Things were far from right between God and me that year. In fact, although I had been saved for many years, things had not been really right between me and God for some time.

You see, somewhere along the line, I had decided to take control of my own life...and now it was out of control.

At work, I was not the witness I was supposed to be.

At church, I was going through the motions...but not being MOVED like I was supposed to be.

Then one Sunday night, the power of God's word softened my heart and the Holy Spirit drew me to the aisle. He dragged me to the altar. Then He drove me to my knees.

As I trembled before God I was too ashamed to know what to say. I was too far removed to know what to pray. The pastor recognized the outer symptoms of my inner turmoil and walked over to me.

Then, in what I've since come to understand as a great sensitivity to the leadership of the Spirit, he said something totally unexpected. He leaned over, patted my shoulder, and whispered, "Hang in there with Him, Brother."

Then he walked away to minister to the needs of others.

HANG IN THERE? HANG IN THERE! WHAT WAS THAT?

I was hanging all right. I felt like I had been hung out to dry.

Crying & shaking and making a fool of myself in front of the whole church. What else could I do but hang?

Then, all of a sudden, it started to be all right. I was not alone. God was right there with me. His Holy Spirit was hanging in there with me. NO!! He was hanging in there FOR me.

Only later was I led back to Romans, Chapter 8, Verses 26-27:

"Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God."

(Hallelujah!)

God made it clear that He did not want to linger with me over my burdens. He wanted me to leave them right there on that altar for Him to deal with.

He did not want to dwell on my sins. He wanted me to confess them and He would forgive them...right there...right then. He wanted me to start anew with Him...right here...right now.

The next morning I arose ready to follow Jesus. And He was right there, ready to lead.

God had reminded me that, although many of His promises are conditional ("If you do this, I'll do that."), His love is unconditional and nothing can separate me from it.

I can HANG IN THERE WITH HIM, BROTHER.

When I'm feeling discouraged or depressed or persecuted, I'm reminded that He will never forsake me.

And I can HANG IN THERE WITH HIM, BROTHER.

When I stumble and fall and struggle to get up, I'm reminded that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

And I can HANG IN THERE.

When finances get tight and I start to doubt whether I can afford to tithe and give, I'm reminded what a hypocrite I would be to profess that I have trusted Jesus with my eternal soul...but then refuse to trust him with my checkbook.

I CAN HANG IN THERE.

When I come to the fork in the road and I'm not sure which way to go, I'm reminded that I can be still and wait upon the Lord.

I CAN HANG IN THERE.

And if you're out there right now with troubles and problems and sorrows and pains...or you're like I was: filled with shame and guilt brought on by your own sinful pride...I'm here to remind you that my God is your god. He is in charge. He's on the throne. He is Lord. He is El Shaddai. He is God Almighty. And He loves you mightily.

HANG IN THERE WITH HIM!

I remember when a young man in our church (let's call him Bob) brought a prayer request for his father (Joe) who was terminally ill. It seems that Joe had long maintained to Bob that he had no use for God and rejected the concept of salvation.

Bob began an intense campaign of prayer and witnessing in an effort to see his father brought to a point of conviction.

The pastor visited frequently.

The church prayed fervently.

When Joe passed on into eternity, I attended the funeral. I was able to speak privately with Bob.

I asked him if Joe ever accepted Jesus. He smiled and said, "You know, the day he died, Dad told me that he had finally seen the truth and that I could count on seeing him in Heaven."

I rejoiced with Bob and we praised God together.

Now, that's a great story with a joyful ending, but later it occurred to me that Bob had a "two-minute warning" of sorts. He was alerted of his dad's impending death and was able to focus his efforts on praying for him and witnessing to him.

I began to think about all the people who die suddenly and unexpectedly. I mean, it's a dangerous world out there. Aside from all the maniacs who would intentionally do us harm, accidents account for numerous premature deaths each day.

Yes, we may have witnessed to our close family and friends. (Have you?)

But what about that mechanic, or mail carrier, or store clerk, that we see day after day, year after year. We have never said a word to them about what should be the most important thing in our lives and their lives, about the most urgent thing in all creation.

What if they're suddenly called out into eternity, and we're not afforded another chance to tell them about Jesus? Worse yet, what if you're there when it happens, and you have to watch as their souls depart for Hell before you can say anything else to them?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we are to beat everyone we know over the head with the Bible and run them off from any influence we might ever have with them.

Jesus said we're to tell our story. If they listen, stay and teach them. If they don't, kick the dust off your feet and go get another one.

We are responsible for the sowing, the telling. God does the harvesting, the convicting and converting.

But, if we haven't told them ourselves or been present when someone else told them, how do we know for sure they've heard. We are responsible to be sure of that.

And if you can't tell them yourself for whatever reason, get them with someone who can. Get them to your church or your bible study. Get someone to visit them.

How can they believe if they have not heard?

