After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well? "Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:66-69

Jesus is perfect when it comes to sifting through men and finding those who will truly follow HIm. You see it over and over in Scripture How the Son of God goes directly to the heart of the matter and either people fold or they are changed forever.

It happens with His encounter with the Samaritan woman, the rich young ruler, the religious Pharisees, Martha with the death of Lazarus, and then again with these followers of Christ. This passage shows very clearly that Christ wants only who are His, those who have received the Truth. It also shows the reason why people should follow Him.

There really is only one reason; He is the Truth.

This is why everyone else leaves. Who knows all the reasons they were following Jesus. Maybe they were following Him because they had been fed by the fish and loaves. Maybe they were following the religious buzz happening around this Nazarene. Maybe they were fixed on the miracles. Maybe they were following their parents or other family. Regardless, in this moment Jesus exposes them all by confronting them with the Truth and all left Him except for thos who could not leave. Why couldn't they leave? Simon Peter answers this question. Paraphrasing, he says, "Where else are we going to go? You are the Truth. We have believed this and we know that you are God."

Is this true for you and your conversion? Have you come to Jesus simply because He is the Truth. Or are you a Christian because you don't want to go to hell, or because you want the streets of gold, or because you want a good life, or because you get that which you request from God in your prayers? Even though all of these are good rewards for following Him, they are not the reason ultimately to come to Christ. Come to Him because He is the Truth. When you evangelize, do you tell people to come to Christ for the wrong reasons? Make sure that you are not coercing people with these other reasons to come to Christ.

So here is a question that may come up: Are you saying I cannot talk about heaven or hell when evangelizing? Of course not, but are you using it as something to appeal to the flesh of a person. I know I have done this before. In the past I have talked to a person too much about wanting to go to heaven or not wanting to go to hell. As a result, I have appealed too much to the flesh and not addressed the heart enough. I did not talk enough about their need to stop doing that which God hates. In the past I have not told people that they are supposed to be giving God the glory that He deserves. We should obey God because He tells us to obey, even if there were nothing in it for us. We should want His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, which is perfect obedience to all of His commands regardless of the rewards.

I have talked to people before, and maybe you have to, that simply don't care they are going to hell; they love their sin too much. Does that mean they should not trust Christ? Of course not! The Lamb is worthy to receive the glory due His Name. Jesus is the Lamb who was slain. This is the Truth and because of this truth we should fall down and worship. May we become more Christ centered and less man centered in our evangelism.

I had an opportunity to be a part of the Origin in Schools outreach this past Wednesday. I met up with Preach On Ministries at UGA and helped them distribute The Origin of the Species with Ray Comfort's Christian introduction. I pray that people will read the Truth and obey. I also went to Emory campus to do the same thing with another group from Lilburn Alliance Church.

Click the image to see more pictures of the outreach

I spoke with Lauren; She is Jewish. I was really excited to speak to her because most Jews will not talk to me once they find out I am a Christian. At first she was offended when I told her to be a little more open-minded when she rejected a book. She said she did not agree with the introduction. This actually led to her coming and finding me later to tell me how offended she was at my comment. She said she thought she was a very open-minded person. It is funny because I was only saying this because many people accuse Christians of not being open-minded so I thought I would turn it around this time. This led to a 30-40 minute conversation.  I was able to share with her who Jesus is, the Jewish Messiah who ministered primarily to the Jews. I was able to quote some of Isaiah 53 to her showing that Jesus is the prophecied Christ. Praise the Lord, although she was rejecting the Truth at first, she began to listen and by the end of the conversation she was shaking my hand and thanking me for the conversation. She then returned five minutes later to ask for my email address. If she emails me I can continue to witness to her and Scott Dingfelder said he would give me some great resources to send her. I pray that she sees her True Messiah.

Please pray for our Thanksgiving Outreach this week and join us if you can. Please also pray for the following:

-Sean (atheist, very argumentative)

-Caesar (not saved, has some legal trouble)

-Sean (stopped to talk, took a New Testament and One Heartbeat Away, into new age teaching)

Lord, take me home, but until then send me many souls to bring with me.