Hocus Pocus

Last night, one of my roommates and I (Big Pete) went out sharing.

It was about 11 o'clock, and we went to the boardwalk. As I was walking, I thought of something my friend Justin told me. He called it treasure hunting - you pray for a random word, then the first word you think of you use as a sort of map to find someone to talk to. Random, yes. Very.

So as I was walking, my internal monologue went a little like this...

"Well, Justin talked about treasure hunting... God, would You want to use someth-APPLE."

Apple?

Apple.

So I went with it. About twenty minutes later, I realized I was standing next to something interesting. a "Real Fruit Smoothie" stand. I stopped and thought - apples are a real fruit.

I looked left and saw Rick and Thaddeus.

We went over and talked to them, and stayed for over an hour. We found out that Thaddeus was a firm believer, had been in jail in the past, and was homeless.

Rick was also homeless, divorced, had a few kids, and wiccan.

So for the next hour or so Rick and I talked about how his life had left him to witchcraft and I told him about the story of Christ. He wasn't hearing a lot of it, but I got to know him very well. And I think he started to open up near the end.

There was one interesting story in particular.

Once he wandered into the woods and started a seance type thing. He made a circle and knelt down and closed his eyes. When he opened them later, he saw entities. He saw seven bodies of light that he referred to as entities. Seven altogether, and three of them grouped together specifically.

Alarms went off in my head immediately.

I began to explain something to him. The earth was created in seven days. Mary Magdalene had seven demons in her. There are seven seals in Revelation, seven churches written to, seven bowls of wrath poured on the earth in the end. Seven, Biblically, signifies completion and fullness.

Three is God's number. Father, Spirit, Son. Three days in the grave. "Do you love me?", three times asked of Peter. Three is God's number of Divine Perfection. Holy, Holy, Holy.

So I told him all of that. God was screaming that He is the only true God, living and active. I told him about the apple that got me there talking to him. I told him that God desperately wanted to bring him home.

So we ended up leaving at some point. His mind wasn't changed. He didn't drop to his knees and accept Christ. But truth was spoken, and I'm extremely grateful that we got to share with him. I hope I see him again, because I will continue to pray for him.

Also, as a side note, on Saturday night we went out sharing on the boardwalk in pairs. That night, 12 people accepted Christ! A work done only by the mighty and true God, the only one that can soften a hard heart and bring home the lost. Praise God!