This post is back-dated.
My bad for letting last week get away from me. I knew there wasn't anything new on this list, so I was almost about to not post it at all. But then I changed my mind. I also wanted to post the letter we stuck in a few doors around the Liberty community. It was supposed to be a sort of "reverse trick-or-treating," but nobody around the church looked like they were expecting trick-or-treaters. So it was kind of a bust in that regard, but I think it was a good experience for our youth to even get a taste of cold-call evangelism even though no one ever opened the door. We did this because LibertyYouth love others like they love themselves.
The letter read thusly:
Hey Neighbor!
We are LibertyYouth [graphic logo was used in actual letter]! That is to say, we are young people from Liberty Baptist Church. Halloween is typically about people coming to you wanting candy, but we wanted to offer you something much sweeter. Do you know the gospel?
Maybe you've been in church four times a week since nine months before you were born, or maybe you've never set foot in a church-house. That's all beside the point. We want to know that you know the gospel, the good news about Jesus the Christ, because it has changed our lives, and we hope it might change yours too.
There is one true, living, creator God, and He is good. Because He made us, we are all accountable to him for how we live. We have all fallen far short of His perfect standard. We fail to do all the good we could do, and we choose to do things we know are wrong. Because God is good, He must punish us for breaking His law. Because God is infinitely worthy of our obedience, the punishment for our disobedience must be eternal for there to be justice. That's a problem, but Jesus is the answer. God took on human flesh and was born as a baby, lived a life of perfect obedience to God's law, performed miracles to prove His authority, and then died as a willing sacrificial payment for our—yours, mine, everybody's—disobedience. But He didn't stay dead. He rose from death back to life to show that the payment was complete and that we could have new life through Him. But you only get this new life by giving up your old life. You must turn your back on your old life and choose to follow Christ as your master if you want to claim Him as your Savior. He knows you can't do it on your own, so He has promised to put His own Spirit in you. God has done all the work. Do you believe it? Will you follow Him?
If so, that's great! If this is new, then you should tell someone...forget that, tell everyone. If you already live as a follower of Christ, that's great, too! Either way, if you aren't an active member of some other church in the community, then we'd like to invite you to join us, Liberty Baptist Church. If you are a member of another church, that's awesome, we love other churches.
Sweet things, the dead being raised, a Spirit bringing supernatural power to your life... Who knew Christianity was so spooky? Happy Halloween, and God bless you.
And now for the prayer list:
[The above list is posted in order that you may pray
for the matters on the hearts of the Liberty Youth. Never use any
information contained on such a list in any potentially hurtful or
negative manner. If you feel that something should be edited off of the
list, please contact Paul directly.]
