The Dead are Alive!

“And I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away. And there was found no place for them.  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God. And books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, out of the things which were written in the books.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one, according to their works.  And Death and Hades were cast into the Lake of Fire. This is the second death.  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”  Revelation 20:11-15

 

Finally, after a lot of catching up to do with other financial priorities, there was both time and enough money to be able to go out and proceed forward with the street ministry in Rapid City, SD. 

 

I’ve always been a firm believer that going out by twos are a good practice (Mark 6:7) and seeing as how I have yet to find another who is willing to brave the streets to hand out Gospel tracts, Bibles and a snack to those who need it, my eleven year old son, who was Saved at the age of 4, is the other one who goes out with me. 

 

While we walk around downtown Rapid City, we follow God’s attribute and are no respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11) and my son likes to keep tract of the percent of people who are willing to take some custom made Gospel tract booklets.  (Which by the way can be downloaded for free in a PDF version on the website.)  Today I had heard that we were at 65% of those whom we asked, which was a very good day!

 

There was one woman who we passed, well dressed, looked and acted well educated, someone who certainly portrayed of the well-to-do status.  In nearly every case, with a man or woman in business attire, the response is almost always ‘no thank you’.  The same would be said true with the average tourists walking around downtown, most are not interested and it seems the ones who are often express that they are Christians. 

 

While we do get an off comment from time to time, most will either take it or not, there is not many battles fought regarding lewd words coming back our way, perhaps because there is a young lad there?

 

However Rapid City also has a sizeable population of homeless, drug addicts, drunks, those sleeping in the grass and a certain amount of drifters who are just passing through town or spending the summer here.  Rarely are we declined to give to those whom we ask a Gatorade and a small bag of chips.  In almost all cases they will also readily receive a Gospel tract and today we managed to hand out a record six Bibles. 

 

With the lack of people walking around downtown we decided to try and finally go to a known rough neighborhood of Rapid City, where we found ourselves quickly inundated by people who were readily willing to quickly not only accept the free snack, but also to accept a Gospel tract.    

These were those in society that most people only see while driving through these types of neighborhoods.  The shirtless tough guy, the harlot looking woman, the drunks, the sidewalk sleepers, the panhandlers, the druggies, the druglords, the bad guys with the gold chains around their necks and then those just down and out, outcasts of society, crippled, simply poor, young and old, man and woman. 

 

We did a final count on how many snacks we had left in our backpack and approached a group of three guys, with only enough for four individuals left.  They were greatly appreciative of the Gatorade and chips (Gatorade is incredibly more popular than a bottle of water), even offered us a gallon of water that an outreach had left them, in case we were thirsty, but there was this one gentleman today who stood out.

 

He was an older Native American and told us that he was only going to be in Rapid City for two more days, he resides in North Dakota.  He enthusiastically took the Gospel tract and stated that with sincerity that he would keep it the rest of his life.  He then added that he would be buried with it. 

 

Now I know a little bit about Native American religious beliefs, but not enough to fully understand everything that they believe.  While there would be some to quickly retort to me that I should fully study it, so that when I engage those who hold these beliefs I could quickly answer them, well personally I simply preach Christ alone.

 

“Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you fear the gods; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your devotion, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One to whom you show reverence without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of Heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands.  Nor is He served with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things.  And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell everywhere on the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as also some of your own poets have said, For we are also His offspring.  Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine is like gold or silver or stone, something engraved by art and man’s devising.  Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has established a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has appointed. He has given assurance of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”  Acts 17:22-31

 

There was no arguing from Paul or debating going back and forth about their beliefs verses the only true God, our Creator, rather he simply preached to them the truth.  There are times and places for such debate, but in such a short interaction with most people, handing them the Truth through a Gospel tract, full of Bible verses and often watching them read it afterwards is enough.  For these people are empty because their religious beliefs are empty, therefore a lot of them are hungry for the Truth, even though their culture shuns it. 

 

This gentleman didn’t shun it, but rather readily received it.  Walking back to where we parked I began to think about him, his comment, a rather odd comment and one that I doubt I will ever hear again.  Then I thought about a discussion that we had while walking around.

 

I reminded my son that God is no respecter of persons, that all will stand before God Almighty at the Great White Throne judgment.  There the person who lived in a million dollar house, had a nice car, had it easy will be, as well as that same gentleman who took the tract and stated he would keep it always, he will be there as well.  Both will have nothing, both will stand before their Creator and at that point, nothing else will matter, but whether or not they were willing to repent towards God and by faith believe into Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (Acts 20:21), thereby accepting the free gift of Salvation (Eph. 2:8-9), having their names written in the Book of Life. 

 

Notice those who stand at the Great White Throne judgment in the opening verse, they are the dead.  The dead are alive, they still live, but yet they are dead.  Contemplate that, wrap your mind around that, the dead are alive and standing before God Almighty!

 

I hope that man reads the tract, I hope that he seeks God with all of his heart (Jer. 29:13), for truly God will be found.  For having a tract buried next to you, if indeed he follows through, would be a terrible testimony on the day of judgment for this individual. 

 

For imagine him standing before the Great White Throne, before God Almighty, with his name not written in the book of life.  There he would be, dead, though alive, would God not remind him that at least at this one point in his life, that He sent His servant out into the streets of Rapid City, that our paths happened to cross, though he was from North Dakota, that day he was in Rapid City.

 

On the 6th of July, 2023, God sent His servant, to do His good will, to preach the Gospel as commanded by Christ (Matt. 28:19-20) and in his hand was placed a tract so that he might have the truth, that he might be Saved (2 Pet. 3:9), but he continued on with his life, with our without a tract buried with him.

 

“And as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, without sin, unto salvation.”  Hebrews 9:27-28

 

Amen!