Preaching in the checkout line

About 10 years ago, I was in line at Ralphs in L.A. waiting to checkout my groceries.  Since it's been a while, the details are fuzzy.  But I remember feeling compelled to talk about the Lord with the fellow waiting in line behind me.  Let's just say it didn't end well!

Everything in his words and actions were actually proving the Bible!  When I told him so, he cried out loud,"She's preaching to me!" as if I'd committeed a felony.  No one came to his rescue.  

Are we coming to a place in history when sharing the gospel with someone will be outlawed?  This is nothing new in communist countries.

But what about on our own soil?  I believe those days are right around the bend. So I say preach while we are able!  As the Spirit leads, of course.

Throughout the ages, men have vehemently opposed the gospel and did not want to hear it.  Why?  Because it convicted them of their sin and they wanted to continue in their sin and not repent.  Some things never change.

John 3:19-20 "And this is the verdict,n that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed."

In Acts 7:57-58 when Stephen witnessed to the Lord:  "At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him."

Jeremiah 6:10 says:

To whom can I speak and give warning?

    Who will listen to me?

Their ears are closed

    so they cannot hear.

The word of the Lord is offensive to them;

    they find no pleasure in it.

And there are countless other Scriptures that point out the state of fallen, unrepentant mankind.

But back to the checkout line.

I checked out and went to my car to head home.  As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I saw my friend from the checkout line walking toward his car.  He looked as if he had been stunned, like he didn't know which end was up.  He looked confused and befuddled.  Perhaps he'd been living in the dark for so long that when I shared the Light of the Truth of the gospel, he was up in arms, not sure what he'd just heard - only that it made him feel uncertain about everything he'd ever trusted in.

I got all that from looking at him?!  Only God knows what he was thinking!  But suffice it to say, he didn't look at peace or happy at all.  God's Word had rocked his world.

But God planted a seed into that man's soul that day.  What he did with it, God only knows.

Another time I felt led to witness to a total stranger in L.A. was at the bottle recycling station.  There was a young girl there with bag after bag of empty liquor and beer bottles.  What a haul!

We happened to reach our cars at the same time where she was parked next to me.  The Spirit led me to say something to her about how God had much better for her, or some such words.  I spoke quietly and with compassion.  Her response?  Vehemence!  She told me flat out, "There is no God!  Only crazy people believe in God!"

Does no one want You any more, dear Lord?

There she was, defending her liquor god with passion.  It was her source of comfort, solace, escape - or whatever it was.  I'm not judging her one iota.  I felt tremendous compassion for her and hated to see someone living in such expensive bondage.  I just find it ironic that though she refused to acknowledge God's existence, she was living a life of "worship" anyway, whether she knew it or not.  

Anything or anyone we turn to to meet any of our needs other than Christ is a false god.  

Of course, you won't hear that too much  - bad for business!

Christ offers us true freedom, not the temporary, false kind found in other sources - the kind that promises freedom but offers only bondage.  

I have no idea what god the checkout line guy was worshiping, but whatever it was, Christ was an offense to it.

The girl with her bags of empty liquor bottles, her god was much more apparent.  She wanted no part of Christ, either.

People will cling to all sorts of things that are downright awful for them!  Mainly because they've bought into a lie at some point.

I'm sure there are those who are led to witness for Christ who actually see people come to Him.  Sadly, that has not always been my experience.  God must think I'm tougher than I am!  He seems to nudge me to speak to the unwilling.  But that I obey Him is all that matters.

Takeaway?  Never fear the response of man.  Ever.

If God moves on your heart to speak up for Him, just do it!  He wants to use you to reach the lost - those who don't even know they're lost, those who are clinging to false gods, and so on.

We will each stand before our Maker one day.  I will see both of those souls that I witenessed to once again.  Will they be a sheep or a goat on that day?  I hope and pray they will be among the sheep - that the seeds God planted in them took root at some point for good.  

We won't know until That Day.  But we must act on faith in the meantime!

Dear Lord.  I don't understand the hardness of hearts in those who reject You.  They can seem too far gone, out of reach.  But not for You, O God!  You are in the reaping business!  You ask us to keep preaching still, whether received or not, because You want to reap a harvest for heaven!  So let us be bold in our obedience to You, Lord, not thinking of ourselves and the repercussions we may face but of the souls who desperately need You, though they know it not.  Please continue to nudge us to speak up for You, O God, until Your harvest is completed.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.