You say, "Aw, everybody around here has heard about God, about Jesus, about Heaven and Hell." Yes, but have they heard the truth?

Tell you another little story. I was raised in a family that believed in God.

As a young man in the Army, I was pretty wild, but I still believed in the existence of a Supreme Being, because logic dictated that this did not all happen by accident.

I believed that there was a Jesus and a Heaven and Hell. Problem was, I thought you would be judged according to the ratio of good to bad in your life to get to Heaven. I knew I could never be good enough to make it.

Lying in bed at our base camp in Vietnam between patrols, listening to the artillery firing in the distance, I knew I was destined for Hell; so I continued to live like the devil in my waking hours.

I often wonder how many people there are out there like me.

This may make you uncomfortable. Sorry 'bout that, but it makes me uncomfortable, too.

In fact, if you're sitting there reading this and feel no discomfort that people may die and go to Hell due to your indifference, well...you figure it out.

Our friends in the secular scientific community say something to the effect that, "We would have to suspend our disbelief to even consider such an illogical concept as creation of the world by an all-powerful, supernatural god."

To which I would reply, "I've often been accused of being a fairly logical fellow. Come. Let us REASON together."

And the dialogue would ensue:

ME: Now, as I understand it, your predominate theory proposes that all existence, and the universe as we know it today, originated with a mysterious event, a colossal explosion, known as "The BIG BANG", which flung energy and matter lights years in every direction.

THEM: Yes. That's essentially it.

ME: And this mass continues to expand every day.

THEM: Yes.

ME: Okay. And what was there before the explosion?

THEM: The void.

ME: Well, there's something upon which we can agree. And, in this void, what caused the explosion?

THEM: Spontaneous combustion.

ME: All right. Now, as I understand spontaneous combustion, there must be heat generated from friction or static in some kind of matter. Is that correct?

THEM: Put in a simplistic way, yes.

ME: And, in the void, what was this matter?

THEM: Cosmic dust.

ME: Hmmm. And what caused the friction or static or whatever within the cosmic dust?

THEM: Possibly cosmic winds.

ME: Possibly? I guess you could say anything is possible, huh? I mean, except for the presence of a Creator. Anyway...now, in this void, how did the cosmic winds and cosmic dust originate?

THEM: Probably from pressure.

ME: Now we're getting somewhere. Cosmic wind rubbing cosmic dust...from the pressure in the void...caused the event that started the existence of everything. Except for the pressure and the dust and the winds, of course, which were already there...in the void. I'm a little slow on the uptake on that one.

Well, now that we've got that all cleared up with crystal clear logic, let's move on, shall we? The way I hear it, you theorize that, over kazillions of years, this ongoing expansion resulted in the formation of galaxies and solar systems and planets. And one of these planets is this very earth we stand on today.

THEM: That's correct.

ME: And by pure accident, conditions developed on this planet which were capable of supporting organic life?

THEM: Uh-huh.

ME: Then, just because it could, life sort automatically started up all by itself in the form of a simple, single-celled organism, some kind of amoebae?

THEM: Exactly.

ME: And, due to some mysterious survival instinct imparted to it from who knows where (the pressure in the void, maybe?), this brainless, heartless speck of pre-planktonesque sea debris decided that it could do better as a multi-cellular being?

THEM: Well, I wouldn't put it quite that way.

ME: But that is what is put forth as fact. And once it decided it SHOULD, it decided it COULD and WOULD. So it became fish, and reptile, and amphibian, and dinosaur, and the beast of the field, and the monkey, and the primate (with birds and bugs and viruses and bacteria and so forth thrown in there somewhere) before its crowning achievement.

It eventually became the self-made, self-proclaimed god...Man. The amoebae descendent that invented the computer and went to the moon!

And here we stand...creatures of circumstance. Whoops! No, that's not right. There's no such thing as a creature. By definition, that would have to be a created being. Okay! We are BEINGS of circumstance. Right?

But back to our ever-evolving discussion. Here I stand, one of billions of people, on a small planet, that's one of several, revolving around a star that's one of billions in a galaxy. And it's a rather insignificant sun, remote from the center of the galaxy.

That galaxy, of course, is an insignificant one among billions of galaxies in the universe. No, I know that, technically, the universe should be "universal", that is all-inclusive. But, evolutionarily speaking, there IS something beyond that. I'm talking about the,...uh. Help me out here.

THEM: The cosmos.

ME: Right. And what comes after that? I mean what's on the other side of the cosmos?

THEM: Well, uh. I guess the uh.....

ME: Come on. If the cosmos has a boundary, and it can't go on forever, there's got to be something on the other side of it. (Boy, we're having some fun now.)

THEM: Well, uh. The void. That's it. The void's outside the cosmos.

ME: Ah-hah! It's full circle we've come now. But tell me this. Is this the same void that had the dust and wind and pressure and maybe some other stuff you wouldn't expect to find in a void. Or is it some other void, maybe one that acts like a self-respecting void ought to act by being empty.

