaven — whether he likes it or not.
 
Action Principle
Often the most amazing evangelistic encounters come out of making the right split-second decisions. You might not be thinking about spiritual matters or be aware of the opportunity that’s about to open up in front of you. But suddenly you see it and think: Should I or shouldn’t I? I’m not really “prayed up,” I don’t know what I would say next if the person shows interest, and I’m certainly not ready to answer a lot of deep theological questions. My advice? Ignore all of that and do four simple things: take a deep breath, say a quick prayer, open your mouth, and let it fly. God can guide and use you, but first you’ve got to take the small risk of getting the conversation started. That’s where the adventure really gets going.
 
Stepping into the Adventure
In John 4 we’re told about the conversation between Jesus and a woman drawing water from a well. Jesus asked her for a drink, and she quizzed him concerning why he, a Jewish man, would break the cultural customs to talk to a Samaritan woman. But Jesus wasn’t interested in such mundane matters. He saw an opportunity to turn the conversation toward a much more important topic.

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water,” he told her (v. 10). Living water? What’s that? the woman wondered. So she started asking him about it.

Jesus had initiated a spiritual conversation, an initial element in the chain of events necessary to fulfill his mission “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). How can we follow Jesus’ example? Ask God each day to give you the awareness to see the opportunities as well as the courage to seize them. Then when you recognize an open door, do the four things I mentioned in the Action Principle:

1. Take a deep breath. Funny thing, but outreach always goes best when you have plenty of oxygen in your lungs.
2. Say a quick prayer. Ask God to lead and use you. But it must be quick — about the amount of time required to take the deep breath.
3. Open your mouth. This makes your words much easier to understand.
4. Let it fly. You’ve got air in your lungs, God on your side, and something to say; what more could you possibly ask for? Speak up and spark some spiritual action. Don’t delay, don’t change the subject, and don’t give the Devil time to whisper in your ear that this is not an opportune moment. Just let it fly, launch into the adventure, and watch God work.

Inspiration for the Journey
Good -people bring good things out of the good stored up in their heart. . . . For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Luke 6:45 TNIV

Taken from The Unexpected Adventure by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. Copyright © 2009 by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. Used by permission of Zondervan.

The Unexpected Adventure: Care

Day 8 Adventure ~ Putting Love into Action
LEE STROBEL

Leslie and I burst into tears — and I mean that literally: we erupted into sobs when the grim-faced doctors broke the news to us at Leslie’s bedside. There was something terribly wrong with our newborn daughter.
Alison was being rushed into the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. The doctors needed our signatures on legal documents to authorize emergency tests. We were told to prepare for the worst. We were devastated and gripped by fear. Why her? Why us? It was the worst nightmare of every parent.

Alison’s sudden illness shocked us because everything had seemed fine the first day of her life. Although Leslie’s labor had been unusually long, the birth itself was uneventful and the baby seemed to be healthy, alert, and content.

Like all new parents, Leslie and I got caught up in the excitement and euphoria of the long-anticipated event. I remember calling relatives from the recovery room. “You know how most newborn babies are all wrinkled and ugly?” I would say. “Well, Alison’s not like that. She’s absolutely beautiful!” (Now when I look at old photos of Alison moments after she was born, she looks just like any other infant who had just struggled through birth. But such are the eyes of a new father.)

Then, the following day, Leslie and I were waiting for the nurses to bring Alison for her one o’clock feeding. But they didn’t come. We were starting to get impatient. Finally, just before I was going to find out what was holding them up, there was a knock at the door. In came a contingent of doctors bearing the terrible news that made our hearts jump into our throats.

The next several days were a stomach-churning blur. It was agonizing to see our firstborn child hooked up to machines and monitors, with an intravenous needle in her ankle. What’s worse, we weren’t Chris-tians at the time — and without God, there was really nowhere to turn.

In the midst of that horror, I was walking in despair down the hospital corridor when a telephone on the wall rang. A nurse picked it up and then looked around. “It’s for you,” she said.

