And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!

This weekend we were at a local flea market sharing the Gospel and handing tracts to everyone walking by.

Here’s just a few of the responses:

“I don’t need that, I am a minister” – I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, maybe it the internet ministry ‘licenses’ companies doing a good business.
When I asked if he would take the tract and give it to someone who is not a believer, I got – “No, I don’t need to.”

Another guy I gave a tract to, stopped to talk. I told him the tract asks if you will go to heaven when you die? He huffed, and said “are you Born Again?” I said yes and he said – so am I. Then he lit into me with “you are telling everyone the negative and that is the wrong way to talk to people.” I asked how is it negative when I asked if you were going to heaven. He said you are going about it the wrong way and making people mad as he walked away. I asked him to come back and talk and he just muttered something and walked off.

So far an interesting day……

A few others had similar responses and typically it was from this who said they were ‘believers’ but I could not figure out what they believed in.

On a positive note, Dayna was able to talk to a few young girls who said they believed in the Lord and were Born Again. They were happy to see people presenting the Gospel. They asked for some tracts and Dayna gave them a stack of Youth Million Dollars to hand out. Praise God for their love of the Lord.

Another lady came by and wanted to know if we had ‘fake money’ for little kids? I showed her what we had and the money was really Gospel tracts – she just kept talking and walking around the table so Dayna started to talk to her. She is an insurance agent and wanted a display in her office of an antique truck loaded with money. Dayna showed her where she could purchase tracts if she wanted a lot of them. She was again told they are Gospel tracts, not just ‘fake money’. Then she really got interested and said that was a great idea – load the truck up with tracts. We gave her 800 tracts – Pray the people who get the ‘fake money’ realize the REAL TRUTH when they read the Gospel message.

so shall My Word be, which goes out of My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall certainly do what I sent it to do. (Isaiah 55:11)

The Patriot

Saturday morning the first visit I paid was to a man dying of a nasty infection. It wasn't until I saw his feet that I realized that he wasn't in his eighties but closer to 30 years of age. I confirmed this with his nurse. I have to admit, that was a bit unnerving.

I saw several more people that morning and then realized it was already past time to head for home. But instead of heading for the exit, I was drawn back down the hall. I came to a dark room and saw someone in the far bed. He didn't move as I approached but just stared at me. I greeted the man but he didn't speak, he just nodded. His face never changed expression and he never took his eyes off of me.

As I made small talk with James, I noticed that he was vey underweight for a tall man. I saw the case of canned liquid on his table and knew that he was on a feeding tube.

James didn't say much, he just listened and watched. He seemed almost unreachable. He was honest in his responses to me. When I asked him which destination would be his, Heaven or Hell, he said, "I'll take Hell".

"James, you know I don't know you but I sure don't want you to go to Hell!". I took time to describe Hell for him.  I went on to tell him what Jesus did for him so that he would not have to go there.  He listened without reacting.

"Does this make sense James?" I questioned.

"Yes." he stated.

"What stops you, James?"

He stared at me and made a simple statement. "Vietnam Nam."

I waited for him to elaborate.

"I was shot down. Been in the hospital for 15 years." he said it sadly.

I prayed that God would give me the words that would minister to him. "Thank you for going to Vietnam Nam. Because you went I am free today. Because you made this great sacrifice, our country is free today. Thank you, James. You went and did that and you didn't even know me!" For the first time I saw light in his eyes.

"James how would it make you feel if someone walked in here and burned a flag?". His gaze intensified and I could tell it upset him. "Would that make you mad? Would it offend you?". He nodded his head to the affirmative. I paused a moment before asking him, "do you think Jesus feels that way when we shrug at all He's done to set us free?"

He changed his gaze and looked out the window. "James if you had been happy and healthy and I stopped you on the street today to talk to you about this, would you have talked to me?"

Without hesitation he said, "No."

"Thanks for talking to me today, James."

"I'm moving to Atlanta tomorrow." (whoa)

"You know, James I was on my way out today when something told me to come down here into your room. I believe that was God. Now none of us are promised tomorrow James, but for some reason He sent me here today. I am going to be praying for you and I do hope you'll give this matter some more thought."

Please pray for James and the thousands of other Vets who need to hear about Jesus.