Truth that changes lives
I have one story to share with
you all that shows the influence of the Holy Spirit through us even on people
who would normally try to ignore us. There were two ladies coming through our
corner, and I handed them a couple of tracts and told them it asked a simple
question and has a simple answer. The tract is the one with the little man on
the front that says ‘Are you a good person’. They seemed like they were going
to keep walking but they stopped there and talked to each other about something
else, I couldn’t tell what. But I knew one thing - that meant they were still
there for me to talk to, so I went back over to them. I can’t remember all of
the things that I told them, but they listened. I asked them questions, and
they would answer me with the shortest answers possible. After going through
the Ten Commandments, I did find out that they really didn’t think they had
done anything particularly wrong, and they had very little understanding of why
Jesus came to the earth to live among us and then to die and rise again. It had
very little meaning to them before I explained it. And I told them that if you
haven’t done anything particularly wrong, then God is not very intelligent to
send His own Son to the earth to die, when it wasn’t really needed. They were
still taking it a bit casually and lightheartedly, so I explained God’s perfect
character more thoroughly. And I warned them to really repent and turn away
from all of their sin. God isn’t wanting to save us
from lying so frequently, He wants to save us from lying at all. And He doesn’t
want save to us from just some of our sexual immorality,
He wants to save us from all of it. And not just some of our
false ideas of gods, but all of them. And not just
some of our discontentment and covetousness, but all of it. And not just some of our irreverence to God, but all of it, and so
on. I noticed that they didn’t really want to say much lest they
incriminate themselves, so that gave me a chance to describe a lot of things
for them. I must have given them like five opportunities to leave the
conversation, but they kept giving short responses and then just stand there
waiting for whatever was next. I eventually ran out of things to say, and so I
just very plainly warned them not to ignore God, so they don’t end up finding
themselves to be an enemy of God. And I warned them to repent of all of their
sin and give their life entirely to follow Christ. And I pointed out that until
I explained all of that, they really weren’t taking it very seriously and
weren’t very appreciative of Christ’s sacrifice for us, and actually really
didn’t even understand the point of it. And they agreed! And that was all the
response I got to it, so I wished them a nice evening. I believe was just the
beginning of what God is trying to say to them, but it seems like they might
have heard God’s Word for the first time in a while. I pray and trust that they
will decide to listen and stop ignoring Him.