On the line was David, a man I had known years earlier but hadn’t seen in a long time. At first I was puzzled why he would be calling me, especially there. The truth is that in the course of interacting with David in the past, I had lied to him, misled him, made fun of him, broken promises to him, and ruthlessly criticized his church and everything it stood for. But he was a committed Christian, and that’s why he was on the phone that day.

“I heard what’s going on with your little girl,” David said, his voice laden with concern. “What can I do for you? Can I come down there and be with you for a while? Would you like to talk? Can I bring you anything? Can I run some errands for you? Lee, just give the word and I’ll be there as soon as I can. In the meantime, I’ll be praying for your daughter, and so will my friends at church.”

I was incredulous! I couldn’t believe he had bothered to track me down and was willing to drop everything, take time off from work, and drive sixty miles just to help me. Or that he and some strangers in a church were willing to get on their knees and plead to their God for the recovery of a child they had never met — the offspring of an avowed atheist, no less. There’s no way in the world that I deserved that.

I thanked David, although I didn’t take him up on his offer. Then after ten tense days, Alison simply recovered from her mysterious illness. The doctors didn’t know what to make of it and, by God’s grace, to this day she has never exhibited any lingering effects from it.

Since then Leslie and I have tried to forget the trauma that we went through when Alison was hospitalized. Yet today, more than three decades later, I could take you back to the precise spot where I received that call from Dave. That’s how deeply it’s seared into my memory. His unselfish willingness to serve us was one more influence in my own journey toward Christ.

David’s actions illustrate the kind of impact that Christians can have when we’re willing to go beyond mere words and put the love of Christ into practical action. After all, talk is cheap. Look at Jesus: he didn’t just say he loved the world, he showed his love by becoming a servant.

Jesus served the blind by restoring their sight, lepers by renewing their health, sinners by forgiving their wrongs, and even wedding guests at Cana by turning water into wine. Then in the greatest act of servanthood in history, the Son of God willingly sacrificed his life in order to open the doors of heaven for anyone who would trust in him.

When we serve others as Jesus would, when we sacrifice for others as Jesus did, and when we put our love into tangible action as Jesus modeled, then this can open the hardest of hearts that would otherwise be impervious to the message of Christ. Jesus told us in Matthew 5:16 that if we serve others with “good deeds,” they will be prompted to “praise your Father in heaven.” That’s because when we make the choice to sacrifice our time, energy, or finances to help someone in need — that is, when we act against the grain of our narcissistic, me-first culture — then -people will be curious about what motivates us. Their eyes will naturally drift toward our heavenly Father, who is prompting us to live out the kind of compassionate lifestyle that his Son exhibited.
Words evaporate quickly. Most of what a pastor says in a sermon will be forgotten before dinner. But -people remember a selfless act of servanthood forever. To use Jesus’ metaphors of salt and light, few things are as savory or illuminating as a simple act of kindness performed in the name of Jesus.

I can attest to that because I’ll never forget David.
 
Action Principle
If you want to inject some adventure into your life, use your “compassion radar” to scan the lives of your neighbors, colleagues, and other -people you encounter. Detect their needs and then seek out opportunities to serve them. Your sacrifice on their behalf will be an example of what Jesus is like, and there’s a good chance they’re going to want to know more about the One who motivates you.
 
Stepping into the Adventure
Is there an elderly widow down the block who needs someone to go to the grocery store for her each week? Or a junior high student who’s looking for someone to shoot baskets with him? Or a single mother who could use a baby-sitter for her two children every once in a while? Or a disabled veteran who needs someone to clear the snow off his sidewalk? Or a colleague who’s going through a divorce and could use a listening ear over lunch?

Opportunities to serve others are all around us; we just need to ask God to open our eyes to the situations where he wants us to get involved. You’ll be surprised at how easily and naturally spiritual conversations flow when -people feel sincere gratitude for the help you’ve provided them.

I remember flying into Midway Airport in Chicago late at night during a blizzard several years ago. An engineer from India was sitting next to me. As we talked, I found out he was planning to take a bus all the way to O’Hare Airport and then have his pregnant wife drive down from a distant suburb with his two young children to pick him up. To me, that sounded like a formula for frustration.

