You Are Invited To Your Own Funeral!

On Halloween we had a funeral at Higher Grounds Café in Antigua. A funeral is a service for dead people, and before we know Jesus we’re dead in our sins. Someone had donated a coffin, and we went out to the streets with invitations. At the service I preached in English and Abner, one of our other YWAM staff members, translated into Spanish. I was told afterwards that 14 people responded to the call for salvation. Halloween is all about fear. But the Bible says, "...fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." (Matt 10:28). Was Jesus trying to scare people out of hell??? I guess, in a sense, he was. But shouldn’t we come to God out of love and not fear? Well, Proverbs 16:6 says, "...by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil." It doesn’t say they depart from evil by hearing about the love of Jesus. Fear has to come first. Proverbs 9:10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom..." We have to use the Law to expose a person’s sin. When they are convinced of their sin and then fear the wrath of God, then they can truly appreciate the Savior and fall in love with Him. Love takes over from there as the person realizes that they deserved wrath but they received grace! Paul was able to stand on Mars’ hill and use an altar to an unknown God to declare the true and living God. We can do the same with things like Halloween and coffins too.

The News Girl

The other day I went to the park with some pictures of the gospel story. I sat down on a bench, and a little 7 year old girl came over selling newspapers. I showed her the pictures, and when she saw the picture of Jesus nailed to the cross she took my hand and "nailed" it up, then the other hand, and then my feet until I was nailed to her make-believe cross while sitting on my bench. A little while later I was with her and her mother and siblings, and I got to share the message with them too. The little girl was carrying the "bad news" and I was carrying the "good news". I think back to when I was her age. What if no one had been there to tell me the good news, and I had grown up without knowing about the things of God. I wouldn’t have ended up in Guatemala telling a seven-year-old girl and her family about Jesus Christ. Who would have taken my place? Maybe no one. But my mom made sure I knew about the Lord when I was young. And that seed is still bearing fruit today!