01/31/12 SAD ENCOUNTERS

01/31/12 SAD ENCOUNTERS

At the gym today, I was sharing some Good News with a man in his late 60s and told him I would like to meet with him concerning Christ and the Bible.

He told me that would never happen, and I asked why. He recounted some tragic events that happened when he attended church as a young person and said, 'Somebody was trying to tell me something."

I agreed, but then pointed out that it was not God telling him to neglect his soul. He sat there as if he had never thought of that angle before. A life misspent because he listened to Satan.

Pray for my friend.

Early in my ministry I was pastor on the coast. One of the men in the community, a strong willed, independent net fisherman, was known for his rugged and sinful ways. I visited him, in order to share the gospel.

He told me he could not be saved. I asked him, "Why?"

He said he had been told as a child that he could not get saved because he was illegitimate.

This erroneous information, based on a faulty explanation of ceremonial and Jewish law (De. 23:2), had robbed him of all hope throughout his life. Though I explained the passage to him and showed him that he could be saved, he was fully convinced of his impending doom.

Not long after our talk, during a Sunday morning service, a person came rushing into the sanctuary and announced that they had just retrieved this man from the water.

I rushed to the harbor, in hopes of praying with him. Too late, he had drowned while his family was worshiping in the sanctuary. The scene was horrific, as family and friends wailed for the loss of this tormented man.

He could have been in worship too, but he had believed the lie of Satan. A lie that had been foisted on him by misinformed professors of faith.