Central Truth

Such "fools" are all around and need to know that God is real. We must share the Good News.

Reflections

I guess I live a pretty sheltered existence. Being surrounded by friends, family, coworkers, even store clerks and professionals here in Northeast Oklahoma who all seem to be believers, I can easily slip into believing that everyone knows Jesus.

But then, watch the news (or even "entertainment" TV) and you see people doing and saying extremely corrupt things. Are they an alien race? As the psalmist says in verse 4,"Do all these evil doers know nothing?" I am eager to shrink back into my sheltered enclave, thinking, "That can't happen here!"

Wrong. Corruption surrounds us everywhere. Fools abound, saying in their hearts, "There is no God."

I was shocked by seeing a cross-section of our "perfect little community" a year ago when I was called to serve jury duty. A lot of ugly truth comes out in a courtroom. And I didn't even sit on a trial jury. I just sat through the preliminaries as the lawyers described the upcoming case and questioned the potential jurors to see if they could deliver an unprejudiced verdict on the facts of the case.

The lawyers on both sides would lay out the basic situation, giving some background about the accused and about the witnesses they might call. It did not take any depth of discernment to see that all of these people were caught up in lives of making one bad decision after another – both the accused and the witnesses to the alleged crime.

Even the questioning of the potential jurors in this random selection revealed lives full of the consequences of bad decisions by my fellow citizens.

I realized that we are only fooling ourselves if we sit back and assume that we are surrounded by Christians. We need to reach out to our neighbors. "Oh that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion." (14:7)

Discussion Questions

Think of a person close to you who has acted as though they believe in their heart, "There is no God." This behavior might have been caused by criminal poor judgment or simply seeming to be too caught up in "the world" or even being unduly distraught at the death of a loved one.

1. What scripture would you use to either remind them or convince them that God is real and is involved in their situation?

2. What would be the most winsome and effective way to approach them?

3. Should we put all of our evangelism efforts into reaching 'the least, the last, and the lost'? Or do seemingly prosperous people need the Good News, too?