“Are you walking with Jesus?” I asked the gentleman sitting behind me.
“I used to”, he replied, with a look of shame and struggle in his eyes.
“I’ll walk with you if you want me to”, I offered.
“You have to make the choice. It’s your choice and it’s up to you,” I affirmed.
Michael Koulianos, a Pastor of an Orlando area church, Jesus Image, had just delivered a powerful message, urging those listening to choose Jesus.
“God doesn’t send people to hell, it was never intended for people, it was intended for the devil and his angels!” Michael thundered.
“It is our own stubbornness and pride that sends us to hell, God made a way for us through Jesus!”
“I remember Uncle Bob, we pleaded with him again and again to come to Jesus and he refused. As he was dying he started kicking and screaming and punching as fighting off demons. His nurse said, “He doesn’t no Jesus!” When the family asked how she knew, she said, “I’ve seen hundreds of people die this way.”
I sat back in my chair as I was listening to him share, and I remember vividly my mother saying the same thing.
She said many of her patients who didn’t know Jesus and hadn’t asked Him to forgive their sins died with sheer terror in their eyes, while those that followed Jesus died with peace.
Indeed many of my medical friends have told me this same thing.
My new friend sitting behind me walked out of the church sanctuary. It was clear that conviction was gripping him, but he was fighting it.
Desperate to see him saved I slipped his daughter a note to pass to her Dad when she saw him again.
“Jesus has great plans for your life. Run to Him. Trust Him to forgive and restore all things.” I signed off with my phone number.
As if God wanted to drill into me the devastating power of no, we left that church and headed home via a local restaurant.
As I asked the server if he knew Jesus he too said he had walked away.
I pleaded with him to come to Jesus. “God changed my whole life when I came back to Jesus.”
“Yeah yeah and I bet everything turned out great”, he replied sarcastically.
I tipped him 5 times the price of my meal. “Jesus really loves you and He wants a relationship with you.”
His name was Abner.
Abner, beamed with joy at the money, but looked sheepishly as I shared of the giver of all things, Jesus.
What God was he choosing instead of Jesus, I wondered. Money made him light up, but it comes and goes.
Is he worshipping pornography, could shame have all of his attention? Is his heart cold because of past disappointment? Just one touch from Jesus and his heart would come alive!
I lay my head on my pillow praying for Abner.
His name means “My Father is a Lamp.“
Oh God, may your light shine bright in Amber’s heart once again. May he buy oil from the one that sells it before it is too late. May he not choose Hell when you’ve offered him heaven.
May you not choose hell when Jesus offers you heaven.
Here’s the deal, all people have sinned, but God sent Jesus His son to take away your sin and make a way for you to come back to God, by dieing the death you deserved, and rising again so that you too could have a brand new life. If you confess your sins to Him and ask Him for forgiveness and give Him your life, He will forgive your sins and clean all the evil away from your life, making you a brand new person. He will send you His Holy Spirit and He will lead and guide you through all things, until the day you got to heaven to be with Him.
Please don’t send yourself to hell. Receive the offer of heaven, receive the offer of Jesus.
Andrew
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- The Scarboroughs - 