My father's birthday passed this September and for the first time in a while I was curious to ask him how old he was since I had somewhat forgotten. "63," he said. I was speechless on the phone for a minute and thought about that long and hard. I gasped inside and thought, "my gosh...I don't know how much time he's got left and He doesn't know Jesus yet."

After Thanksgiving I knew that I couldn't afford a plane ticket out to NY to see my mother and sister again. Plus, in light of what I just shared, I thought it more important to make it a point to go see my dad this Christmas.

Weeks before I went I knew that God wanted me to pray. I was so busy with my end of the year ask and other ministry-related things that I never actually got around to sit and pray for him specifically and our time together until a few days before I was going to leave to see him.

It ended up that three nights before I boarded the plane I got really sick and one of the worst coughs I've had in a REALLY long time. Needless to say it was a battle until that day to keep my wits about me and pray for my father and also pray for the Lord to give me the words to say and the right things to share with him to help him make one step further to knowing Christ.

I arrived on Christmas eve and we didn't talk much that night at all. But a friend of his who's been cooking for him on a regular basis cooked up a KILLER dinner and oh my gosh...I've never been so stuffed in my life. It was probably because weeks prior to Christmas I had been on a nutritional diet that consisted of eating six, smaller, healthy meals a day. So coming into Christmas eve gorging myself on amazing Chinese food was quite a shock for my digestive system. Needless to say, my villi were stretched to the max.

Christmas evening wasn't anything spectacular at all. He was pretty tired after we got back from watching "King Kong," and just wanted to relax and watch more of his Chinese soap operas on DVD and vegetate on the couch (something he didn't get to do often at all because of Quizno's).

I went out for a walk, came back in and came across a story that illustrated the reason for Christ's coming to earth. The story was about a man who saw birds flying into his window constantly because they couldn't see the glass that was there and didn't understand that if they tried to peck through the glass or fly into it, they would die.

The story goes that the man tried to keep shooing the birds away from the window with a lit lamp he had and put the lit lamp by a bird feeder that was outside his house. They just couldn't understand and kept injuring themselves on the glass.

"If only I could become a bird and show them what I meant. Then they would get it," he thought to himself. And instantly, after that moment, he had a revelation of why Jesus Christ had to come to earth to show us the way and die on the cross for our sins.

After reading that to my father, he agreed it was a touching story and we started to talking about many different spiritual things. One thing led to another and one of the most poignant points of our conversation was when we touched on the topic of Christ's deity.

My fatherkept saying that Jesus was one of the good teachers like Muhammad and Buddha and others. But I told him that the Jesus in the scriptures does not share His position with any other; that position being on equal with almighty God, the Father, Himself. I was able to use Josh McDowell's argument, "Is Jesus a liar, lord, or lunatic?" and said to him that Jesus simply does not give us that option. For what prophet before Him claimed to actually be God? No one. You can't call Him "a good teacher". He is either who He says He is or a sick, twisted, evil man, the worst, most vile, deceiver ever. Or He was absolutely crazy. Pick one of these as a viable option but don't just call Him a good teacher.

After sharing the story of Jesus healing the paralytic in Luke, I asked my dad what he thought of Jesus now since He did in fact, claim to be God. He was honest and said, "well...I have to say I don't think I believe who He says He is then."

Although that wasn't the answer I was looking for, it certainly was a huge step in his spiritual progress in wrestling with who th person of Jesus really is. So that is a huge praise and I really thank God for that.

But more than that was the deeper issue of why my dad lived the life he did. He couldn't understand why God would let him going through the life experiences he did and why he had the character flaws he had. He was upset at the fact that he was born with a bad temper and has no control over it.

I tried to explain to him that the only hope we have in overcoming these sins and difficulties is salvation in Christ who can release us from these things but didn't get very far.

All this to say, most of what I just shared with you is smoke and mirrors. The underlying heart issue is why my mother and him divorced...this is the one key issue that holds him back and he is still having trouble owning up to the fact that he had a fault in that and is, in essence, blaming God for it.

It was super late by that time and he had to get up at 7a.m. the next morning to open Quizno's (Why, I don't know! His partner's idea...crazy and a waste of time, I thought. Who wants to go to Quizno's the day after Christmas???). I'm really thankful we got to talk because the entire rest of the day he was out cold from being so tired and didn't have any other opportunities to talk with him.

So praise God I got to share with him when I did. The Lord opened that small window of opportunity and I was able to share what God wanted me to share with him and then that window shut right after.

Praise the Lord for His perfect timing and His all-knowing wisdom to orchestrate the times that we have to share with people and then giving us the words to say to those people to help unlock the fears and questions/obstacles they have to knowing Him.

Please continue praying for God to soften his heart and to lift up these heart issues to the Lord. I pray that he will wrestle with these truths and hard things so that he may come to know the Lord, Jesus Christ. Thanks for reading friend. I hope you were encouraged by this story and can go and do the same with whomever it is God is giving you the window of opportunity to share with. Good night!

This entry was posted by Christopher Wu, on Tuesday, January 10, 2006. You can leave your response.