The final night of the Evangelistic Meeting has truly been nothing short of praises and miracles. It started about the evening when Carmen smsed me to tell me that they have a surprise for me and told me not to pass out. I half suspected what it was....and I was excited. When the church van came, I saw only my 2 girls - Carmen and Huiling alight from the van but there was no sign of Benjamin. In the next 5 or more minutes or so, I saw from a distance a troop of spiky haired teenaged boys. Leading the pack was Benjamin, and trudging behind him were 5 of his friends from school which he had somehow managed to convince to come for the final night. Praise the Lord!
As the evening unfolded, the message of the cross became clearer and clearer. Mr Barry Webb shared on the schemes of the evil one - how Satan wanted to deceive everyone of us. The message was so simple but so compelling. With God's word preached in clarity, the only reason to refuse to God's gift of salvation was left to - an individual's choice. As the night drew to a close, I was sure almost all the folks at BFC pleaded and prayed for those who did not know the Lord to take the step of faith. The invitation was given and none of those boys raised their hands. The invitation was given again but still no response from them. Others raised but not them. Strangely, I did not feel disappointed. I had the confidence that God's word would not return void. As the service ended, I waited for the spiky hair troopers. Carmen and Benjamin looked a little disappointed. The boys looked eager to leave. I did not insist they stayed. As I bid Huiling and the rest farewell, I decided to take a short walk with them to the bus stop. During that short walk, I asked Alvin, one of the boys beside me, "So did you fall asleep during the service". He shook his head. Then I asked him, "Did you pray when the preacher led in the sinners' prayer?" He looked at me, smiled and nodded. In the midst of my joy, elation and excitedness, I was not surprised. Perhaps, some of the other four muttered the prayer of confession and acceptance that night too. For truly, the Lord has prepared the hearts of his creation through the earnest prayers of the youths and other folks in BFC.
To the spiky haired troopers (if you do stumble onto my blog):
There is no shame when we confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts that Jesus is our Savior. There is every reason to rejoice and tell the whole world of this good news. Do drop me a note to tell me if you made a decision so that I can continue to show you how to grow and love the Lord.
To Naz:
I really wished you came. Remember the question that you asked me after you watched the Passion of Christ? Why did Jesus cry out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The preacher spoke about it yesterday. You see, Jesus Christ is God. But He loved us so much, He came down to earth as a man to die for our sins. But He had no sin in His life. But He knew that He had to die on the cross because only a perfect, sinless God can save sinful mankind from death and damnation. On the cross, Jesus carried on His shoulders the sins of all mankind, past, present and future. We can never even start to imagine the pain and suffering of that. Because God the Father is holy and cannot be associated with sin, He turned away from Jesus at that moment. Thus, Jesus cried out those suffering words and He died on the cross that day. Jesus had to suffer the death - which is the penalty for our sin in order to save us. But because Jesus is God, He cannot remain dead. If he did, then there is no reason for us to believe in Him because he would then be like any one on earth. Jesus rose again the third day - He has conquered death for us - if only we believe and trust Him.
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