“Look, I have a car at Midway,” I told him. “How about if I give you a lift home?”

He was very grateful, and during our drive through the snowstorm, he asked why I had been willing to go out of my way for a stranger like him. I tried to explain by saying, “Has anybody ever done something so kind for you that it makes you want to pass a kindness along to someone else?”

He thought for a moment and then nodded slightly.
“Well, here’s the thing,” I said. “Jesus Christ has done something incredibly kind for me.”

As we talked, he began to understand how God’s outpouring of grace had motivated me to help him. When we finally arrived at his house, he braced for the cold as he stepped from the car. “I’m going to have to do some thinking about all of this,” he said as he thanked me and said good-bye.

There’s no doubt in my mind: my words about Jesus registered with him because he experienced the love of Jesus through my practical deed of giving him a ride through a storm.

The truth is that even the simplest acts can have an eternal impact.
 
Inspiration for the Journey
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 TNIV

Taken from The Unexpected Adventure by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. Copyright © 2009 by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. Used by permission of Zondervan.

The Unexpected Adventure: Prayer

Day 22 Adventure ~ Praying Persistently
LEE STROBEL

I’m not sure why I asked the question. Maybe it was natural curiosity. Or perhaps it flowed from my years of experience as an inquiring reporter. Either way, it also seemed to have been prodded by the Holy Spirit.

The day started out as a celebration of God’s grace. Hundreds of new followers of Jesus had flocked to our church to publicly affirm their faith through baptism, while their friends, families, and members of the community looked on. Baptism candidates each wore a corsage or boutonniere, and they were told they could invite someone — perhaps a family member or the person who led them to Christ — to accompany them as they walked onto the platform.

I was one of the pastors performing the baptisms, which is always a highlight for me. Few things are as inspiring as looking into the eyes of someone freshly redeemed by God’s grace and hearing them affirm their decision to follow Jesus. Sometimes their voice catches as they choke back tears; other times, they can’t contain their smile and their face simply radiates gratitude.

A sixty-something woman, wearing a corsage, walked over to me to be baptized. Next to her was a brawny, tough-looking man who appeared to be a few years older. He looked like a construction worker, his leathery skin deeply etched with lines. I bet he didn’t even need a hammer to pound in a nail — he could probably use his fist. I noticed he wasn’t wearing a boutonniere.

I turned to the woman. “So, you’re here to be baptized,” I said.

She was brimming with joy. “Oh, yes, I am,” she declared.

I smiled at her answer. “Have you received Jesus Christ as your forgiver and leader?” I asked, although the inquiry seemed merely a formality after I had seen Jesus so clearly reflected in her eyes.

She nodded with enthusiasm. “With all of my heart.”

I was just about to baptize her when I glanced at the man at her side. He had been listening intently to what was being said. “Are you her husband?” I asked.

He straightened up. “Well, yes, I am,” he said matter-of-factly.

That’s when the question popped into my mind. In all of the hundreds of baptisms I have performed, I had never done this before. But for a journalist, this would have been the obvious inquiry to make. So I asked him in a sincere and concerned tone, “Have you given your life to Jesus?”

He looked surprised and offended. For the briefest of moments, he glared at me. Then his face screwed into a pained expression, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought he might hit me. But suddenly he burst into tears, weeping uncontrollably, his shoulders bobbing as he tried to catch his breath.

“No, I haven’t,” he managed to say between sobs. “But I want to right now.”

My knees almost buckled. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I glanced around the auditorium, looking for some sort of guidance about what to do next.

“Well, okay then,” I finally said. And with that, as thousands of -people watched, he confessed that he was a sinner, he received forgiveness through Christ, and I had the privilege of baptizing him and his wife together.
It was a glorious moment in the midst of a soaring celebration. He hardly looked like the same man moments later as he stood next to his wife amidst scores of others who had been baptized as we all sang “Amazing Grace.” His smile was as broad and enthusiastic as hers.

Then at the end of the service, just after I stepped off the platform, another woman I didn’t know came bounding up and threw her arms around me. As she sobbed on my shoulder, all I could hear her say was, “Nine years, nine years, nine years . . .”

