Evangelistic Rally — Day 2
This was the second night of the Evangelistic Rallies held in the Greenock Town Hall. Chris Jewell, with the Inverclyde Christian Initiative, opened the service saying “God is here.” Greg Thomas asked the people to stand and give a round of applause for Christ.
A bruised reed he will not break
After a few worship songs, A choir member gave his testimony of drug addiction. So many times he could and should have died. Then he had an encounter with God and the Lord showed him where his life was going if he continued as he was and he surrendered his life, a little at a time, to God. He got involved in ministry and he worked hard to please God. He pastored two churches and he would do anything nobody else wanted to do because he thought this would make him a better Christian. Sooner or later, the pressure got to him and he snapped. He cheated on his wife and she left him with the kids. He tried to hang himself by standing on a chair and putting a belt around his neck. Then he shut himself in a closet for two days with a shotgun in his mouth, but he couldn’t go through with it. He wanted to save his marriage, win back his wife. She asked him, “isn’t there something in you that wants to serve God anymore?” And he said “yes, just a little bit,” but he thought he’d gone too far. Then God spoke to him through the scripture that says “A bruised reed He will not break, And smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth.” He was like smoking flax, barely there, but God could still use him.
God really loved her
A second choir member gave her testimony about being raped four times when she was 6, 10, 17 and 29 years old. The last time she was raped at gunpoint. While the gun was pointed at her temple, she cried out to the Lord, “Jesus!” And the gun clicked. She cried out two more times and the gun clicked two more times but she was raped anyway. She felt like rubbish and acted like rubbish. She was bitter, angry, hard, cold, suicidal. A few months later she had an abortion. She was sent to a Christian home and there she finally learned that God really, really loved her.
Christ Must Be Constrained
Pastor Carter’s message tonight was based on Luke 24, the scripture about the two disciples who encounter Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Jesus had just been crucified. The disciples were on the road feeling hopelessness and despair. When Jesus joins them unbeknownst to them and asked them why they are sad, they reply “Are you a stranger?” “Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard that God once walked among us with such mighty words and deeds. And he Himself bore witness to the truth among the people?” Pastor Carter turned to the crowd gathered and asked, “Do any of you know here tonight that God has walked in Scotland in a powerful way?” “What happened to it all? How did we lose it?”
“I believe that Scotland, and in particular Greenock, is in for one of the greatest touches of God if you can realize it, in any and all generations.” “Sometimes hope has to be lost to be appreciated…Jesus opened up the redemptive plan of God. If there had not been a death there would be no resurrection.”
“Christ must be constrained. If you and I are not willing to embrace the heart of God he will not force Himself on us. It’s not enough just to go to church anymore.” He then addressed the church in Greenock. “Greenock will not come to Christ just because you have the right doctrine.” “Everything that was lost in Scotland can be gained in one hour!”
Pastor Carter remarked how our teams going into the high schools have encountered a hunger in the kids to know God. “There’s no resitance to the Gospel!…Somebody has to go!…Don’t look for somebody else to do something…It does not matter the theological perspective. It’s Christ in you that is the hope of glory!”
As he closed he added, “I believe God can change nations. I believe I will hear a report that the glory of God will come back to Greenock again.”
