The Button
Theme of the Week: Testing Positive
Barbara Johnson
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
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Key Bible Verse: He felt great pity for the crowds that came, because … they didn't know where to go for help (Matthew 9:36). Bonus Reading:Matthew 18:10-14
Speaking to a women's audience on "What Would Jesus Do?" I'd distributed buttons inscribed Someone Jesus Loves Has AIDS. Afterwards the conference director rushed up to say that a prostitute with full-blown AIDS was in the locker room, hiding from her pimp, threatening suicide, and insisting on talking to me! I quickly gathered five women to come with me.
She was dirty and smelly from sleeping in a dumpster. Her pimp was trying to kill her because she wanted to stop turning tricks. The jagged face scar and bullet hole in her leg were evidence. First off, I give her the button. As she held it tightly, we talked about how Jesus could give her a new heart and life. Within minutes, she was praying to accept Christ as Savior.
As one woman ran for shampoo, another for a conference sweatshirt, I started cleaning her up in the shower. I saw a fresh gaping wound on her chest. "We need to get you a doctor," I said.
"No," she insisted. "I just need to get out of town." We hustled up money for a bus ticket. Someone called a taxi.
"Wait!" she said. "The button!" Pulling her filthy shirt out of the trash, she retrieved the button, proudly pinning it on her clean sweatshirt.
—Barbara Johnson in Christian Reader
My Response: I'll watch for a "WWJD" opportunity today.
Thought to Apply: If you're going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can't pick and choose who's going to be the sparrow.
—Madeleine L'Engle (author)
Adapted from He's Gonna Toot and I'm Gonna Scoot (Word, 1999) by permission.
Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.
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Thank you, God, that Your purity never blocked Your mercy. Show me how to model Your compassion for the hurting.
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