The Atheist by Keith Cook
"Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me." Hosea 13:4
Several years ago while conducting our annual GoCamp we were challenged with a rather unique situation. One of the attendees was not a believer in Christ. He actually was a professed and rather vocal atheist. He and I had met at a youth crusade that I had spoken at in the past. He was the sound engineer at the event. I had been able to personally spend some time with him and share with him at the event. We had built a friendship. A local church, that sends youth to our GoCamp each year, invited him to come to our GoCamp and he accepted their invitation.
Each service and activity at our GoCamp seemed to affect him and drove him to become more vocal and belligerent. He obviously was getting very upset. As a non-believer his attention was being drawn to his state and fate with God.
Some of the young people at the camp came to me and actually said this about the man:
"He is so mean!"
"I don't like Him. He is evil!"
"I'm scared of him. I don't like the way he curses and is so critical of Christian beliefs."
As the week went on, some of the attendees actually began to love him and share with him. While he listened to me and respected me personally he also needed more than my words to come to Christ, he needed real love and real relationships with believers.
On the last night of our event, the young man actually said to someone that if I preached one more time about forgiveness and Jesus loving us, he would know there was a God and would become a Christian. He then laughed because he knew that the service was suppose to be a service of music and drama, with very little time for speaking.
As the night progressed God impressed me to share at the end of the evening about the love of Christ and his perfect forgiveness that He offered to all, even those who say there is no God. I said, "Jesus died for you even though you do not believe in Him. He forgives you and loves you. Your unbelief can be a sin of the past, it can be forgiven. Jesus wants to give you joy in Him for your future. You have not gone so far from God that He can not save you and forgive you."
At that moment his heart was broken and he came to a saving relationship with Christ. All week he had walked around camp with a scowl and frown, now he actually bubbled over with the joy of the Lord.
When he came to share with me his decision I already knew what had happened, it was so obvious. I could see by the change in his countenance and smile on his face. When I shared his decision with the group the place exploded. People ran to him and embraced him, congratulating him in Christ. We all partied and rejoiced for hours. The afterglow was fantastic.
The rest of the evening and throughout the next day my new friend in Christ was on-fire with the Lord. There was no let down. There was no, "I made a wrong decision!" Every time I would see him I would ask him if he was still solid in his decision for Christ. He would immediately grin and say, "Yes, and getting stronger every minute."
With Christ all things are possible. There are many people in your life who have not come to Christ or are not living up to their potential in Christ. Take every opportunity to expose them to good opportunities to come to Christ and be influenced by Godly people.
Daily Prayer Focus: Praise God for His sacrificial love and forgiveness.
On The Go Prayer Focus: On The Go's Outreach Training Schools (OTS). In our OTS, young people and adults are trained to go to the next level in their service to God. Pray for On The Go as we train believers to make a difference in their generation.
Thank you for taking the time to pray for this important division of On The Go Ministries. For more information on any our ministries here at On The Go, you may send your questions to info@onthego.org.
On The Go Daily Devotion for January 17, 2013
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