I would like to share a story with you if you don't mind. I promise it is a short one. It goes like this...
There was once two guys who had been friends since grade school. They spent countless hours together on ball fields and got into more trouble than two friends ever should. They graduated high school together, roomed together in college, and were even room mates after college for a little while.
Eventually, each of the guys moved on with his life only catching up a "big life events". One of the friends married his college sweet heart. They moved back home, got into church, and started their family. He became the definition of a godly man and father. His wife and children adored him, and he had much respect in the community.
The other friend, well, he lived life in the fast lane. He had a high-dollar career, went to every a-list party there was, and could have any woman he wanted. He, however, was lonely and empty. He had no friends of value and his family had little contact with him. His life had no meaning.
Ironically, the two friends were home for a mutual friend's funeral and they went out for dinner afterwards to catch up on life together. On the way home, they were in a car accident and they were both killed instantly. The first friend, the one with the family, had accepted Jesus as his Savior and he went to Heaven. The second, sadly, had not and he went to hell. Just before the first friend entered the gates of Heaven, he looked down and saw into the pits of hell. He saw the horror, the flames, and he heard the screaming and tormented souls. But above all the screaming he heard a familiar voice, his friend's voice. His friend was crying to him saying, "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you tell me about Jesus? Please, if you ever cared about me, please go make sure my family knows! I don't want them to ever see this place. It's the most horrific place you could ever imagine! The sound is deafening! I'm so thirsty. So thirsty. Please go tell them. Hurry!" The first friend was devastated when he realized what he had done, or more so what he had not done. He crumbled at the gates and sobbed.
You see, not once in their entire friendship did they ever discuss Jesus. The first friend just assumed the other knew. I mean, they grew up in the same town, right? They went to the same church, the same vacation Bible school, church camps, Bible. Why didn't Friend #2 know? Was he not listening? He was paying attention to Satan and his attempts to distract him. He chose not to listen. We can never, NEVER, assume that our best friends, our family, knows the Gospel. Never assume anyone knows about Jesus. If you share with them and they are a believer, or if they have heard, then consider it practice for the next person you share with. Just share!
"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fated sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus full of sores, who was laid at his gate desiring to be with crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
Then he cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flam. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'
Then he said, 'I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.' Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.; And he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' But he said to him, 'If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded through one rise from the dead.'
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