Daily Devotional for Monday September 12, 2005

A Trip to Hell

(Acts 19:23-34)

A few months ago on a Saturday night at 11 p.m., I visited hell. Well, not the literal hell in the Bible but probably as good a representation of it as you will find on earth. For over 2 hours, I was in a section of Tampa known as Ybor City filming segments for the t.v. program.

Ybor City is the infamous ?club district? of Tampa that is similar to Bourbon Street in New Orleans. On a typical Saturday night there are over 25,000 people of all ages in Ybor City mostly there to drink, but also to do drugs and find people to engage in illicit sex with. Up and down the streets were men and women with very little clothing on, men being led down the street on a leash, people with their bodies pierced, spiked colored hair, and tattoos of every description. You are likely to see just about anything on the streets of Ybor on a Saturday night.

The fact is, there was really no better place for me to be on this night. Very few of these people would be getting up to go to church in the morning, those who did know the Lord were obviously not walking very close to Him. This was a crowd that most likely would not be watching Christian t.v., listening to Christian music, or buying Christian books. Amazingly however, many DID WATCH the Liveprayer television program at times. When we think of taking Christ to the ?lost,? we think of missionaries in far off lands, traveling deep into the jungles of other continents, when we have the better percentage of two full generations right here in the United States who have never even been to church and are just as lost as those people in far away lands. We have got to take Christ TO THE PEOPLE!

A side note: We thank God for ?Chris,? a young man that while I interviewed him, broke down and accepted Christ as his Savior. Pray for ?Chris,? and for all those that we were able to reach out to last Saturday night with the hope of Christ.

I can?t speak for what God has called others to do, but He has called me to share the hope and love of Christ with this lost and dying world, and to do that, I must take CHRIST TO THE PEOPLE. I do that each day here on the Internet, I do that 5 nights a week on our ?live? television program, and that is why we took our cameras that Saturday to Ybor City. You see, God called me to the ministry to build the Kingdom of God, NOT my own kingdom. All I do is geared towards sharing the hope and love of Jesus Christ with people. My goal is to build people, NOT buildings. I come each day to be a servant, not to be served.

The people up and down the streets of Ybor City that Saturday night, the people we reach out to each and every day here at Liveprayer.com, and those we minister to every Monday through Friday on the Liveprayer television program are simply looking for hope. They have been deceived to think they will find that hope in a bottle or in a drug. Some are looking for that hope in illicit sexual relationships. Still others look for their hope in gambling, shopping, or food, while yet others try to find their hope in a career, in money, or in material possessions. My friend, there is only one true hope in this world, and that is JESUS CHRIST. Christ and Christ alone is the ONLY HOPE THERE IS!

All we do each day at Liveprayer is simply reach out to people who are hurting, going through the pains of day-to-day life, people who have come to the place they realized they have put their hope in something that has let them down and need to find true hope. These people for the most part are not going to come to church or turn on the Christian media. If you want to bring these people the message of hope in Jesus Christ, you have to take that message TO THEM! You have to go where they are at!!!

The challenge for you today is this. There is a world outside the four walls of the church that is hurting and lost. They are looking for answers. They will not come to your church, they will not watch Christian television, they will not hear the message of Christ unless YOU BRING IT TO THEM. You work with these people, you go to school with them, you recreate with them, you shop with them. You don?t need a microphone to share Christ, you simply need to live a Godly life each day, and when the opportunities arise, tell people what Jesus Christ has done in your life.

I love you and care about you so much. God has commanded, not suggested, that we share the Gospel with this lost world that we live in. IT IS NOT AN OPTION. We are in the last days and there is one last great harvest to come in before Christ returns. The time is short and we must get serious about the job God has given us to do, working while it is still light. Again, this is a call God has given to ALL of His children.

I pray today that you will respond and do your part in helping to bring Christ to those who are lost and without hope. As that great song says, JESUS IS THE ANSWER, FOR THIS WORLD TODAY, ABOVE HIM THERE?S NO OTHER, JESUS IS THE WAY. Let us take Jesus Christ TO THE PEOPLE!!!