Tony is a wretched sinner saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God
Today we had a gospel outreach to our local flea market and it was a great success. I’m always amazed at how my flesh, the world and the devil try to discourage me from going out and proclaiming the gospel before the scheduled evangelism events. But invariably afterwards I am so thankful that by the grace of God, the Lord moves me to go out anyways and share Christ with people; it’s just grace upon grace.
Today we were able to share the gospel with a number of folks. I believe the message was very impactful to one young lady in particular. Her name was Mercy and in the conversation I was able to quote Titus 3:5 which says, “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His MERCY.”, which was so cool! I initially gave her a gospel tract and then asked her if she had a Christian background. She told me that she considers herself a “believer” but wouldn’t call herself a Christian because of the negative connotation that term has in our culture. So I then asked her if she believes in Heaven and Hell and she heartily affirmed, “Yes.” At this point, I went to one of my go-to questions: “Do you believe that eternal life (Heaven, salvation) is a free gift or is something you have to earn?”
After thoughtfully pausing for a moment she answered something like, “I think it’s a little bit of both. You gotta believe, but you gotta earn it too.” Which brightened my countenance, as I replied that I was so happy that the Lord had her stop by because the good news is that eternal life is a gift! I told her I named my firstborn daughter Grace after Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one can boast.” And you could see the truth click in her eyes!
Immediately she affirmed that made sense. So I explained the verses for her a bit and followed it up with the ending of Romans 6:23 (because I had already quoted the first part of “The wages of sin is death.”), “But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.” She was so happy to hear that salvation is a gift from God. It was a short five minute evangelism encounter, but I believe and pray that it will be a life changing one for her. May God have mercy upon Mercy to open her eyes to the gift of salvation!
