{"id":1923,"date":"2017-05-31T15:01:55","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T15:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takingeverythoughtcaptivetoobeychrist.wordpress.com\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2017-05-31T15:01:55","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T15:01:55","slug":"divine-appointments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/divine-appointments\/","title":{"rendered":"Divine Appointments"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a weekly basis, brothers and sisters from biblically faithful churches join us downtown Hamilton, ON, Canada, to spread the Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to a dying world. Providentially speaking, the Lord always brings men and women from different ages and walks of life to hear His Gospel preached on the street corners. In many cases, the Lord draws people to talk with us as they walk by, and we have seen much fruit in these conversations (see our YouTube Videos here). <\/a>This post highlights an encounter brother Shelby had with a young man:<\/p>\n

            \u201cI wanted to share a summary of a recent witnessing encounter that I had downtown Hamilton, with the GO Team (Gospel Outreach Team). For the sake of privacy, I have changed the name of young man with whom I spoke. Please note that the following account represents to the best of recollection the conversation.<\/p>\n

I met a young man named Chris, who would not self-identify as a Christian because he felt he could not properly represent that title. This of course was an early opportunity to tell him that all of us fail to attain such a standard, in fact we need to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, and we simply cannot do so on our own (without outside intervention). This is precisely why we need a Savour, I explained to him. Christ lived a perfect life, died a criminal\u2019s death and was raised for the remission of our sins, according to God\u2019s redemptive plan set forth in eternity past. God\u2019s wrath has been turned aside and now by faith in His Son we can be in a right standing with our Creator and Lord of Eternity.<\/p>\n

As the conversation continued, it was apparent that my new friend was familiar with basic tenets of Christian faith from his youth, yet he believed-like many others, in the inherent goodness<\/em> of mankind. Within this system of thought, we as humans, are <\/em>good at the core of our being, i.e., we simply need to make good moral choices to leave a lasting impact in our world. So, I asked him a pressing question, how do you think we are doing at this? Making good moral choices for the betterment of society? To this he didn\u2019t have a clear answer. I explained to him that our sinful nature and desire to do what we<\/em> please is precisely why we see such wickedness and consistent moral decline in our society. Often our \u201cgood\u201d decisions are just selfish motives to fuel our pride. Like the Prophet Isaiah declares in Isaiah 64:6:<\/em><\/p>\n

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are a<\/em>s filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”<\/em><\/p>\n

He went on to assert a common belief even among Christian\u2019s that we have free will, to which I challenged that assumption. We have the ability to make secondary decisions, sure, but can we confidently argue that all or even any of our decisions are free from outside or inside influence? Ultimately, I pointed him back to the God of the Universe, as the One who is Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnipotent and as the only being<\/em> who truly operates freely, as He pleases (Psalms 24:1).<\/p>\n

Chris raised several other concerns like the necessity and the validity of the Resurrection which are not included for the sake of brevity here. As we wrapped up our conversation, the Lord provided opportunity to share more about His saving work, while urging this young man \u2013 like we all must do \u2013 to consider our lives and where we will spend eternity. He thanked me for our time spent together and I bid him farewell.<\/p>\n

Please pray that Chris would see his sinfulness and come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, “whom in all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).\u201d<\/p>\n

For more videos see this Link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grace & Peace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a weekly basis, brothers and sisters from biblically faithful churches join us downtown Hamilton, ON, Canada, to spread the Glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ to a dying world. Providentially speaking, the Lord always brings men and women from different ages and walks of life to hear His Gospel preached on the street corners. In many cases, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":686,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,32],"tags":[147,274,278,386,557,562,679,683,699,765,823,1356],"class_list":{"0":"post-1923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-faith","7":"category-theology","8":"tag-appointments","9":"tag-christ","10":"tag-christianity","11":"tag-divine","12":"tag-god","13":"tag-gospel","14":"tag-jesus","15":"tag-jj","16":"tag-joshua","17":"tag-lord","18":"tag-mills","19":"tag-witness","20":"entry"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3468,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/crazy-good-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":1923,"position":0},"title":"Crazy Good News","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"January 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news that guilty sinners are reconciled to a holy and just God through the perfect life, sacrificial death, bodily resurrection and ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God where he sits even now interceding for his people. That's a fairly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Faith"","block_context":{"text":"Faith","link":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/category\/faith\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/01\/img_1099.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/01\/img_1099.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/01\/img_1099.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2018\/01\/img_1099.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1324,"url":"https:\/\/themajestysmen.com\/joshuajenkins\/plastic-eggs-and-a-resurrected-lord\/","url_meta":{"origin":1923,"position":1},"title":"Plastic Eggs and a Resurrected Lord","author":"Joshua Jenkins","date":"April 12, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Easter is right around the corner. 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