During our outreach to Tyler Junior college on 11/11/15 it appeared that no one was listening and no one was willing to stop and have conversation. Each week while on campus at 10 minutes to the hour I preach a short gospel message. It is a 7 minute message that you can read yourself by clicking on, What do I Preach? I do this because the students are changing classes during the 10 minute period before the hour. We then pass out Gospel's of John, and other tracts while availing ourselves to talk with both faculty and students.
On this day no one had stopped for the preaching or to have conversation, and we had passed out very few tracts. At 10 minutes until 12 it was the last time that I would preach before departing for lunch. Two young ladies stopped and were listening as I preached the gospel. They then saw my ministry partner Jason McMurray who was passing out tracts. They began talking with him. As it turns out they were two young christian women and they rejoiced that the gospel was being preached. They also wanted to know what made us so fearless.
Why would an intelligent, well educated, professional man do something that makes him look and sound like a fool to other men? I preach the gospel publicly for two
reasons:
- Out of love and thanksgiving towards God, for the grace and kindness He has demonstrated towards me in Christ Jesus my Lord. I am a wretched sinner deserving of the eternal wrath of almighty God, but He has given me eternal life in His Son.
- Out of love and compassion for my neighbor. By profession I am a Critical Care Registered Nurse; which means that I help people, who, because of an illness or an injury cannot sustain life without help. I help them until their body recovers to the point that it can sustain life without my help. Many people do recover, but often times they do not, and I am powerless to sustain their lives. Suffice it to say, I SEE A LOT OF DEATH.
Jesus said
that He is the Christ, which means that He is the anointed One of God. Jesus said that He is the Son of God. The Jews understood, that by His saying, "I
am the Son of God", He was making Himself equal with God. Jesus told the Jews on several occasions,
"The works that I do in My Father's name, these testify of Me."
Jesus
promised eternal life to everyone who believes in Him. He was brutally beaten, marched through the
streets of Jerusalem, nailed to a cross of wood, on which He suffered and died
a gruesome public death. He was buried,
and then on the third day He defeated death and rose from the dead.
Thank about
this for a minute: Jesus claimed to be the Christ, the Son of God. He demonstrated by His works that He is in
truth who He claimed to be. Jesus
promised eternal life to everyone who believes in Him. He demonstrated His power over death by dying
and then rising from the dead. What are
you waiting for? "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom
of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel."
In Christ alone,
Salvation from the wrath of God that we
all deserve for our sin is a gift, by His grace alone, through faith alone, in
Jesus Christ alone.
