Alive @ 5 Evangelism and Wisdom

There was a lady the other day that came up to me while we were doing evangelism. I gave her a tract and she wanted me to sing her petition for a certain bill. She asked me your pro-life, and then told me that I should sign it. I asked her about it and she asked me if I knew that 1 out of 4 children were in poverty in America. I replied by asking her if she knew how many were in poverty in Nigeria. She responded that she did not know. I told her that by American standards 4/4 were in poverty. Then I realized where she was going with it. She was not Pro-life, she was pro-choice. She was trying to stop poverty by trying to make a bill for women to have abortions. It disgusted me so much that I told her that I knew exactly how to stop the problem of poverty of children. I told her that she should make it illegal to have sex outside of marriage. She was flabbergast and asked me so you have never had sex outside of marriage. I told her nope. She said I can’t believe this, I have never met anyone that has not and she asked me why. I told her because I was a follower of Christ and the Bible tells us not to. She told me that she knew lots of Christians and they had sex outside of marriage. She told me she couldn’t talk to me and started to walk away and then she came back. I was very saddened about what she told me but I knew that this woman needed Christ desperately. I went on to ask her if she thought she was a good person and asked where she was going to go when she died. She said she was going to heaven and that she was a good person. I went through the Ten Commandments with her. When I asked her if she had lied she told me NO never and I told her I think you are lying to me right now and she admitted that she was right away. Then I asked her if she had ever stolen anything. She said yeah when I was a kid. I asked her if she had ever taken the Lords name in vain and right there and then she took the Lords name in vain four or five times in one sentence. I think she thought it would shock me, but it didn’t and I went on and asked if she had disobeyed her parents and she said yes. Then I told her that everyone sins and that because of that all of us deserve to go to hell. She said ok so all of us are going to hell then so why do I have to worry. I told her that we didn’t all have to go to hell. She tried to argue with me and tell me that was what I just said. I asked her to hold on and let me finish. She tried to walk away again and said that she couldn’t talk to me but she came right back and said ok continue. So I told her about Jesus Christ and how he died on the cross. I talked about God’s love for us and how He sent His son and asked her how she would feel if she had to give up her son and she told me she had already had 3 abortions and she would give up her child again without a problem. I told her about what Christ had done for her in dying on the cross and that if she believed in Jesus Christ that she would be saved. She told me she believed in Jesus Christ. I gave her Romans 10:9-10 and told her if she confesses with her mouth that Jesus is Lord and believes in her heart that God raise Him from the dead then she shall be saved. She told me to stop judging her. That she had already believed when she was a little girl. I said, Really? I couldn’t tell. You just took the Lord’s name in vain and you broke almost all of the commandments that I named while I was standing here. She told me “oh so Christians are supposed to have a certain light in their eyes so that you can see they are Christians.” I never said anything about it. At that time my buddy Scott had finished up his conversation and was walking over and she said once again that she couldn’t talk to me and started to walk away but came back again. Scott came over and took over the conversation. The lady told us that she believed that Jesus was just a man and that he didn’t die on the cross that it was a fairy tale. She said that the Bible was not totally accurate and had a lot of errors in it and that she could not believe it and we again told her about Christ and what He had done for her. She told us I can’t even talk to you one last time and walked away for good. It was a sad conversation but she heard the gospel and I hope that she will come to Christ. If she did imagine what a change that would be and her friends would notice it.

This story of my evangelistic events brought some things to mind and if you will bear with me I will explain later on in the paper.

I have been reading in Proverbs lately and ever since I went to Africa and saw one of the men there that has so much wisdom I have wanted to have wisdom and knowledge for what to do in different situations. So I decided to start by reading Proverbs. So here are some of my thoughts. Proverbs 1:7. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge and fools despise wisdom and instruction." Fearing the LORD is the beginning of Knowledge. What does that mean? What does it really mean to fear the LORD. In Proverbs 8:13 it tells us. "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride, arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate." It lists several things there but also if we look at Proverbs 6:16-19 we see what the LORD hates. Six of them He hates and the last one is an abomination. 1) Haughty eyes 2) A lying tongue 3) hands that shed innocent blood 4) A heart that devises wicked plans 5) A feet that rapidly run to evil 6) A false witness that utters lies. And 7) One who spreads strife among brothers.

As Christians if we fear the LORD we are to hate evil. In our society I see that we don't embrace it but we don't hate it. Ex: I was told the other day while out doing evangelism that almost every "Christian" that this lady had met had sex before they were married (Story above). Now we could argue that those people probably were not Christians but also there are some that I know that are Christians and they had fallen into sin. If Christians really hated evil if they hated the things the LORD hates then we would see people that feared the LORD. If we fear the LORD then we have the beginning of Knowledge. There was a man that once said that if he had 100 young men that the only thing they feared was sin they could take over the world with the gospel. Do we really fear the LORD? Do we hate evil? It saddens my heart to hear that people claim to be Christians and are sinning as if they have a license to sin. It’s ok to sin because God will forgive me. But in reality if we fear the LORD we should hate evil. I see that our nation does not fear the LORD, the Mighty God, the Giver of Life and Breath. To say that it’s ok God will forgive me, so I can sin all I want is to say I don’t fear the LORD and I don’t hate evil. Read Proverbs 3:32-35. We see how God treats those who do not fear Him or hate evil. Desire to be upright, Fear the Lord and hate evil.