A young Welshman walked up to me
at midnight in the pouring rain in South Wales. He asked me if I had a lighter
or a match to light his cigarette. I told Him that I did not smoke, to which he
replied, “Oh, are you a Christian then?”
This rather surprised me, and I said, “What does it matter whether or
not I am a Christian?”
His response was to say, “Well,
are you a church minister then?” I answered in the same manner: “What does it
matter if I am a church minister or not? What is that to you?”
The next thing he said nearly
knocked me over. He was around 25 years old, and was without any doubt, an
educated and well-spoken young man. He said, “Well, I really need someone to
speak to me about my soul. Would you go for a walk with me to talk for a while?”
With such a request, how could I
say No? It was dark, the street where we were standing was deserted, the rain
was falling, and I left my van unlocked on the side of the road with my mobile
on the driver’s seat, but cared not.
People are happy to talk about
football, holidays, social media, and a million of mundane things, but the
greatest need for conversation is what this young man so desperately wanted some
advice on. This was no accident, but a God-given moment, a destiny meeting,
with eternity knocking on the door.
The local town nearby was heaving with revellers, his friends were texting and calling him to come and join the party, but he had something on his mind that needed addressing.
He told me that
his grandmother was a praying woman who had often spoke to him about the Lord,
and urged him to follow Jesus Christ. He told me also that his great
grandfather was one of the Welsh Revival preachers (William Williams) who saw a
mighty and uncanny move of God in 1905.
He needed to know how he stood
with God, and about heaven and hell, and his need to be right.
It was my privilege to talk to him for a good hour until we arrived in the heart of the very noisy town centre.
As we stood there in the rain
outside a fried-chicken shop, he asked me if I was real or a figment of his
imagination. He said, “Look at all these people milling around us. They cannot
see us. There are but three of us here talking: you, myself, and God. We are
invisible to everyone else!” He said that he thought I must be an angel sent
from heaven come to speak with him.
Oh the great need for men and women
to talk about their souls! All other conversation is about things that are to
fade away and prove to be of no significance in the Day of Judgment when Christ
returns in power and glory.
We can plan our education, our
careers, our businesses, our employment, our retirement, and even our funeral
(as such practise is becoming popular these days). However, when do we stop to
consider and work out our eternal destiny, our future eternal abode after we
have breathed the last breath we breathe?
Surely the most important thing
we can ever do is to make sure we are ready to meet God. Even if you are not
sure whether there is a heaven and a hell, can you really afford to risk and gamble
your life away, only to discover that after death there is the Judgment?
Truth does not get changed just because we choose not to believe.
The Bible says clearly that all of us will stand before God on that day. You can choose to carry on just as you are, but the moment you close your eyes forever on the world such as we know it, it will be too late to change your mind, and too late to put things right.
There
is nothing more important in your life right now than to make sure that Hell
will not be your final destiny.
Maybe you were brought up in what we term ‘a Christian home’. Maybe you most certainly were not!
Maybe your dad or mum, or perhaps one of your grandparents was a good man or woman who believes (or believed) in God, and has spoken to you from time to time about the need to get things right in your life. Perhaps it was a friend who watched out for your spiritual welfare and tried to get you to have a little faith in what they were telling you.
Jesus said, ‘I am the way’ and I am
the truth, and I am the life; no one can come to the Father except through me.’
You cannot make heaven except through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the door,
and you can enter no other way.
This is not about religion or
becoming all ‘religious’. Most of religion and the religions of the world are
all about slavery and manipulation. “Do this; do that; or we will chuck you
out!”
The One who created us seeks for
us. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to a
place of repentance and turning back to him for salvation. The Bible speaks of
him as a shepherd seeking night and day for the sheep that went off on its own
lonely walk and got lost in the wilderness, not knowing where it is headed.
He searches for that sheep until
he hears its cry, and lifts it onto his shoulders. He carries it home to mend
its wounds and heal its sicknesses.
Even now, God calls through the
noise and confusion of a world gone wrong, and beckons us to come to him. He
says that time is running out for mankind, and the days that lie ahead are most
uncertain and full of trouble. Only in him can we find peace, and the security
and promise of heaven.
There is no-one in the whole
world who is righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and failed to meet God’s
standard: and when God says ‘all’, he means all.
But God so loved us, that he made
a way for us to be saved. He gave his only begotten Son to die on a cross for
our sin, so that we might have peace with him and receive eternal life. Jesus
rose again from the dead and is alive forever more, so that we who believe in him shall not perish (end up
in hell), but have everlasting life.
He said that will return to take take his people home, not this time as a baby, but as King of kings and Lord of lords to judge this world.
The Bible speaks of hell as a
dreadful and non-stop place of torment and despair with no way out and no way
back. Heaven, on the other hand, is a place where all tears are wiped away,
where there is no more pain, no more sadness, no more death, but everlasting
joy and happiness in the presence of God and all the angels.
Jesus says, “Come unto me. Follow me.”
He is not calling us to a religion, but to a relationship that goes beyond
anything this world can ever understand. He never came to set up a religion or
an institution. He simply came to call sinners and lost souls to turn around
from where they are headed, and find the answer to the emptiness of the human
heart.
For though a man might gain all
the riches of this world, yet his soul remains empty of purpose and meaning,
for at death he must leave everything behind and go naked to meet with the God
he rejected.
‘What will it profit a man if he
gain the whole world, but lose his soul?’
You do not need to find some cathedral, or search for a priest, to come to Christ. He is nearer than you may imagine. He stands before the door to your heart.
Go find yourself a quiet
place and ask him to save you and make you his child. Say sorry for all that is
wrong in your life and ask him for the strength to help you live the life that
he has already planned for you. Receive him by faith, for the Bible also says
that whoever receives him, he gives the privilege to become a child of God.
Turn away from all that is wrong, thank him for his mercy and
goodness toward you, and go and tell someone what has happened in your life and
of your agreement to follow Christ Jesus from now on.
And if you want to know more
about walking with God and knowing him in a real and wonderful way, you can
email me at john@crownflag.com
God bless you and make you his
child.
JGM 2022
