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If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. -Jeremiah 3:1-3 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. -Jeremiah 6:15 Friday, November 17th, 2011 marks one of those very rare times in my life. It was one of those times when proclaiming Christ a particular event happened, and when it did, I knew it was going to stick with me like a traumatic event I just couldn't shake. You never forget the atmosphere. You never forget the place. You never forget your feelings. You never forget the faces. Never the faces. You know, I talk to a lot of people about Christ and I get a lot of different reactions. Everything on the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual scale you can think of I believe I've seen. Some are more frequent than others. Reactions of apathy, self-righteousness, plain 'ole unbelief, and anger are run of the mill in the south. But this one reaction Friday night was a rare one. I can only think of a handful of times this has happened and I bet out of a line of 500 people I could pick those same people out 10 years from now. Their faces are stuck in my brain. Those moments have been etched there and I've often asked God why. It was a normal Friday night outreach and the night began for me with refuting basically a whole church youth group and older woman from...

One day we will all die and stand in judgment before God. "And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment," -Hebrews 9:27. On that day, what will you trust in? Christ or Works? Last night while out sharing the gospel, I was able to speak with two men...Juan and Luis. Shortly into our conversation, it was clear to me that Juan was professing his works to get him into heaven. He said "there are millions of things that you can do." This is frightening to me since he was not professing Jesus' work on the cross. We are only justified by the blood of Jesus: Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. -Romans 5:9. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. –Ephesians 2:8-9 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, -Titus 3:5 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. –Galatians 2:16 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, -2 timothy 1:9 Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your...

This afternoon, I received a phone call from Chad, a dear brother in the Lord. Chad told me about his visit from a group of Jehovah's Witnesses today, and the dynamic conversation he shared with one of them. Chad evangelizes with FFC regularly, and handled this encounter with finesse in a manner that is Biblical, informed, and appropriate. Our conversation got the gears in my head a'rotatin', and so I wanted to share with you a few of my own thoughts on the subject. 1. When the doorbell rings, and through your peephole you see a man, or perhaps men, armed with pamphlets, let's face it: nobody in the house is saying, "Honey, those Baptists are here again!" or "Sweetie, those Presbyterians are back!" or "I talked to the Methodists last time! It's your turn!". Why is that? Because, sure, while there may some be Baptists, Presbyterians, and Methodists travelling door to door, everyone knows it's most likely Jehovah's Witnesses. It's common knowledge, right? And the American church should, I think, feel embarrassed that a cult has assumed a reputation that should belong to her, a reputation for taking a message to the world, or in this case, people's doorsteps. It seems to me that Jehovah's Witnesses don't mind being labeled strange, or being teased, ridiculed, insulted, or even cursed at. The prospect of being ostracized from the rest of society, made possible by their regular neighborhood crusades, doesn't seem to lessen their resolve. Are you getting this, American church? 2. Something that bothers me is the manner in which some professing believers react to Jehovah's Witnesses when they arrive at their doorstep. To quote Thing from the Fantastic Four, "It's clobberin' time!" This seems to be the attitude adopted by many when approached by members of this particular false religion. And what do so many of them do as soon as they slam the door on these people who are only trying to be faithful to their cause? Walk right back to the TV and continue watching shows laden with sexual immorality, profanity, and blasphemy. I've made it a point...

We had a great night tonight doing evangelism in the local town I live in. Justin, Chad, Allan, Eric, Brad, his wife Cynthia, their children Kayla and Stewart joined Stephanie and I to share Christ with anyone who would listen. God has so richly heard my prayers of bringing other Christians our way to join arm in arm to reach the lost with the gospel. I am truly thankful for these brothers and sisters. Fellowship in the gospel is true fellowship indeed. It is my prayer that God will allow this group to continue to do ministry together and grow in Christ together while reaching the lost. I wanted to share an encounter I had tonight with one of the very first people I talked to. Although this has happened to me on just about every occasion that I've shared the gospel, I just wanted to share a few thoughts tonight. I'll try to recount as much as I can. I walked up to a guy sitting down outside the ice cream shop at the town square. I reached out my had with a tract and said, "Hey man, I care about you. It's [the tract] got a Christian message on it." He looked at me with this look of disdain and said, "Oh, I am a Christian. I don't need that. I am a pastor at the church over there." I smiled, knowing that we live in an area of religious hypocrisy, and said, "Great. When's the last time you shared the gospel with someone." He said, "I let my life speak and I think your way is a bit heavy handed." [Mind you that all I was doing was handing tracts out. I had not preached or anything. He was the first person I talked to that night.] I could tell he was visibly angry as his countenance dropped and his face began to quiver with this mad, nervousness. I then asked him, "So, what does scripture say about how we share the gospel? What did the Apostles do? What did Jesus do? When was the last time you verbally...

