Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The tempest comes out from its chamber,
    the cold from the driving winds.
The breath of God produces ice,
    and the broad waters become frozen.
He loads the clouds with moisture;
    he scatters his lightning through them.
At his direction they swirl around
    over the face of the whole earth
    to do whatever he commands them.
He brings the clouds to punish people,
    or to water his earth and show his love.

• Job 37:9-13

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

• Jeremiah 2:13

On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter.

• Zechariah 14:8

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

• John 4:10-14

I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

• 1 Corinthians 9:23

The first Scripture is one of the three references to ice in the NIV, all found in the speech of Elihu, in this one chapter of Job.

But where does the phrase ice or water evangelism come from?  My son used it during his last visit.  He might have heard it somewhere before.

We were arguing.  We might love each other, but we can hardly agree on anything.

It was the day after my wife’s memorial and emotions were on edge.  He even said we should probably not say anything, but …

At one point, he said that my brand of evangelism was like ice.  If you have a block of ice and you throw it in someone’s face, it is going to hurt.  That is my style of evangelism.  His style is more subdued.  He uses water, cool water that refreshes, and then once they want more, he can talk about Jesus and they are receptive.

When he said that, I remembered one of our sons having a tantrum.  I had been taught that to instantly stop the tantrum, and sometimes without a new eruption, was to throw cold water in their face.  On this occasion, I had ice water in a cup.  I threw it in his face.  It stopped the tantrum.  While our son was trying to figure out what had happened, my wife had a tantrum.  “Sure, throw cold water in his face, but not a cup half filled with ICE!!!”

Hey, it was crushed ice!

And it did not hurt him, and by the time he thought it through, he had forgotten why he was having the tantrum in the first place.  Either that or he was afraid that I would hit him in the face with ice again.

But it is now weeks later, and that conversation, which my son has already apologized for, still eats at me.

When we talk to people about their sin these days, “oh, no!! Off limits!!  We only say affirming things.  You do realize that the word ‘sin’ is a four letter word, do you not?”

Really?  A four letter word?  You spell it S-I-N.  Where is the fourth letter?  It is not even a silent letter.  Maybe invisible letter.  Maybe non-existent letter.  But we all sin and fall short of God’s glory.  How do you say that in teddy bear and puppy dog language as to not offend the sensibilities of the sinner?

I make mistakes, and I have probably made hundreds of mistakes while sharing the gospel, but guess what?  I can save no one.  It is the Holy Spirit working within the other person’s life that puts them in a receptive mood.  If that does not happen, it is not going to matter what technique you use.

Showing love to them may make them a friend, but they will not come to Christ unless you open up the subject, and without the Holy Spirit working in their lives, you may have just opened a can of worms.  Worse, in an old Army expression, you just opened a can of whoop “backside” if you catch my drift.

Will Graham, grandson of Billy Graham, said that no one has ever brought someone to Christ by being a good neighbor.  By works alone, we are going to screw up at some point, and all the good we did, without ever saying that Jesus loves them, will be for naught.  He screwed up.  There goes another Christian hypocrite.

And there are those out there that are ready to punch you in the face if you say “Jesus” or “Christ” that is if not while cursing.

But back to my son and I arguing.  I finally hit him below the belt.  My evangelism was all ice, huge blocks of ice that would cause bodily harm.  His was soft cool water that was refreshing.  Then I asked, “But I have seen you with your three children.  Do you evangelize to them with cool water?”

He said, “But, Dad, that’s different.”

Then I replied, “But you are my son.  You matter to me.  I do not wish to be the one that contributed to you coming into this world and then going to Hell.”

He turned away and said nothing on the subject, except to apologize the next day.

But, there may be many different ways of introducing the topic of becoming a Christian.  Some may be a lot more gentle than others.  Screaming “Hey, you sinners who are going to Hell, listen to this…” might not be a good intro.

But when it is family, you sometimes have the tendency of pushing a bit too hard.  Especially when one bit of rebellion turns into ten which turns into a lifetime of rebellion.

Sometimes, you just have to pray that someone else enters their lives, someone that does not have that thought of eternal agony if one of my children rebels against God.

My wife had a dream once.  She had no fear of my salvation or that of one son.  In the dream, she held out her hand to the other son who was sinking in quicksand, and he refused to hold out his hand.  For years after that dream, she asked, through her tears, “How could I ever be in Heaven where there is no crying, while thinking of someone I brought into the world suffering eternal damnation?”

I had no satisfactory answer, but I know that we all make our choices, and we live by them.  And I know God has the means of us not crying in Heaven.  As a pastor said on the subject a few months ago.  We think of our brand of justice, but in Heaven, we will understand God’s pure justice and we will glorify Him, even in carrying out such justice.

Just one of those questions, I cannot answer, and I pray that I will never have to ask.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.