My Thoughts

This might be a long e-mail, but please take the time to read it. I ran across an article the other day about Penn Jillette. You may know him as the "talkative" half of Penn and Teller. He is a very outspoken atheist. He posted a video blog about a man who gave him a Gideon Bible after a show and how it impacted his life. Here is a part of what he said about the man after he gave him the Bible.

" I believe he knew I was an atheist. But he was not defensive. And he looked me right in my eyes. And he was truly complimentary,...it didn't seem like empty flattery. He was really kind and nice and sane and looked me in the eyes and talked to me and then gave me this Bible. And I've always said that I don't respect people who don't proselytize. I don't respect that at all. If you believe that there is a Heaven and Hell and that people could be going to Hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that, well it's really not worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward...How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it, but that truck is bearing down on you, there's a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that. And I've always thought that and I've written about that and I've thought of it conceptually."

After I read that article I was so humbled by the fact that a self professing atheist had that much conviction about how important it is to share the Gospel. We all could learn a lot from what he said. I walked away from that article with a fresh and a new spirit to be more bold about sharing the Gospel, even if it is "socially awkward". The apostle Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ". My prayer for you and me is that we all would see how important it is to share the Gospel to a lost and dying, and yes, a Hell bound world. I would that our eyes and our hearts would be open to that reality, and that alone would motivate us to "tackle somebody".