Joel Fether, City Life East
“The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.” (John 1:41-42)
Interacting with “Darren” in the last couple of months has given me another opportunity to “re-learn” a lesson I’ve learned many times over the years – you never know how God is at work in the life of another person.
Early in his high school years, Darren started attending City Life with some friends. He came regularly for a while but stopped even though his friends continued to attend. At the time, I assumed he just wasn’t interested in God anymore. Then last fall, two-and-a-half years later, Darren came back. Now a senior, Darren has once again made attending City Life a regular part of his life.
One evening on our way to City Life Club, Darren mentioned that he had been trying to invite his brother to City Life. He actually called his brother from the car and the next thing I knew we were picking up his brother “Lance!” Later that night, after taking Lance home, I asked Darren what his brother thought of the group. He said, “He really liked it. I really like it too. This is my favorite Bible study I’ve been to. You explain the Bible to us and let us sit with it. I also like that there is more of a community here than other groups I’ve been to.”
Darren seemed to understand the gospel, but he said he wasn’t ready to put his faith in Jesus. He understood that this wasn’t a decision to be made lightly. He didn’t want to say “yes” to Jesus unless he really meant it.
A couple of weeks later, Darren and Lance were in small group together discussing the gospel. Lance wanted to put his faith in Jesus, but before he began praying to accept Christ, Darren said, “I want to do it, too.” The whole group joined hands and both Darren and Lance were “rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son”!
I was privileged to drive Darren and Lance home that night. As we pulled out of the parking lot, Lance spoke up from the back seat and said, “Me and Darren got spiritually reborn tonight.” Praise God that one of these brothers was in the process of coming into a relationship with Jesus and on the way he went and found his brother so that he could start a relationship with Jesus too!