{"id":1778,"date":"2014-01-01T10:07:33","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T16:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=1778"},"modified":"2014-01-01T10:09:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T16:09:38","slug":"excerpt-from-hell-is-real-but-i-hate-to-admit-it-by-brian-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dave.dlscott.info\/?p=1778","title":{"rendered":"Excerpt from “Hell Is Real (But I Hate to Admit It)” by Brian Jones …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years I\u2019ve helped hundreds of people come to faith in Christ. Many of them ridiculed me in the process, sometimes ruthlessly.<\/strong> But I persisted the best I could. I even hated some of them. I know that\u2019s not something I\u2019m supposed to say as a pastor, but it\u2019s what I felt at the time. Some of the people I reached out to treated me like garbage. But somehow I persisted.<\/p>\n

And do you know what many of those same people told me after they became Christians? \u201cThank you for not giving up on me.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Years ago a woman in our church asked me to visit her dying father in the hospital.<\/strong> For years this man had rejected Christianity and even made fun of me personally. But despite my years of built-up apprehension and animosity toward this man, I went to see him. When I arrived in his room, I found a different man from the one I\u2019d known. Gone was the bravado. Gone was the glare of defiance I had seen so many times. Hooked to a dozen wires and monitors, the person who spent a lifetime rejecting his daughter\u2019s attempts to share her faith now lay in cold silence staring out the window.<\/p>\n

For some reason, I expected the circumstances of our meeting to have softened his heart. Deathbeds have a way of doing that to people. But as I drilled down in our conversation, I hit the same skeptical bedrock I had before. He gave me the same smirks. Same defiance. Same \u201cI\u2019m smarter than God\u201d attitude.<\/p>\n

My job was done.<\/strong> He was unmoved and unwilling to talk about spiritual matters, so I said a quick prayer and headed for the parking lot. But something wouldn\u2019t allow me to get on that elevator. This isn\u2019t a game, I thought. This person is headed toward eternal separation from God. And you\u2019re going to just walk away and leave? What are you ashamed of?<\/p>\n

The elevator door opened, but I didn\u2019t get in. Prompted by the Holy Spirit, I turned around, headed back down the hallway, and walked up to his bedside once again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not leaving you like this. Not today. Not on my watch.\u201d He was taken aback. \u201cListen, I don\u2019t care that you\u2019ve spent your life making fun of Christians. I don\u2019t care about anything you\u2019ve said or done up to this point. Quite frankly, I think all of that has been a show. I can see it in your eyes. Deep down you want to believe, you just haven\u2019t been willing to humble yourself.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I spent the next fifteen minutes trying every angle possible<\/strong> to get him to surrender his heart to Christ. No luck. I don\u2019t know what I expected\u2014 maybe the gates of heaven to open up and shower angel dust all over the room, I don\u2019t know. All I knew is that this guy\u2019s heart wouldn\u2019t budge.<\/p>\n

Then I did something I had never done before.<\/strong> I begged him. I literally began begging him to come to Christ. \u201cLook, is this what you want? I\u2019m begging you, Frank. I\u2019m literally begging you. You\u2019re going to die soon, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, I don\u2019t know when, but it\u2019s soon. I don\u2019t want you to go to hell. I\u2019m begging you to give your life to Christ, right now, this second.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then something astonishing happened.<\/strong> His eyes started to water. His lips trembled. Years of skeptical defiance melted as he grabbed my hand. And that\u2019s when it happened\u2014 he surrendered his heart to Christ. Right there in that room. After years of hurling insults at Christians.<\/p>\n

And as I stood there … he pulled my hand and motioned with his eyes that he wanted to say something. I leaned over to listen. And he whispered in my ear, \u201cThank you for coming back for me.\u201d<\/b> As we both sat there, soaking in the magnitude of what was taking place, I started laughing, wiped my eyes, and said, \u201cFrank, after everything you\u2019ve put me through, I don\u2019t know whether I should hug you or sucker punch you.\u201d<\/p>\n