Arsenio Is Concerned About Judgment

Arsenio is concerned about judgment

Today I rode a mile or so over to the Lucaya area. This area is home to numerous hotels and resorts, a straw market and many restaurants, bars and high-end tourist shops. This is an area with lots of pedestrian traffic.

I rode over and chatted briefly with Kelly, a local vendor and bright Christian (with open air preaching experience) & began to scout for a likely place to open air preach. There are many great places, but the challenge is that the whole market area is on private property, so I need to find a place on both public land and where there is lots of pedestrian traffic. I think I’ve found a place I’ll come back to.

I began to walk around & hand out tracts to start conversations. I gave some to a group of Asian folks sitting around with their computers playing. I have a couple to a couple Bahamians dressed in the uniform of kitchen staff, sitting in their car at the curb. Finally, I found a young man, sitting on a curb in front of a store, smoking a cigarette. Using a tract as an icebreaker, we began to talk of death and judgment.

I sat down on the curb beside Arsenio and talked of the Gospel long and slowly. Right off, he told me that he would not be going to Heaven, as he was a sinner….had broken the Ten Commandments (his words). We in great detail went through the Gospel. Arsenio said he’d been concerned and thinking of death, since his friend died at 22 years of age. We talked of how “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb.9:27ESV). This young man asked me an interesting question; he asked concerning a particularly heinous crime….if one committed that crime, would he “always be a sinner” meaning could God ever forgive him. I explained this at some length; using Jesus’ words from Mathew 5, that if you hate someone or call him a fool you are a murderer at heart….then explained imputed righteousness. Predictably, when I asked, “have you ever heard of imputed righteousness?” his face drew a blank. I explained like this: When you repent of your sin before God & put your total trust and faith in the saviour, when God gives you new life, the great exchange occurs. God takes your sin and credits it to Christ’s account, where he paid for your sin on the Cross of Calvary 2000 years ago & takes the Righteousness of Christ and credits it to your account. So….on THAT day, you will be seen as perfect, even though you are not now perfect, but because Christ’s righteousness is credited to your account.

Pray for Arsenio! I left him with some reading material, my email address and an invitation to a mid-week church service at one of the nearby resorts; I will be at with Pastor Eddie this coming Thursday.

I walked around and talked to a few others, handing out tracts. I walked by the taxi stand, where a row of benches is lined up….they were full of people. I took a chance pulling out a stack of tracts and very publicly offering one to the first person….she smiled and took it & so likewise, all those waiting for a taxi took a tract.

Please pray for the work here, pray that the Lord of the harvest will send more laborers into the harvest….maybe you?

Glenn.

P.S. Met a bright Christian man on the dock this afternoon. He's VERY clear on the Gospel & concerned about apostacy in the local church. I gave him a copy of the DVD's "Hell's Best Kept Secret" & "True & False Conversion" to watch (email me if you've not seen them). He might be convinced to come out and share the Gospel with me.