How many people see God shining the light of Truth (Jesus Christ) through believers who want to snatch people from the jaws of hell and bring them to a place where they can have eternity with Christ in paradise, and yet are met with anger, hatred, and hostility for their efforts?
In our day, often believers are reviled for their love of warning to help someone see their need for Christ. Those who respond in anger at correction within the church system of today do not consider that love as love; they see it as a personal attack to be rejected and punished.
The world will interpret kindness as allowing each person to make destructive choices without admonishment. Imagine Christ, our God, dying to pay the penalty for our sin because of His great love and being hated by mankind for it.
An event that gave this example to my husband when he was out hunting many years ago. He was with his father and brothers in the woods. They each took their stand in the forest, not far from one another but out of sight of each other.
The night was beginning to fall, the clouds were moving in, and a light mist was enveloping the forest where they were. The brothers and his father were already on the road below while my husband was still disoriented in the woods.
Anyone who knows our region knows that when the light begins to fade and the mist is coming down, there is no visibility at all out there.
My husband realized he should go to the road. He walked in the forest a few feet, saw a large stump and began walking in the direction of the road.
After several minutes of walking, he came upon another stump that looked exactly like the stump he passed earlier. He began to walk again, and again another identical stump appeared in the fog. He realized then that he was walking in circles, and panic began to set in.
In our woods out here, people become lost all the time amongst the 300-foot-tall trees; it is very easy, in the dark with misting rain, to lose one's sense of direction.
He sat down for a moment to ponder what to do next, realizing he may have to spend the night in the woods until morning to find his way out.
Then out of the mist came a light rolling back and forth across the forest ceiling. He realized then that his father knew he was lost and began to shine his flashlight into the forest to give my husband a sense of direction. My husband followed that light and was able to find his way to the road where his family was waiting for him.
He never forgot what happened and has told many people about it because it was an example of Christ and His light. He knew if he had not followed that light, he might have been in danger of being lost in the cold without protection until morning or he might have wandered so far he would never find his way out.
Some people die in the forest in this region because of the vast forest. One can wander many miles and never find their way out. Some people are never found, and others are found having lost their lives.
This account in the woods left my husband with a profound sense of what it is like for believers when Christ shines the light of HIs love on mankind.
Some follow the light, trust in Christ, and are saved for an eternity from the terrible death of hell. And, sadly, others ignore the light, wander around until the end of their lives refusing it, and end up in the terrible fires of hell because they were going to live their own life their own way without regard to where it leads.
Many people see the light of Truth in believers and resent them for warnings of what is to come if they do not trust in Christ.
Would it have made any sense for my husband to be angry with his father for shining the light into the forest to help him find his way out? Of course not, just as it makes no sense for people to be angry with born-again Christians for their warnings that Christ is coming soon and they must trust in Him if they are to be transformed and saved from hell.
Stubbornness against warning is immature and irrational. Only a child would throw a fit, a tantrum, when he was not allowed to do something that will harm them.
Matthew 10:22 "22 and you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."
Matthew 10:21-23 "…21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rise against their parents and have them put to death. 22 You will be hated by everyone because of My name, but the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. 23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next."
I have encountered many people in my life who act like spoiled children when they are corrected about something that will help them improve and grow into mature adults. They are focused on the correction and completely ignore the message, as though how they feel is far more important than the lesson that is needful.
We are living in an irrational world now, one almost entirely focused on self-exaltation without regard for the consequences of disregarding the truth, and worse reviling Christ Who died for them so they could one day be walking with Him in paradise.
May those we have spoken to and prayed for who have not yet trusted in Christ see their need for Christ and repent to be saved.
Acts 16:31 "And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
John 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
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