It always does me good, and I’m glad it happened this week.  From time to time I can sit in a service and be “preached at” instead of preaching myself.  We just wrapped up our missions conference on Wednesday, and I praise the Lord for the blessing it was to our church and to me personally.  There is much that I could share with you, but I’ll limit it to just one thought that keeps running through my mind.  It wasn’t a major point in the message; I don’t think it was even a sub-point.  It was just something mentioned, but it sure stuck.  You see, when we first meet someone, there is much we don’t know about that person.  We may get a certain impression, and sometimes we’re right.  But many times we’re wrong.  Sometimes we remember a name, and often not even that.  Sometimes we do get to know that person better; sometimes we never see them again.  But there is one fact about which we can be absolutely certain, and it’s true about every person we will ever meet.  And it’s this: God doesn’t want that person to perish, yet perish they will if they don’t know Christ.  Doesn’t Peter tell us that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish”?  Paul’s first letter to Timothy includes the truth that God “will have all men to be saved.”  Of course, there’s John 3:16.  God loved the world and gave His Son so that “whosoever” could believe on Him.  Why?  So that person “should not perish.”  Think about it for a minute.  Considering this truth about everyone we encounter could dynamically alter how we treat them.  It will, without a doubt, enlarge our compassion for and witnessing to the lost.  It puts our heart in tune with the heartbeat of God.  It keeps us focused on what really matters.  So try this: when you meet anyone anywhere for any reason, try to consider the one thing you can immediately know.  God doesn’t want that person to perish!