Friday night Mike and I went down to College and Clayton, in Athens, to share the Gospel. As I was preaching, we saw 2 Peter 3:3 played out before us as some young folks came by scoffing. I thanked them for confirming what the Bible says but also encouraged them to repent and trust Jesus, assuring them that even scoffers could be born again.
As Mike was preaching, a young couple stopped by and informed us that God’s love came before His hate. Mike did a great job of ignoring the kid and continued preaching, so I asked him what he meant by his statement. The young man walked over and repeated his statement and, claiming to be a Christian (he might have been, God knows), told me that in doing Mark 16:15 we were wrong. Of course, he didn’t quote the verse, or any verse, he just objected to God’s word being preached. Then, he informed us that darkness couldn’t exist without light. I let him know that darkness was simply the absence of light. He declared he didn’t care about us, so I questioned how he could be a Christian and not care about us. He had no reply. His point was that God loves and accepts everyone. At least that’s what I think he was saying. If his perspective were true, which it isn’t, then I could see why he thought his objection was valid. The truth is, God will judge those who are not born again, for their sin, so we warn of the wrath to come and plead with sinners to repent and trust Christ.
As we were getting ready to leave, a young guy came up and began a conversation with us. He had been raised in church but said because he knew a lot about the Bible he had doubts about it because of the contradictions in it. We asked him what his biggest problem was. He said he struggled with John 3:16 and the fact that the person over in the jungle somewhere who never heard about Jesus would die and go to hell. We read Romans 1:18-20 with him, showing him that there was no contradiction and that God was just in judging all people and that nobody had an excuse. Earlier he had told us he was agnostic now so Mike tried to turn the conversation back to his need for a Savior. The kid made a comment that began with, “As a Christian am I…”. Mike told him that an agnostic wasn’t a Christian and the kid, who had been very nice and respectful, suddenly said, “I thought you guys were real Christians”, flipped us off, cussed us out and stormed off. Mike and I looked at each other amazed at how quickly the kid’s attitude went south. I’m not one to see the devil behind every bush and every angry objector as demon processed, but it was almost like someone else had taken over his body at the moment he began to blast us.
I also got to have lunch today with one of my biggest encouragers. Always a blessing to see Scooter. Thanks for lunch! I appreciate you very much Brother! He’s probably the only person, besides my mom (Hi Mom!), that reads these blog posts. 🙂
Until All Hear!
Alex
2 Corinthians 5:21