Keep plugging away

Lately I've really been feeling extra burdened for the lost. I almost feel like running around screaming my head off, that Christ is coming back soon! Get ready! Like John the Baptist did, yelling REPENT! I don't though, for the simple fact I'd be branded a raving lunatic. Maybe I have been anyway. It's like Abraham told the rich man in the parable. If they won't hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they hear someone who returns from the dead. They have God's Word(Bible)and there's many good preachers. I believe if someone returned from the dead today, some people still would not listen. They'd find some way to explain it away.

It's frustrating. I see people everywhere, going about daily routines and I wonder, how many of these people know Jesus? Are they ready for what's soon coming? How can we tell them so they will understand and believe? Go into most churches today and they're practically empty. Go to most sport stadiums and they're packed to capacity.

It's difficult to walk up to strangers today. People don't look at strangers, never mind talk to them. Satan has done his homework. He's been working tirelessly, deceiving  many with all the pleasures of sin for a season.With his continued questioning of  "hath God really said?" just like it was in the Garden of Eden. The same ploy still works.
It's almost like we've entered a post evangelism era. Unsaved people aren't flocking to church anymore, despite the myriad of programs. In 12 years I've been able to get my neighbor out to one Christmas concert. It seems that not many are listening, or even interested.

Why is the Gospel so offensive? Why is the thought of a perfect God entering His creation and dying in our place, so offensive? Why is relinquishing control of our lives to the God who created us, and knows why, and for what He created us, so offensive? Why is the thought of Christ paying for our sins in full so offensive? Why won't people see that their eternal destination is at stake? What makes people take such a chance with that? They will buy insurance for everything else, and leave eternity completely to chance. Why? People will believe the theory of evolution. A theory that can't be proven. Over the Bible, which has proven itself through fulfilled prophecy. Why? It takes more faith to believe in evolution, than it does to believe in creation. Logically it makes no sense.

Most people believe that when they die, they're going to heaven because they're a pretty good person. They've lived a good life. They haven't wasted their life. They've succeeded. I hear it all the time. So and so has gone to a better place.
Everyone wants to go to heaven, but not the way of Christ. They want to pay their own way. Problem is, they can't. There is no other way.

So, how do we present Christ in this day and age? The same way as always, that's how. The Gospel. If the Holy Spirit is working in someone's life, they will respond. If the Holy Spirit is not working in them, it'll be received as foolishness and no amount of church programs, facebook postings, twitter tweets or whatever method will help. It's really that simple.

It's not our place to be frustrated, gloomy, or despondent. The joy of the LORD is to be our strength. It's our place to pray for our fellow man and present the Gospel, and disciple those who respond to the Holy Spirit's call.

Some people are just not going to make it to heaven. I wish that wasn't true, but it is. Their pride and foolish intellect and education will keep them from believing. Their loss of respect or possible advancement in their profession, will keep them from believing. We need to keep plugging away, for the sake of those who will believe. Who will make it.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Jesus said we must enter the Kingdom of God as little children.We don't need to be Theologians. Little children trust their father completely.( If he's a good father)

And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3
It doesn't get any simpler than that, or easier to understand. God will lift Satan's veil from the eyes of those His Spirit is calling.

Imagine the frustration that Noah must have felt. He preached repentance for many years while building the ark. The ridicule he must have endured. When the flood waters began to rise, only 8 people were on the ark with the animals. Only Noah's own family. Not many listened then, and not many are listening now.

"Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man."  Luke 17:26 

Keep praying and plugging away... 

c.mcgrath