There's All a Guilty Sinner Needs... In Jesus

I've tried in vain a thousand ways,

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise...

My soul is night, my heart is steel -

I cannot see, I cannot feel....

(Written on the deathbed of an infidel...)

I checked the online news this morning and saw that last night, federal agents had arrived at a lobbyist's house, preparing to arrest him for various charges when they heard a gunshot from inside. They stormed the apartment and found him dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
That sounds like everyday news... But it was a weird feeling this morning to KNOW the guy in the news...

I immediately thought back to an evening in a resturant with this very lobbyist when he took a couple of my friends and I out to dinner not too long ago... Another conversation with him in a Capitol office where he spent much of his time. I remember distinctly thinking over that dinner, "This guy is miserable.What do I say to turn the conversation to things of eternal importance? He wants what we have, but he doesn't even know what it is that he wants..."

The conversation was goofy as David ordered exotic seafood for everyone. One of the representatives who had come along kept thinking of outlandish things to report as lobbyist gifts - like 5 gallon buckets of fresh asparagus and blueberries. It wasn't a bad conversation, just dumb and pointless.
I wanted so badly to say something of value to David, but it never seemed appropriate with the conversation, and I barely got a word in edgewise. I didn't say anything.

Little did I know that David would be in eternity less then a year later. Little did I know the last time I talked to him that I would never see him again until I see him standing before the Great White Throne. If I had known, would I have acted differently? Would I have said something else? Would I have interrupted the goofiness at dinner to ask everyone what is most important to them in life? Of course, we can play those guilty questions over and over again in our head as we think of a thousand, "If onlys."

I cannot change the past. I cannot have one last conversation with him or drop a book in the mail to him, or... But I can change the way I live my life this minute and in the future. I have new opportunities tomorrow. Not just people who are busy, depressed, happy, famous, poor, lost, popular, smart, annoying... They are all souls that will spend eternity somewhere. I could wake up and find any of them in the newspaper tomorrow. And God may have put them in front of me because I know the truth, and it is my responsibility to share it, rather than hoard it.

If only David could sing this hymn. But he can't, and he never will. But there are other David's in the world who need the truth so that they can sing this song and know in the very depths of their heart that though their "soul is night, [their] heart is steel... There's all a guilty sinner needs forevermore in Jesus."

I've tried in vain, a thousand ways

My fears to quell, my hopes to raise;

But what I need, the Bible says,

Is ever, only Jesus.

My soul is night, my heart is steel -

I cannot see, I cannot feel;

For light, for life I must appeal

In simple faith to Jesus.

He died, He lives, He reigns, He pleads,

There's love in all His words and deeds;

There's all a guilty sinner needs

Forevermore in Jesus.

Tho' some should sneer and some should blame,

I'll go with all my guilt and shame;

I'll go to Him because His name,

Above all names is Jesus.

--James Proctor, an infidel, wrote this

on his death bed as he became a Christian.

Year in Review, Part 3

My brother,
Abe,
sharing
the gospel
with
whoever
will listen!
(Memphis, TN
Spring '07)









Throughout the spring, various members of our family enjoyed going to the Springfield square with some of the folks from church who go there faithfully every Friday night to talk with anyone who will listen... about God, life, if the Bible is true, social issues of the day, President Bush, drugs, gangs, creation science, homelessness.... Sometime conversations get really interesting!

At the square, you never know who you are going to meet, or what people hanging out for the evening are going to say or want to talk about. But, the goal is to bring their thoughts to what life is really all about, Who made them, and if they are ready to answer to their Maker someday.

When desiring to share the gospel with someone, I often think of the story of the woman at the well in the Bible. Everyone else ignored the Samaritan woman as she went about her daily tasks. After all, she was of low class, messed up... in short, the Jews didn't talk to people like her.
But Jesus stopped.
He didn't hit her over the head with a fire and brimstone sermon. He didn't bring up her five husbands first. Rather, He showed interest and concern for her as a person. He engaged her in conversation. Then He went straight for her heart. He knew that she was lonely, hurting, and empty... and that is exactly were He steered the conversation. Did she want living water, He asked? He aroused her curiosity... Soon she was asking to know more, to know what he thought about her religion's teachings...
And a few minutes later, she was running back to the city to tell the men that she had found the Messiah. "Come see a Man that told me all things that I ever did!"

That's the goal when we share the gospel at the square -- to bring people to realization of their lives before a holy God, and then to point them to Living Water.

Below: It's the tradition to spend a few hours at the Square, and then head over to Braum's for ice cream and "de-briefing" before heading home. Someone always has quite a story about an experience with someone on the street!

First picture: Some of the dads, in the back ground, some of the girls
Second picture: Some of the younger guys, relating the experiences of the night

Souls

Christian people, are you figuring round and round how to get a little property, yet neglecting souls? Beware lest you ruin souls that never can live again! Do you say - I thought they knew it all?
They reply to you, I did not suppose you believed a word of it yourselves. You did not act as if you did. Are you going to heaven? Well, I am going down to hell! There is no hope for me now. You will sometimes think of me then, as you shall see the smoke of my woe rising up darkly athwart the glorious heavens. After I have been there a long, long time, you will sometimes think that I, who once lived by your side, am there. O remember, you cannot pray for me then; but you will remember that once you might have warned and might have saved me.
Charles G. Finney

Today Christians spend more money on dog food than on missions.
Leonard Ravenhill

Many do not recognize the fact as they ought, that Satan has got men fast asleep in sin and that it is his great device to keep them so. He does not care what we do if he can do that. We may sing songs about the sweet by and by, preach sermons and say prayers until doomsday, and he will never concern himself about us, if we don't wake anybody up. But if we awake the sleeping sinner he will gnash on us with his teeth. This is our work - to wake people up.
Catherine Booth



At the day of judgment we shall all meet again.
George Whitefield

Have you ever stopped to think when you ignored the still, small voice that told you to say something or give a tract and instead, quickly turned away and hurried back to your car, you will meet that person again on judgment day? Have you thought of watching their sentencing for eternity on that day?

Am I more afraid of offending someone than I am of them going to hell?

And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the the great day of His wrath is come; and who is able to stand? Rev. 6:15-17

And I saw the dead, great and small stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which was the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. Rev. 20:12