As you can imagine, I was a bit flustered. “Excuse me, but who are you?” I asked. “And what do you mean, ‘Nine years’?”

She looked up at me, her eyes red from tears. “That’s my sister-in-law you baptized up there, and that’s my brother who you led to Christ and baptized with her,” she explained. “I’ve been praying for that man for nine long years, and the whole time I’ve never seen one hint of spiritual interest. But look what God did today!”

Instantly, a thought popped into my mind: Here is a woman who is glad she didn’t stop praying in year eight.

Yet even as you read that, you might be saying to yourself, Well, she was only getting started. Because you’ve prayed for a wayward son for ten years, or a spiritually confused parent for fifteen years, or a best friend from high school for twenty years. All that time you haven’t seen any evidence whatsoever of a spiritual awakening in them. A thousand times, you’ve been tempted to stop praying for them. What’s the use? Nothing is happening. This woman, however, would tell you to never give up. Never cease praying. Never stop lifting up those you care about to the throne of grace.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t understand everything about prayer. I know that God lets each person decide whether or not to follow him, and we can’t impose our will on someone else, as much as we’d like to. But I’m just naive enough to believe the Bible when it says, “The prayer of a righ-teous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16 TNIV). In fact, I like the quote popularly attributed to Mother Teresa: “When I pray, coincidences happen. When I stop, they don’t.”

“Coincidences” such as an inquisitive former journalist baptizing a woman and not being able to resist asking one pivotal question of her husband.

Action Principle
After getting tired of praying that a spouse, friend, neighbor, or family member would put their trust in Christ, we often give up and go looking for some sort of “evangelistic trick” that might work better. But if the Bible is right when it says that prayer can be “powerful and effective,” then our best course of action is to always prioritize prayer, continually asking God to intervene in that person’s life.
 
Stepping into the Adventure
Have you ever stopped to think that Jesus’ prayers for spiritually lost -people continued right up until his final breath on the cross? As British pastor John Stott observed in The Message of the Sermon on the Mount:
Jesus seems to have prayed for his tormentors actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his hands and feet; indeed, the imperfect tense [of the biblical account in Greek] suggests that he kept praying, kept repeating his entreaty, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”13

If Jesus prayed for his enemies all the way through the torture of the crucifixion, then isn’t it the least we can do to pray for the -people we love and care about but who are living in quiet rebellion against God? When we stop praying for -people, it’s as if we have made up their mind for them. In effect, we’re deciding the individual will never commit his or her life to Christ. But how can we possibly do that when so many unlikely -people — myself included — have unexpectedly ended up in God’s family? I’m sure some of my Chris-tian friends had given up on me, but I’m thankful that my wife and God never did.

I remember talking with a man who received Christ as a teenager at an early Billy Graham rally. He tried to convince his stubborn older brother to follow Jesus, but he was continually rebuffed. His brother went on to get a law degree from Harvard and become a highly successful attorney in Los Angeles, steadfastly refusing to consider the claims of Christ. The man told me how he prayed for his brother for forty-eight years and three hundred and forty eight days. He actually counted!

He finally gave his brother a copy of my book The Case for Christ on Christmas one year; soon after that his brother was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. God used the book to appeal to his legal mind, and he ended up committing his life to Christ on his deathbed.

“Did you ever feel like giving up on your brother?” I asked the man who had been praying for him for almost half a century.

The question took him aback. “No. Of course not. He was my brother. I loved him. What else could I do but pray for him?”

So let me ask you a question: Who have you stopped interceding for? What person in your life did you once pray for fervently, consistently, and specifically, and yet through the years you’ve simply stopped? Here’s an exercise: bring that individual’s face into your mind. Take some time right now to bring him or her to God in prayer, and then commit to regularly intercede for them.

After all, prayer isn’t just one more thing we can do. It’s the very best thing we can do.
 
Inspiration for the Journey
The prayer of a righ-teous person is powerful and effective. James 5:16 TNIV

Taken from The Unexpected Adventure by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. Copyright © 2009 by Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. Used by permission of Zondervan.

