Parent category for all Gone Fishin’ Ministry Outreach newsletters, field reports of these outreaches, and personal witnessing reports
This is the most frustrating part of evangelism – endeavouring to convince the listener they have a terminal disease, and the wrath of God hovering over them. Why don’t they understand? Because they are hypnotised by the gloss of this world, distracted by its’ allure and pleasure. This convinces them that everything is just fine – “nothing will happen to me. I don’t need Jesus; I have everything I need, and I’m just fine by myself thank you very much.”
"We hugged, and when we separated, I just held onto his arms and implored him not to throw away his eternity just because he couldn’t believe in an ‘unjust’ God. He will still have to give an account to him on judgement day regardless. He said he would consider it, and I pray he does."
No amount of pleading with him regarding how bad hell was could sway him. He didn’t really care. His attitude was “no thanks!” when he walked away. God had chosen not to soften his heart via my words today. All I could do was ask God to show mercy on him before it was too late.
It was necessary for Nicodemus to come and ask all these questions of Jesus, so that he (and us) could hear the Gospel; being that Jesus Himself must be lifted up on a cross and be crucified in our place, in order for sinners like Nicodemus, like you, and like me, to trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins – to be born again, and to be saved.
The first was Ernest from Jamaica. He had it in his head that asking for forgiveness means that all his hell punishment would magically disappear. I had to reiterate that the justice system didn’t work like that. When I explained it, he said it made perfect sense. And when I told him how Christ offered to take His hell punishment for him, he placed his faith in Him straight away!
I asked Ben if he is not a good person, where should God send him after he dies. He said he should send him to hell. Then something broke inside Ben, and he started to cry uncontrollably. I asked him if he was OK. Through his tears he said “I never knew how bad the things I did looked to God, and what that meant for me. I don’t think anyone should go to heaven”. It was a vulnerable moment. It would have been easy to destroy him with more truth about how bad he was, so I had to tread carefully.
If someone throws you in prison, and you have no recollection of what you had done wrong, and no one advises you of your crime, then how is that justice? How can you feel remorse? This is why reincarnation is so evil; many people trying to better themselves, with no clue about what moral code they have broken or have to live up to in order to put things right. What a depressing, endless circle.
I asked him when would be the best time to place his faith in Christ, and he answered "Right now!". That was music to my ears, but that could have just been the angels in heaven rejoicing.
"So on a scale of 1 to 100, how sure are you that you will go to heaven when you die?" "100%", he replied. I asked why. He said "Because I choose to place my trust in Jesus". That was music to an evangelists ears!
I asked him that if he had died before this conversation, where would he have gone? “I would have gone to hell”. Why? “I thought I was a good person, when I’m not”. And now where would he go? “Heaven.” Why? “Because I don’t deserve it, but Jesus has taken all my sins on the cross. It’s nothing to do with me.” We went over some more checking questions. and it turned out he had indeed had a false conversion.