THEM: Be nice now.

ME: I know! Maybe it's another dimension. A double paradox that folds time and space and sends you on an elliptical back flip right back to where you started here on Earth. (Sorry. Too much science fiction as a kid, I guess.)

THEM: You're not being nice.

ME: Oh. Sorry, again. I forgot that ridicule was reserved only for those that disagree with the iron-clad and empirical proof of YOUR theories. I'll try to do better.

THEM: Well, then. Let's call it infinity.

ME: Let's do that. Now...what about time?

THEM: What about it?

ME: It's taken countless billions of years for this "scientific accident" to unfold to this point. I understand current theory to believe that, soon if not already, the process will begin to reverse itself.

The whole shebang will start to collapse in on itself, and in several billion more years, we'll be back to where we started. Cosmic dust to cosmic dust, I guess? (Oops. Couldn't contain myself.)

But my question is this. We've got theses billions upon billions of years of cosmic expansion and collapse sandwiched in between...what? I mean, what came before?

THEM: Before? There was the void.

WE: Agreed. But not your void. And not your when. But we'll get back to that. There are some other things you'd have to believe before you'd believe anything I explain about that.

THEM: What do you mean?

ME: You'll see. But what about the other end of time? After the collapse. What happens then?

THEM: I guess you could call it eternity.

ME: Could and do. Agreed again. But again not your eternity and not your when. In fact, eternity is at hand right now.

THEM: Interesting. Tell me about that.

ME: It's interesting AND important. I do want to explain it but, like I said, there are some other things you have to understand first.

You claim to be logical. Let me propose the most logical situation you'll ever encounter. When I said, "Let us reason together," this is what I was getting at.

According to your belief system, when we die, we go out into the great cosmic consciousness or whatever. If you're right and I'm wrong, no big deal.

I believe in Heaven and Hell. If I'm right and you're wrong, you're in big trouble.

Which brings us to two urgent points:
1. If I really believe what I claim to believe, I'm morally bound to share it with you. As bound as I would be to warn you off the track if you didn't know a train was coming.

2. Logic stronger than any of your theories dictates that you listen to what I have to say before deciding against it.

THEM: I'm listening.

ME: First of all, I agree that I am one person among millions on a small planet in a small galaxy in a huge universe in a vast cosmos. I agree there is a void beyond the physical realm. But I reject the possibility of any physical phenomena within that void.

God exists within that void as well as within the physical realm. That is possible because God is spiritual rather than physical.

I believe that, within that void, God created everything, because He and He alone can create something from nothing.

"Thou hast created all things and for Thy pleasure they are created."

I was created for God's pleasure, to be in a loving relationship with Him. But because of my rebellious nature, my stubborn will, and my unbelief (just like yours), that fellowship was broken.

I was guilty of sin, which cannot exist in harmony with God's holiness. And so I was doomed to eternal separation from Him.

But God loved me so much, that insignificant little dot of humanity on that little dot of a world adrift in all creation...that He sent His own Son to suffer and bleed and die for ME, to suffer the consequences of MY sin.

His sacrifice is a gift, the gift of salvation from my sins, the gift of restoration to a relationship with God. It's bought and paid for; it's free to me. I can't buy it or earn it. All I can do is accept or reject it. It's God's grace, His unmerited favor.

And it's there for you, too. You accept it by accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord. "Why LORD, too," you ask. Simple. If He's not Lord, there can be no gift. There is no salvation. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God, was qualified to do the job!

So it's a whole package, this gift. And until you accept it and start to receive an understanding of God, you can't understand some of the things I discussed before.

But one thing you should realize; eternity is not billions of years in the future. YOU"RE eternity is on the other side of your next heartbeat. You can't know when your heart will beat its last beat, but when it does, you'll be in eternity.

And you'll spend it in Heaven or Hell. Accept God's gift, accept Jesus, and you'll spend it in Heaven. Reject it and you'll spend it in Hell. NOT because of those little white lies or immoral thoughts or any lesser or greater issues that were between you and God before. But because you REJECTED JESUS.

God's Son paid this awesome, terrible price for you...and you rejected it...rejected Him! That's what sends people to Hell.

It's a simple decision to make. You can pray right now and accept the gift. It's your eternal decision.

I AM very logical and I do believe the theory of evolution is some of the most illogical gobbledeegook I've ever heard. The Evolution Revelation is just an example, but we may sometimes have opportunities to have intellectual discussions that can open the door for witnessing.

I do caution you, as I so often have to caution myself, don't try to win the battle and lose the war. We are obligated to keep a Godly influence in the land, but we can't stand on a soapbox and cram our convictions down people's throats.

Their minds are not going to change until their hearts are changed. Only God can do that. But He can work through us to soften their hearts and make them receptive to the Gospel

Preston