July 1, 1999

10th Anniversary of of our Prayer Ministry!

July 1st, 1999.

Carol and I were at the beginning of one of the most life-changing periods in our lives! God has led us to resign our pastoral position at The Woodfield Church culminating 19 years of love, sweat and tears, spend most of July with our then single daughter Jennie at her mission station in Zambia, and return to ... well, whatever was next!

A new call (assignment) from God was evident. Prayer was a driving force. Pastors, a strong focus. A national scope was becoming evident. Everything was clear except how our financial needs would be met. Looking back, we are amazed, not at God's faithfulness (we have never lacked personally nor have we had to decline an unpaid opportunity), but, frankly, amazed at the generosity of so many. Family, of course. Friends, ministry contacts, and colleagues.

Over these now ten years, we are still in awe and appreciation for:

1. Ten years of monthly contributions from donors we know who struggle to make their own ends meet.
2. Someone who would take on an extra job partly as a means to tithe from that income to bless our ministry.
3. The opportunity to serve (with pay!) as an interim Executive Director of an association of 200 congregations.
4. Contributions that end in $xx.64 ... Obviously a tithe on a gift of some kind and now shared with us.
5. The trust to serve as interim pastor of a church in a struggling but strategic Chicago neighborhood.
6. A monthly stipend (almost 9 years now) from an association of churches that allows me to lead prayer seminars at no cost to their churches.
7. The surprise of seeing an every month donor couple as I walked to my seat on an airplane about to fly me to a strategic planning meeting their gifts helped me get to!
8. A check arriving in the mail from lifelong friends who had just lost their job.
9. The surprise of an unexpected (and just in time!) stipend from a ministry organization I had voluntarily and happily served that year without compensation.
10. Special gifts: a computer, airline miles, mega-dollars for medical expenses, meals, lodging, free taxi-service to and from "ORD" (O'Hare) ...

These, and many other examples, allow us to praise God and thank you as we reach the ten year milestone of "Prayer INC" - Praying In the Name of Christ for a prayed-for-planet. God's grace plus your prayerful and financial support have allowed us to write + teach + preach + blog + lead + mentor + learn + ... more.

While we give thanks, we also wonder. What about the next ten years?

• ? - Will God grant us the health, the opportunities? the resources? to serve his Church for another ten years?
• ? - Will we see greater progress towards prayed-for-communities?
• ? - Will our hopes and dreams see greater fruition (such as challenging upcoming generations to live a life of prayer)?
• ? - Will our ministry to pastors extend to the many thousands who have yet to be invited into a Pastors' Prayer Group?

As we observe this important milestone, we invite you to mark it as well and strengthen the ministry of Prayer INC at the same time:

1. 1Write us a note an let us know how God is at work in your life (a ten year retrospective might rekindle your own thankfulness for all the Lord has done or how far he has taken you).
2. Let us know you'll continue to support us with your prayers (do we have your current email address? phil@nppn.org).
3. If you have not been a financial contributor, consider giving a gift for the next 10 months (you could click here to make an online contribution) .
4. As a regular giver (TY, TY, TY!), prayerfully consider increasing your gift by ten per cent for ten months.
5. Assist us with a technology update for our office computer and printer, or ...
6. An updated phone/PDA system for Phil.
7. Enable us to scholarship an under-payed pastor to one of our workshops or conferences.
8. Provide a copy or copies of Giving Ourselves to Prayer, new text book that includes a chapter and many discussion questions from Phil (gifts to our ministry allowed him to work on this project without any compensation).
9. Cover Phil's travel to a strategic planning meeting (almost always pay-your-own-way).
10. Ask the Lord how he could bless Prayer INC for his purposes through your generosity and creativity ...

Already you have gifted us - by reading this letter you demonstrate how much you care for us and want to bless the work God has assigned to Carol and me ... and to you, as he leads you to partner with us in the resourcing of a stealth ministry like ours (strategic but under-the-radar).

Ten times thankful!!

Phil & Carol Miglioratti
1130 Randville Drive 1D
Palatine, IL 60074