Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one comes to the Father, but through me.
When we witness to people that are not saved, we sometimes stumble in trying to use words that they will understand. We can tell them the Gospel, of how Jesus was born of a virgin, died on a cross for our sins, and rose again, but sometimes illustrations help them in their understanding.
One day during our Bible Study in the morning, I felt that God had given me more of an understanding on this to teach others. It is a small story, but to me very powerful.
We live on a small farm, with apple trees in our pasture, and a popular tree that needed to be cut down. My husband and a friend fell the tree, and decided that it would not be good for firewood. Parts of the tree were rotted clear through, so they set fire to it, assuming that it would burn quickly. After watching it for about two hours, they decided to go into town and buy another chain for the saw, leaving me at home to keep an eye on it. By then it was no longer smoldering, and we assumed the fire had burned itself out.
Little did we know that deep inside the trunk of the tree, a small ember was still smoldering, and within a half of an hour a small breeze came up, fanning that ember causing it to burst into flames. The match had been lit to start the fire, in much the same way as witnessing. The word is given, it may smolder for a time, much like the Holy Spirit does when we first hear of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, and if we listen those words come alive, just as the smoldering in the trunk of the tree. If we ignore the word , it will be like that ember without that breeze to bring it alive.