A Powerful Analogy

This week I was joined by a fellow labourer who has been witnessing on and off in the Whakatane area for around 40 years.

It was very encouraging to meet with another fellow Christian who cares for the unsaved enough to talk with them about the things of eternity. It's as rare as hen's teeth.

Outside the library I talked with a German girl who said she was a Christian. Regarding eternity she likes to focus her thoughts on Heaven and doesn't like to think about Hell. This mind set is so easy to adopt. I don't think anyone likes to think about Hell. We need to remember the Jesus spoke about Hell. He warned people of it and that's what we should do as well. If we love people and care about them, we will speak the whole truth in love, that there are consequences for our sinful actions, that God commands all men everywhere to turn from sin, because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, that anyone who doesn't obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgement. Accepting Christ isn't solely an issue of happiness but of righteousness. Sure people without Christ can be happy, but without the righteousness of Christ they will perish on the day of Judgement. 

David shared with a guy who at first looked rather intimidating, but he was responsive and was taking in the words of eternal life that David was sharing with him. David shared a powerful analogy with him that seemed to impact him deeply.

David sharing outside the Library

"Imagine a criminal who's committed heinous crimes. He's in a courtroom and his punishment is about to be administered. The criminal has a $50, 000 fine. He has to either pay the fine or will go to jail for a long time. The criminal has not got the money so he is being led to the cells. As he's being taken away, all of a sudden someone he doesn't know bursts into the courtroom with $50,000 and pays the fine. The criminal is released because the fine had been paid. Justice has been satisfied."

Around 2000 years ago, Jesus 'paid our fine' in His life's blood so that on Judgement day God can legally forgive us because Jesus took our punishment.

Our last conversations were with two young guys. They had a Christian background and said they were involved in their church youth group. It was very encouraging to meet them and hear them talk about the things of God. We pray that God will bless them and keep them from temptations.

May  God work in the hearts of the people we talked with this weekend.