I wonder how many opportunities we miss to share Jesus with the world right at our front gate because of excuses.

Maybe I am not a gifted speaker. Maybe I am not educated enough to answer the questions, or important enough for anyone to listen. Maybe I do not possess the time or the resources to make a difference. Or maybe I just do not feel like I have the opportunities to share. I have used all of these excuses more than I can count. 

But even a passing glance at the early church tells us none of these excuses hold water in light of the Gospel. Within two chapters of Acts, each of these of these excuses is systematically shattered.

As long as you are alive and breathing, you have both the opportunity and the responsibility to share Jesus’s message, in both word and deed.

If you think you need to be educated or a gifted speaker to share the Gospel boldly, check out what the Lord did with a couple of fishermen in Acts 4:13 (emphasis mine):

“The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.”

Throughout Scripture, we see it is often the weakest, smallest, and least educated, the easily dismissed, that the Lord uses to do His greatest works. The only qualification is a servant’s humble heart of love that desires to be used  by the Lord. After all, it is not your power but His in the spotlight.

Okay, so you want to be used, but you do not think you have the time or the resources?

When Peter and John encounter the lame beggar at the gate in Acts 3, here is what Peter tells the beggar: “I don’t have any silver or gold for you. But I’ll give you what I have. In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:6)

Even if we possess nothing materially, we have more than enough to share the love and healing of Jesus Christ with someone in tangible ways, because we possess the power of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit within us. And that, even if we have absolutely nothing else, is more than enough. 

But the Lord has blessed us abundantly beyond that, but we must recognize we are simply stewards, not owners, of everything He’s given us. Everything in our possession – time, talent, and treasure – is simply a tool He’s given us to make His love known in tangible ways.

But perhaps the most crucial idea we see in this encounter is opportunity.

In Acts 3 and 4, Peter and John seized opportunities right in front of them to present the love of Jesus in tangible ways, in both word and deed, and it is imperative we recognize the same.

There are countless lost, hurting and desperate souls in need of hope, right in our own back yards – often even right in our own homes. They are the lonely and despairing, scraping fiercely to simply find a sliver of light.

There are countless more right in front of us who are sick and hungry, with very real practical needs, lacking food on the table, a roof over their heads, or clothes their backs. They are in the shelters, the hospitals, the prisons, on the streets, around the corner, or even right next door. 

There are countless masses sitting right at our gate, as it were. We just need the hearts of mercy and compassion to reach out a hand and a heart.

If you’ve truly taken hold of the cross of Jesus Christ, and experienced the healing His salvation brings, then you have all you need.

Seize the opportunity, and share Jesus’s love with the ones right at your gate.

Daniel Kiewel is a reporter with the Great Bend Tribune. He can be reached at dkiewel@gbtribune.com.