John and I, since the day we found out that I play guitar and he plays drums, have been trying to plan a night of playing music on the boardwalk.
Last night it finally happened. Almost a month later than we had hoped, we went out last night at about 11 o’clock to play worship and “see what happens”.
We got out there and sat down about 20 feet away from a street preacher. We figured it would be a good place to try out. So we sat down, pulled out the guitar and djembe, and started to jam.
About 17 seconds later, a guy walked up and sat down on the next bench down. He said something to the effect of, “I don’t support that guy’s religion, but I support music. Keep playin’.”
Brandon didn’t know what kind of music we play…
So we played. Our goal was worship, so we did just that. We drew a small crowd, they tried to give us money, we said no, we played more, and we chatted it up for a while. After a while of chatting and playing, Brandon started talking more and he told us he played too and such. I handed it over to him for a bit, and we all had a fine time.
Then Brandon asked us if we wanted to go to Wendy’s with him and some friends. We figured that would fall under the “see what happens” category, so we joined.
When we got to Wendy’s, we were tired. It was around midnight, which is bedtime, but we were determined what God had in store for this night.
For a while we kept chatting. We played the explorer role and just asked a lot of questions, trying to figure out more about him.
Then came time for a transition.
“So, Brandon, what did you think about that guy earlier?”
Simple, leading, a good topic, and apparently exactly what God wanted to use to begin the most amazing night on project yet.
Brandon told us how he was an intellectual guy. He loved to argue, and he hated when people forced things on other people. So we met him where he was at, and started down the intellectual, logical path. We talked about how the guy on the street was just doing something he was hugely passionate about, and how if the message was love, that meant he was being passionate about extreme love. What was so bad about that?
He didn’t like the method, which was understandable. He said it was radical.
Names like Martin Luther King, Jr., Ghandi, Jesus, Stalin, John Lennon, and a bunch of others came to mind. We told him that the only people that made an impact on the world (good or bad) were radical.
For a long time we talked. In fact, we talked for the next two hours. But slowly but surely his heart came through.
He said he was intellectual, logical, and argumentative. But when we saturated our conversation with the gospel, and when we passionately described how God has saved and transformed us personally, we saw that he wasn’t those things. He was hurting, ashamed, and scared to come back to Jesus.
Brandon had been a Christian for the first part of his life. But when everything around him started to go downhill, he abandoned his faith. He got into things that hurt him, and he began to put distance between himself and the grace that awaited him in the cross. Brandon knew that he had denied and rejected Christ and said that if he could not be a good enough Christian, he shouldn’t be a Christian at all.
This is where the gospel of grace attacked and disarmed all of the shame, guilt, and failure that Brandon had begun to identify himself with. We told him about Paul, the chief of sinners, who killed Christians before becoming the coolest of them all. We told him about Peter, who stared Jesus in the face and shouted curses while denying ever knowing him. We told him about ourselves, who deny Christ consistently because of our lust after the things of this world. We told him that not one of us is good enough Christian.
The we preached Grace, Love, and Forgiveness.
“You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19
“For it is by GRACE you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2: 8-9
God’s love does not depend on anything but His faithfulness. He chooses to love us according to His greatness and His majesty, not our ability or readiness.
We told Brandon that God wanted him to come back home. That he was choosing to love him in the face of all of his sin and worthlessness. That he did the same for John and I. That all he had to do was unwrap the gift of grace and experience love and forgiveness.
Trust Christ, and He will make you whole.
Brandon ended up re-dedicating himself to Christ last night around 2:30.
Praise God.
One of the coolest things was the moon. While walking to his car after he had made this decision, he looked at the moon. For some reason, it was blood red. He was amazed when he saw it, and he had us look. I said, simply, “The precious blood of Christ. That moon is for you tonight.”
He was ecstatic. He then said the one thing that would freak him out (in an amazed kind of way) was if the moon turned back white later that night, by the time he got home.
So we parted ways and exchanged numbers and are going to make sure to keep in touch plenty.
John and I walked home and praise God, wondering how we could be used for such a work of glory.
As we walked back we looked at the moon. It was already white.
White as snow.
