Special Invitations

For me, salespersons that make "cold calls" are brave. God hasn't called me to be a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman and I'm glad. However, this weekend I witnessed a young man who deserves a medal of courage for a "sale" I saw him make.

I was in a seafood market in a local county waiting for a burly man to fill my order for 3 pounds of shrimp. As soon as he laid my order on the counter, a young "twenty-something" man walked in carrying a box of children's items.

The young man stood in silence until the man behind the counter was finished. Then, he approached the counter with confidence. When asked what he had, he said, "I've got something for the kids." The man responded in a deep voice, "I don't have any kids." This did not faze this salesman. He stood his ground and handed the man a box of children’s "pop-up" books and said, "Well, maybe your wife would like them." There was silence. Then he shared, "This item is normally $50, we've marked it down to $19.99, but today we're selling it for $10.00." What a deal!

To my amazement, the man behind the counter said, "O.K" and he handed him 10 bucks.

This incident taught me something. You can't make a sale, if you don't ask. Also, the same principle is true in regard to inviting someone to church or to a personal relationship with Jesus.

Jesus was always inviting people to come to follow Him. In John 1:43, Jesus invited Philip by saying, “Follow me.” Christ said "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).

As Christians, we need to invite others to come to Jesus. Have you ever invited your neighbor to go to church with you? The Bible teaches the Holy Spirit is working in the lives of people to prepare the way for our invitation. So, if a young man can sell a pop-up book to a brawny shrimper, Christians should not shy away from inviting people to a personal relationship with Jesus.