“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16“Excuse me—”
He was huge. Powerful. Broad chest and shoulders clothed in a white karate ghi. He looked every bit the part. In fact he scared me at first. I was small and wiry, he was a professional fighter, and he had just broken a pile of concrete blocks…with his head.
“Uh, Mr. Barlow?”
“Yes?” Frank Barlow turned and looked at me. “I’m in kind of a hurry,” he said. “How can I help you, son?”
“I, uh, I just wanted to ask you something—” I paused, hesitated, then just spit it out. “Do you know Jesus?”
Mr. Barlow appeared stunned, caught off guard, but then he chuckled and retaliated as a humored smile broke the stiffness on his face. “Son,” he said, “I don’t have time for religion right now. I have more important things on my mind.” I grinned sheepishly. I knew when I was licked. Besides I didn’t know what to say or do next. For that matter, I had no idea why’d I even asked him the question to begin with, it was just something I felt compelled to do. “Okay,” I said. “I really enjoyed your presentation.” Mr. Barlow nodded, smiled at me, and walked away. I never saw him again.
A few months later my mother told me a story. She had been at gathering of Christian women that day, a lady’s luncheon of sorts. “We had a guest speaker,” she said. “He was a karate expert.”
“Really?” That caught my attention. I was enamored with the notion of karate. Of black belts and fists. Of breaking boards and blocks and people’s heads with nothing but hands and feet. “Who?” I exclaimed. “Who was it?”
“His name was Frank Barlow.”
“Frank Barlow!”
“He gave his testimony,” she explained. “About how he’d become a Christian. About how he was on his way back to his car after a karate exhibition when this high school kid came up to him and asked him if he knew Jesus.”
“Mama, that was me!”
“I know,” my mom said with a smile. “I just thought you might want to know you had an impact on his life. He accepted Christ.”
That was thirty-five years ago. For more than twenty of those years Mr. Barlow operated a dojo in my hometown, called “Judo and Karate for Christ.” Today he is a Karate Master, with a 6th Dan black belt in Shorin Jiu Te Do Karate, and expertise in numerous other disciplines. But today something else is different about him too…today Frank Barlow knows Jesus.
*
I recently received a note from an angry reader. She asked me to stop cramming my religion down her throat. She was referring to the devotionals that I frequently post online. What she doesn’t understand though is that I can’t stop. It took me thirty-five years to realize the depth of the gift that I’d been given—everlasting life. And it’s as real today as it was way back then when I found the guts to ask Frank Barlow that simple question—Do you know Jesus? It changed his life. So now I want everyone to know, including you. For you see, I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Jesus is The Messiah. The living Son of God.
Are you a Christian? Is there someone you know who needs to know the truth that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life? Then tell them. If a skinny eighteen year-old kid can turn a powerful karate expert around by asking him a simple question, then imagine what you could do.
