After praying through the Word and arriving around 5:00 I was comforted by the verse I had wrote down and placed in my back pocket (1 Pet. 4:12-14). Peter is writing to persecuted Christians and encouraging them to embrace and persevere through their various hardships. His encouragement is not to pray that God would take away discomfort and pain because we're Christians but rather to expect persecution, trails & hardships. Peter assures all believers who are faithful to the gospel will have many tough times but God's Spirit will rest upon us and pull us through for His glory & our eternal joy!
So for me, I could say to myself, "If tonight someone spit on me, slapped me, cursed me out or even tried to kill me because I was proclaiming the gospel I could rejoice...Why? because tonight Jesus could break through the clouds and vindicate me or because I had the honor to partake in His sufferings my reward to come is unspeakably great." Its a win/win baby.
So with all this said, lets go back to the streets [the scene]- sunny day, bars are open, the weekend begins and sinners come out to sin.......
[Enter gospel preaching]
I got to speak with many people tonight and no one really stood out but I got many different responses and opinions. The quote of the night was, "That's your interpretation" refering to the reality of hell or the gospel. One couple I witnessed to believed in heaven and that all go there after death and hell is not real. I explained that hell made perfect sense, we've rebelled and sinned against God and His law (10 commandments) therefore we deserve the punishment (hell) for offending our creator and breaking his law. The guy seem to agree but the girl pulled out the ol' "that's your intrepretation." She said she believed in what the bible said but her authority on the issue was of course herself, not the Bible, so I explained God's justice in punishing sinners and righteousness in condemning His Son on the cross for sin. I let her know that she had just broken the 2nd commandment by creating a god(idol) in her mind that allowed her to live in sin without punishing sin in hell. Off to the bars they went proving what it says in Romans 1:18 , that men suppress the truth with their life of sin & wickedness.
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