Hey all,

I’m working on getting the podcast working. Our previous shows in the current series are up and available but I can’t add the new one yet. I’ll keep trying

Why has it been a little while since we’ve emailed out TCC news and updates? Thanks for asking! It’s because we’ve been getting our “technological game” on in preparation for our brand new online e-Newsletter!

Keep checking back here…’cause it’s coming soon!

A couple of weeks ago I was afforded an incredible opportunity. A life long friend of one of the members of the small group I am part of on Friday nights dropped in to our small group. He was drawn into the conversations we were having and repeatedly professed to being a part-time Catholic. Without getting into the details of the man’s private life and testimony I did not believe he was actually saved. My Brother in the Lord, who’s friend this man is, didn’t believe so either although he was desperate to be assured that the man is. I can sympathize. There are people I love who I want to be saved so badly that any assurance at all would give me some measure of peace that my soul cries after every time I think of them. I know that want, that desperate desire.

I felt prompted to witness to this guy.. all out.. not pulling any punches. It didn’t seem like the right setting. It would interfere with the flow of the group meeting.. it would put the man on the spot… but I just “knew” I had to. So I poked and prodded to see what was up with him.. he was in no way shy. I knew where the conversation was going and I knew he would be very exposed before these people he didn’t even know so I tried to bring him aside a couple of times but he wouldn’t have anything to do with that. He assured me he was ready for whatever I had for him… he really had no idea what he was agreeing to but I had God telling me to do it.. and what right do I have to disobey Him?

So I went through it with the man, asking him about his ideas about God, sin, salvation, Eternal Life and Hell. He didn’t believe that one could know beyond the shadow of a doubt that they had Eternal Life, but he wanted to know. I could see it in his body language.. and the tears in his eyes as we spoke. I’m getting choked up as I write this as I remember the way it felt to be with this man at that moment.

Those tense moments of realization when a person starts to see that they really are going to spend Eternity in the inescapable fires of Hell are terrible. I’ve got to tell you they are gut wrenching.

It was during these moments that members of our beautiful small group started to re-assure the man. They had been interjecting as the conversation went on.. and it was very tough for me to keep the man focused on the Gospel. It was a strange situation for me. But at the critical time, the moment when the man knew there was no hope aside from Christ I began to see the reason why God had ensured I would have this conversation with this man in that setting at that time. These beautiful people were showing this man their love by comforting him by soothing the danger, because it is terrible to watch someone in that kind of pain and fear. And I was reminded of when I first started to witness to people using the TCC Framework, how I didn’t want the person to feel afraid. I just wanted them to feel warmly loved. In these moments with this man I heard my dear friends and Brethren in the Lord gasp… hold their breath… move in their seats.. attempt to say the “right thing”… anything but let the man come under the pressure of the gravity of the moment.

Let me tell you, it’s easy to talk about a person’s sins and it’s easy to talk about Salvation and Heaven. It’s next to impossible to say nothing while someone feels like they are dying. We must at that moment say nothing. The Scriptures say that whoever calls on the Name of the Lord will be saved (Rom 10:13) not whoever is comforted.. or whoever repeats after an Evangelist is saved..

Those moments of tension are the hardest in witnessing. We have to love the person enough to let them experience the full conviction and convincing of the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-10).

If we let that person call out to the Lord, they themselves will know they have called on His Name in honesty. The Lord God promises to save all who do. So they will in fact be saved and gain Eternal Life, not just play a religious game that makes them feel good.