The Power of the Gospel

I received a phone call Monday night from an African American pastor friend of mine informing me that a young man in our inner city Bible club had been tragically killed. While I was talking to him the local news came on and I saw a picture of the eleven year old on the screen. I immediately recognized his bright eyes and broad smile. The pastor was telling me that at our last Bible club meeting this young man attended he had prayed with one of the coaches and confessed Christ as his Savior and Lord. According to the news account, this young man had been with a group of boys hanging out around a neighborhood and a homeowner thought he would scare them by pointing a shotgun at them. He said he didn’t know it was loaded but it discharged, shooting the eleven year old in the back and killing him instantly.

I thought how tragic and how sad. At the same time I thanked God for the Bible club ministry we have been involved in for many years. Going every Tuesday evening during the school year and working with children who often are not the most well behaved can be challenging. Being honest, I will admit at times I’ve wondered if we really are making a difference. The children we minister to in this program are well aware of how fragile life is. Most of them live in an atmosphere that’s hard to describe. My way of picturing it is by saying they often live in what appears to be an unending episode of Cops.

We come each week and provide game time competition, songs, a Bible lesson, memory work, and a time of one on one counseling. What a blessing it is to pray with these little ones as they share their struggles, hurts, and concerns! Each week we present the good news of the Gospel as simply as we know how. We tell them that God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son to die on a cross to pay for the sins of every person, and that whoever responds by believing in His Son becomes His very own child and will live eternally with God forever and ever, Amen. I can tell you from firsthand experience there’s power in this message even as it goes forth to an eleven-year-old boy.

We believe the Bible when it says for those who belong to God when they die they instantaneously become absent from the body but present with the Lord. We are grieved as we mourn the loss of this young life. He was said to have been gifted in math and desired to eventually become an engineer. At the same time we rejoice in his testimony and confession of Christ and thank God for people like my pastor friend, who, down in the trenches, are willing to go and share truth with those of whom Jesus said: “Allow the children to come to me for such is the kingdom of God”. More later…………….