A couple of churches set up tents in a downtown square with signs encouraging people to come in if they needed prayer. A young disheveled man came to one of the tents and began to complain about how terrible he was. He told about all the bad things in life he’d done. How he wasn’t forgivable. No matter what the followers of Christ shared with him he wouldn’t believe it. 

This young man was objecting to the good news because he didn’t believe he could be forgiven. When I encounter these kinds of people, I like to share the stories of King David and the apostle Paul. David had a man killed because of a woman and yet God still forgave him when he repented, which he did. Paul was a militant and murderous opponent of the early church until Christ appeared to him. Paul went on to be one of the most fruitful missionaries of all time.

The man in the square had seeds of faith planted in his heart that day. He sat with people who wanted to love and encourage him. As we reach out to people like this man share the redemptive stories of the Bible like Paul and David. It helps to counter the misconceptions that their sins aren’t forgivable.  And share your own story also – how Jesus came to earth to set us all free, and how He set you free when you believed in Him.

This is Luis Palau.