Early Drunks

Today I had an encounter that got me frustrated.  Let me tell you the story:

I was walking down the road to speak with a pastor after church.  As I was walking, two church going women came up to me and handed me a tract.  That is wonderful, I'm not frustrated about that, everyone should give out tracts and preach the Gospel however they can.

After they gave me the tract we talked for a bit about missions and church and so on, and then I continued on my way, but now I had this tract in my hand.  I didn't feel right about taking it home and throwing it in my pile of tracts I use for evangelism, and since I was already outside it seemed like God might be telling me to go talk to someone about Jesus.

The pastor wasn't home, so I decided to walk out to the grocery store, because behind it, as I've said in other posts, are a string of bars that are always occupied with drunks.  The first person I ran into I said, "This is for you," gave him the tract, he said "thanks", and kept on walking.  I didn't even get a chance to talk to him!

I thought, "As long as I'm here I may as well get some shampoo at the store."  I got to the back door of the store, and noticed about a dozen guys just sitting around outside one of the bars.  The bar wasn't even open!  They were literally so addicted that they were actually sitting outside waiting for the place to open so they could look like this:

  

What frustrated me about this whole thing was not the men waiting to get drunk, because if you don't know Jesus you look for whatever way you can to fill the void.  The Presence of God feels absolutely awesome, and we were designed for that, but people who haven't experienced it use drinks, or drugs, or movies, tv shows, relationships, whatever they can to feel good.
(Note: I'm not saying movies, tv shows, or relationships are evil, but people can get addicted to them and turn them into idols just as much as the other things.)

What did frustrate me was that I frequently see people show up extremely late for church, or ministry events without a second thought.  I know of one church I have been to many times, where the pastor's family often arrives just minutes before the service is over!  Yet here are these ten faithful drunks waiting outside their church of booze long before the place is even due to open, because they are so thirsty.

When was the last time you went to a church service and the Presence of God was so powerful in the place you didn't want to leave, and you spent the rest of the week just waiting for Sunday to roll around so you could experience it again?  When was the last time you got so lost in His Presence, drinking His wine (Luke 5:37), that people had to come find you?  Has that ever happened to you?

So often we think we are waiting on God.  Waiting for Him to move.  But that is simply not the truth.  He is waiting for us.  He is waiting for someone who is finally willing to step into His promises.

How many churches do you know, how many preachers can you think of who carry the Presence of God so heavily that people line up at the church doors to hear the Word?  When Kathryn Kuhlman was still alive, she would go to a place to preach and people would camp outside the church all night just to make sure they got a seat!

"My Creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious, and surely a day's asking God to overrule all events for good is not lost.  Still there is a feeling that when a man is praying he's doing nothing, and this feeling makes us give undue importance to the work, sometimes even hurrying over or even to the neglect of prayer.  Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh?  Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Do not the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth still to show Himself strong on behalf of those who put their trust in Him?  Oh that God would give me more practical faith in Him!  Where is now the Lord God of Elijah?  He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him."

                                                                                                                       - James Gilmour of Mongolia

I would be making a mistake if I didn't let you know that I didn't just see that, walk by, and let it go.  I did in fact march straight up to all those men and tell them that the alcohol they were about to drink was going to wear off in a few hours, but that drinking from Jesus never wears off.  I told them about the miracles I have seen Him do, and how awesome and wonderful and precious He is.  So much more than any drink.

Even though none of them accepted Jesus in that moment, you can be sure they will be thinking about my words for a while to come, because the Holy Spirit wants them all saved, recovered, and in His Kingdom.

All that because two obedient women of God gave me a tract.  They will never know the fruit of that until they get to heaven.