A Fool for Christ: Jacqui's Faith Journey- Part 3
Hi friends! We have part 3 of Jacqui’s faith journey today. It is a continuation of how the Lord has been able to use her to expand His Kingdom in such wonderful ways. I feel like I could listen to Jacqui all day, but you may feel that way now too… so without further ado we pick up where we left off. Enjoy!
She came up to me and I thought we were going to have to slug it out right there. She said, “Are you the one doing the Bible study at the school?” I said, “Yes.” Now I was scared about what would happen next. Then she said, “You and the lady with the blonde hair?” I again confirmed it was us. Suddenly she said, “Oh, thank you! My kids have been so well behaved this week.” She continued and told me that they had asked Jesus into their hearts. I was tearing up and was very relieved as I told her, “Oh that’s great. I’m so happy. They can come and eat as much candy as they want!” After that she got back in her car and that was it. From then on our interactions were just normal and ordinary, nothing more was said.
It was funny that the Lord gave me that sort of audacity at the time. My friend Tammy Blackwell, who is one of the stars in my life, came to me one day and said, “You know what we ought to do? We need to start a class called To Every Man an Answer. If people have questions about the Bible, we’ll answer them.” Even though we were both Christians for only about a year, I thought that was a great idea. We started featuring this class as a monthly edition to our Bible club. We had the kids write out questions and would pull them out of a jar to respond to them.
Some of the questions were really hard. Things like: Where does Jesus sit in my heart? If my uncle died but he didn’t receive Jesus, is he in hell? Somehow, we were not terrified to answer those questions. Instead, it was more of a “bring it on” type of approach. To the best of my ability, I would prepare. I would be reading the Word and had Strong’s concordance, which seemed to weigh about 20 pounds, laid out. I had these huge old commentary books that I would read and, of course, whatever I learned at church. But it was really the Spirit that provided during those sessions.
Those early times were special. We hear about the amazing things that the disciples did and how they were given certain gifts and powers for that time in a unique way that God knows was needed. Then we realize we have that same Spirit available to all of us. I think we need to not fear and that’s why I love to be in the midst of new believers. There is that excitement, zeal, and fearlessness not to be complacent.
God made things very easy for me for a long time to be able to grow. I think there was mercy in that. When I was 36, I was still serving in the new believers ministry. We had a very evangelical church of about 6,000. Each weekend probably a hundred people would come forward. It was a big ministry. One day, my overseer, who was an amazing man of God, asked to see me. I thought maybe I was in trouble. Was I not keeping up? Was he going to fire me? Instead, he asked me to pray about leading the women in the new believers ministry. He told me that people were already coming to me, so he wanted me to step up and be an overseer of the women coming forward, the counselors etc.
I was floored. I told him, “No, no, no. I don’t think you understand. What if they find out I’ve only been a Christian for three years. All these people know the hymns, they know everything.” He said, “No. The Holy Spirit told me it’s you. If you don’t want to do it, I understand, but you really need to pray.”
So I prayed, asked my husband, and then I did it. I just trusted God. At the time, I knew how to be personable, winsome, and communicate. However, God put me in a place where I did not feel prepared in a practical way. I had to handle the Word of God. My style was formulated so differently than what I would typically see. I would have all these ideas come to me, I would go to scripture, and I would try to break it down. It was not the same way anyone that was trained or that went to seminary would do. For me, there was nothing like holding scripture in my hand and saying, “Let’s turn to Matthew 11.” Now, I cannot do that. Only God can do that.
It was clear to me that the Lord started letting me do things before I knew how to do them. I would say that as an encouragement to any of us. Whatever God’s asking us to do, if it’s something we feel insecure about or we don’t know how to do it, it could really be Him asking us to move. He is not always going to put us in areas of our own strength. If He did, then we could do that, we could handle that. But I believe He wants us to be relying on Him. He wants to do things in our own weakness.
In a way, it would be to say that we are completely unprepared, but we are not. We are not equipped but we are. We know we haven’t arrived, so we trust Him. I think the last thing we worry about is making a fool of ourselves. It is more of a focus on asking, “Am I glorifying God? Am I being truthful? Am I not being cowardly?”
As a result of being willing to step out in faith, the Lord gave me opportunities to speak in front of people and groups that I would not have imagined, and to go on mission trips that were just wild. One of those places where He would send me was Russia…
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