This man’s name is Ruben Robles. He’s a U.S. army veteran who was deported back to Tijuana, and he’s struggling to eek out a living.
Ruben began coming to the men’s discipleship study that we started during our time there. I would never have guessed that he was so depressed, but I found out recently that Ruben was planning to commit suicide. But after coming to the study, he changed his mind. God used something we said or did during our time together to convince him that he could go on living.
You never know what is going on under the exterior when you talk to people. We are all good at putting up fronts to project an image. Ruben was suffering, and we didn’t even know it. But God gave him something to live for through that men’s study.
Stories like these are always stark reminders of the magnitude of what we are doing when we answer the call to love people and influence them with the Word of God.
But we all have the opportunity to reach out and rescue the dying every single day. You and I know people who don’t yet know the Lord, and we have a solemn obligation to share the life of Christ with them. When you are faithful to step out and extend the love of God to to your friends and neighbors, and tell them about the salvation found in Jesus Christ, you are taking part in the most powerful and most important undertaking in the world. Out of all the noble causes that men can involve themselves, there is none greater or more honorable than to lead people to Jesus Christ.
“Let him know, that he who converts the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” James 5:20