Complimentary Story
A few months ago I was at an abortion mill. I called over to a man who was standing outside in the parking lot. I introduced myself and asked him why he was there. He said his name was Josh and explained to me that he had brought his little sister to have an abortion. Josh said he knew that abortion was murder. His grandfather is a pastor and he attends church. I told him to go rescue his sister and her child from that place — but he would not move. After talking to him for a few minutes, he said that he would repent of murder after it is all over and he will be ok. I told him that we should not go on sinning so grace may abound and told him repentance alone will NOT save him. I began to share the gospel with him but when I started to explain that we must trust in Jesus, he starting laughing and walking away. This professing Christian could not even listen to the gospel.If we look at today’s modern Christianity, we do not see the call to give up our lives. Apparently, Christians are no longer supposed to surrender everything to God — just the stuff that is easy to let go. If you have eyes to see, you know that is not biblical in the least. As followers of Jesus, we are called to deny ourselves and surrender all to Christ.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Matthew 16:24. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” We should live every second of every day with a selfless attitude and a heart that wants to please God. Repentance is not just asking God for forgiveness — it is actually turning from our sin.
We have a large population of people who do not believe there are any consequences to our actions. Peoples’ sin leads to destruction but people think if they ignore the reality of it, the destruction would just go away. That is precisely what Josh was trying to do. He would admit that abortion was wrong but he would not listen when I told him the repercussions of his actions. I explained the physical and emotional burden his sister was going to face and the eternal consequences if he and she do not repent and trust in Jesus. He did not want to hear it.
What Josh did not understand was, being a “Christian” is not just a title. Being a Christian means that you have died with Christ and now live and abide in Him.
Surrendering your whole life to God is not fun and it comes with many challenges. But that is what you must do when you are born again. You do not need to rely on your own strength to do so. If you are truly humbled, God will give you a heart that desires righteousness and hates evil. Josh needs a new heart that would detest the thought of bringing his niece to a place to be killed.
If you do not feel conviction when you are in sin or you are suppressing the conviction, you need to surrender it all to Jesus.
Those of us who know the eternal consequence for sin need to share it with others and give them the good news of how they can be forgiven.
For too long, we have been sitting back allowing this false gospel to be taught. A so-called “gospel” that has no mention of Jesus or putting your faith in Him.
Do not be like Josh and mock when you hear the truth. It may be hard to swallow at first, but no matter how fast you run, the consequences of your sin will always catch up to you.
