When I got the final proof of a book I had just gotten published, my wife and I went to her sister's biker bar to show it to her. We are always looking for a way to reach out to her and thought it might work. Unknown to us at the time, there was a guy sitting at the bar who was contemplating suicide. My wife's sister and the patrons were worried and didn't know what to do. They guy looked at my book and said to me, "It's too bad there aren't any miracles today like there were in the old days." I told him that my book contained 330 pages of miracles which happened just to me and my family and friends over the past 20 years or so. That got him started. He told me that he had given up on life and that when he went to church for help, the pastor turned him away. But he had kicked heroin addiction and had overcome many tough obstacles. I explained to him that just that fact was evidence of God's working in his life.
We wound up praying with him to give his life to Jesus. We bound up the demonic influences in his life, and watched him transform into a new creation right Before our eyes. "Wow!" he began, "What are the chances of me sitting here drinking the last beer of my life before I kill myself, and having a minister walk in and sit down beside me in a backwoods biker bar and pray with me? There really are miracles today and I've just witnessed one which has saved my life. God bless you. You have know idea what this means to me."
On the way out the door several bikers thanked me. One shook my hand, another gave me a hug and said, "God bless you! You just saved this dude's life! Come back and talk to us again!"
That suicidal ex-heroin addict was one of the first people to buy a copy of my book when our first order came. He is going to church weekly and had gotten involved in a weekly men's breakfast and God is working in his life.
The point is, there was a time when I would not have stepped foot in any bar. When I met my wife, she changed my perspective. She has tended bar for 20 years because she believes that is God's mission field for her. She has saved countless people from killing themselves, she has reconciled probably a hundred or more marriages, and has led many more to Jesus. Yeah, the naysayers will scoff and ask how serving alcohol could be right. Well, they might have a point, but how is letting so many people rot in hell and die needlessly because she didn't care ever right in God's eyes? Jesus spent much of His time with such people, and I can see why. Indeed, there was a time when I thought witnessing in a bar was about the last place I would share the Gospel. But my wife showed me just how fruitful it can be if we don't limit God's ability to work through us.
