Bet that caught your attention! Well, there is a guy in town that walks up and down the high street with a banner chatting to people about Jesus. For the past few week he's been very quite and reserved. Things changed today! He was walking up and down the street telling people they were going to hell. No opening, no gentle start, just telling people that they are going to hell. I was standing in the street waiting for my dad and just watching him. He went from person to person, telling them the same thing, pushing leaflets into there hands. A few people laughed, a few were offended, a few were foreign so they didn't understand. But what I didn't notice, was that there was no love. The message he was shout, wasn't in love or with love. It was angry and confrontational. The gentle and quite message I had seen for the past few week had just disappeared. Before people looked and listened when he stopped and talked. I even saw people take leaflets and information. Today, the only thing people took with them was anger and pushiness.
As I watched, I thought about my MC days. I remembered the street ministry in New York and Birmingham and the inner city ministries. I hoped that I had never pushed my message with anger. I remember kids who heard the message with a hug every week. Families that saw the love when we made a point to visit them every week just to see how they were and pray with them. That's the message I hope I presented. It's the message that changed me!
As my mind wondered, the street minister headed right to me. He told me I was going to hell.......it took a minute until he said "unless". I spoke to him for a while and noticed that nothing I said mattered to him. He was hear to tell me his message and that was that. He walked away and I met my dad, but a few minutes later I passed him further up the street, where he was shouting and teenagers, and he shouted across the street to me another message of anger. It made me sad! It made me sad for a few reasons.....I just found out that I'm going to hell! Just kidding. It made me sad because the loving message he had presented weeks before was gone. Also in all that he shouted, people only walked away with a sense of anger and humiliation.
I, in no way meant this as a put down to that man. He's out doing what many wont. I just wish that the message was one of love instead of anger and hell. All the time I spoke to him I waited for it and it never came. It made me sad!
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