Sunday, August 31, 2014

Second Chances

This afternoon my wife and I decided to take a drive and look for someone to share the Gospel with. After cruising for about an hour, we saw a man carrying a back pack and bedroll walking through town. We stopped and asked him if he wanted a ride to the nearest mission. He said he was actually walking to the nearest truck stop (which we later discovered was about 30 miles away).


I said we would take him to the mission and that I was interested in getting his story. He was agreeable to that.

He is from California and has several siblings, a lot of them whom he has not met. He was in the foster care system, moving from home to home, for most of his growing up years. As a result of this he had been introduced to several “faiths.”

His mother died a few years ago, and as a result of the loss and not understanding how God could let this happen, he took to the road and has been there ever since, trying to make sense of life.

We explained to him how sin had entered into the world through Adam and as a result death had entered into the world. We live in a corrupt and dark world where bad things happen. Not to take away from the pain he was going through, we also explained that Jesus was a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. He could understand what he was going through.

He wasn’t sure what to believe about Jesus, our condition and the remedy.

We asked him if he agreed with God that he was a sinner. He said he did. We asked him if he believed Jesus paid the penalty for his sin at the cross. He said he did. We asked him if he believed Jesus had risen from the dead. He said he wasn’t sure.

I knew from this that he wasn’t ready to receive Jesus. Only if Jesus has risen from the dead can we be saved.

We prayed with him and asked God to open his eyes to the truth. We shook his hand and told him it was a pleasure to have met him. He got out of the car at the mission and we drove away.

I felt as if this opportunity to share the Gospel had been incomplete. I realized I could have explained to him how it was that Jesus was raised from the dead. I prayed about that and repented to God that I could have said more.

My wife and I stopped at a Burger King to have a bite to eat, about 3 miles from the mission. As I was looking out of the window, I saw the man walk into the gas and shop across the street.

The God of second chances. I realized he had made the decision to leave the mission and walk to the nearest truck stop. My wife and I left Burger King and gave him a ride to the truck stop.

On the way I explained to him how it was that Jesus was able to rise from the dead. Sin entered the world through Adam and as a result we are all sinners. Death entered the world through sin and as a result we all die.

But Jesus is without sin. In Romans chapter 1 we are told that it was by the Spirit of Holiness that Jesus was able to rise from the dead. Since Jesus had no sin, death was not able to hold Him.

He still wasn’t ready to receive Jesus as his Savior.

I told him it had been a pleasure meeting him. If he decides to receive Jesus as his Savior, I know I’ll see him again, even if not here.

But if he chooses to remain separate from God, then we won’t meet again.

Pray for him. Pray that God would open his eyes by the Holy Spirit to the truth and that he would make a decision for Jesus.