Friday Night Follow Up

Friday night was pretty mellow but God always blesses our time as we go out to share the gospel with people. I spoke with a young man named Ruben who was just sitting on a bench listening to some music on his IPOD. God prompted me to go talk to him so I did. As we talked I asked him about heaven and he believed that honest people would go to heaven. A few minutes later he admitted to lying many times as we looked at a few of the Ten Commandments. After seeing how he had broken God's Law not once, but many times, he agreed that he would be guilty when he stood before him on Judgment Day. Being guilty, and God being good and just, he realized he would be justly sent to hell if he died today. He said that truth concerned him. I was then able to share with him the tremendous love of God demonstrated through Jesus Christ dying for us on the cross so that we could be forgiven and made right with God. I also shared with him some Old Testament prophecies that relate to Christmas and he was amazed. He had never seen or understood the fulfillment of prophecies before and how they prove to us that the Bible is the Word of God and can be trusted. At the end of our conversation I asked him when he thought he WOULD repent and trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He said he needed to do it but didn't know when he actually would. I then asked him when he thought he SHOULD repent and trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and he said "as soon as possible"! Amen. At that moment, you could see that he understood the urgency of the message I had shared with him. Rather than ask him if he wanted to do that right then and there by saying a prayer, I just told him that if God is drawing him to do that, not to put it off, that today is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). I encouraged him to humble himself when he got home that night, get alone with God, and confess your sins to God and beg him to forgive you and to save you. I encouraged him to read his bible every day and to obey what he read. I left him with my email and prayed for him as we parted ways. About 20 minutes later I saw him from a distance as he was leaving the pier area and he raised his hand high and waved to me as he left. I waved back and whispered a prayer for him. Please pray that Ruben humbles himself and trusts Jesus as Lord and Savior.