So, most of last month is a blur due to the simple fact of life and so many different witnessing opportunities that trying to remember exactly what happened in those encounters seems a bit hazy. This blog, however, will be about an encounter that we had on June 13, during our bi-weekly P.I.E. outreach. Stephanie, Mark and I decided to go to Conyers Plaza for our outreach. On Friday nights the plaza is pretty full with teens and young adults hanging out either waiting for a movie to start or waiting to be picked up by their parents. Some are coming in and going out of the stores in the plaza. We started out by handing out some tracts to some teens standing around outside an ice cream shop. They took the tracts and walked away. We started walking down the sidewalk and I saw two girls holding hands. I noticed as they got closer one of the girls was a girl that Stephanie, my wife, had shared the Gospel with earlier this year in the exact same place. She was a self-admitted lesbian and was living in rebellion to God. I stuck out my hand with a tract in it and said, "Hey, did you get one of these?" She stuck her hand out and grabbed it. I told her it was a Gospel message and it would tell her how to go to Heaven. She would not make eye contact with us (mainly because I think she recognized us) but also because I think she was convicted about her lifestyle and that we spoke openly to her about her lifestyle and the consequences of her choices previously. John 3:16-19 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed...

April was full on encounters with strangers. Most of them were fairly normal conversations about the Gospel but one in particular stuck out last month. This is that one. As I have mentioned before I try to make it a normal routine when I am heading home for lunch to check out our local public square and see if there is anyone sitting there that I can talk to. I was headed home one day and I saw an African-American lady sitting on the square with a bicycle and a portable boom-box. She had the music jammin' and she was jammin' with it. I laughed inside because I thought this was kind of strange being mid-day in such a public place. I pull over my car and park it. I began to pray for the lady before I went to talk to her (this usually helps me take the focus off of my fears and get my focus on eternity, and I normally ask God to supernaturally intervene through me). I walk up to her and I can tell by the look on her face that she was not 'normal.' She seemed a little mentally handicapped by her motions and her facial expressions. My heart sank, because normally with someone who is mentally handicapped you have to be very thorough and take lots of time with them for them to understand the essentials of the Gospel. I only had an hour. (What a fleshly mindset.) I repented and committed myself to God and casually said, "Hello!" as I was pulling out a Gospel tract from my shirt pocket. She quickly turned down the radio and said hello right back to me. I sat down beside her stuck out my hand and introduced myself. She shook it and without hesitation said, "I don't have any friends." I quickly replied, "Well, I can be your friend if you want." She smiled. I gave her the tract and she asked what it was with suspicion. I told her it was a Gospel tract and that it tells you how to go to heaven. She briefly shared with me...

Last month was different. It was different because I got to share the Gospel with someone who most people tell, "No Thanks." or "Sorry, I am not interested." No, it wasn't a Jehovah's Witness at my front door. It was a telemarketer. What was so different about this experience was the fact that I had never shared the Gospel with a telemarketer before. Actually, it was my wife's idea. My wife and I recently moved into our new place and with that came the telemarketing and junk mail. It seems like every time you get a new home phone number, telemarketers just pound the thing to death. Well, the Atlanta Journal was calling me wanting me to subscribe and they had been calling here and there, leaving messages. My wife and I were home one afternoon cooking dinner and the phone rang. Stephanie checks the caller ID and says with excitement, "Oooh, Oooh, It's a telemarketer. Scott witness to them." We actually get joy from sharing the Gospel. Odd this day in age, I know. So I pick up the phone... "Hello" "Hello, can I speak with Mr. or Mrs. Autry" "This is Mr. Autry" "Hello, Mr. Autry this is Penelope with the Atlanta Journal Constitution. How are you?" "I'm doing just fine. How about you?" "Fine..." and then she goes into her sales pitch about the paper. At the end of her pitch I politely tell her 'No Thanks' and ask her can I have a couple of minutes of her time because I have something I would like to share with her. She hesitates, probably because they never get anyone asking for their time, but after a short pause says, "Sure." So I start out with, "Well, I wanted to talk to you and ask your opinion about what you think happens after someone dies. Is there life after death? Do you think there is a Heaven and Hell?" "Oh, yes she replies. I am a Christian." At this point I just ignore the response because frankly I could knock on every door in my neighborhood and 98% of...

We have been tilling up the soil of hearts this past week at the Rockdale County Fair. We will be there until Saturday. Check the Calendar for details. I wanted to share an encouraging story with you; A story that really brought the passage in John 4:29 to life. We were engaging people at the Fair with a $20 question. We call it the "Good Person Test." We take a $20 bill and ask those passing by if they would like to take a test at no charge. If they pass the test, they get the $20. If they fail, they get a 10 Commandments Coin souvenir. We take them through the 10 Commandments (or Moral Law of God) and show them that in God's sight we are not good people at all. Well, about mid-day I caught the attention of a middle aged married couple. I took them through the test, with their eyes intently gazing into mine. They began to subconsciously nod at the affirmations of guilt before God when judged according to His Holy standard. The gentleman didn't seem to blink the whole time I was there. God had truly ordained this time. I could just tell...Something was different. We finished the conversation and they thanked me for talking with them. (A side note: The past couple of days have been really encouraging at the fair. We have actually had people hug us and cry when sharing with them. I truly believe that it has something in part to do with the prayer we had over this outreach, but mostly, if not all to do with God preparing mens hearts to hear the Gospel of salvation.) So I go back to the table to grab some more tracts and check out who Mark and Stephanie were talking to and the same married couple are back again; only this time with 3 other people. They looked at me and with all seriousness said, "Tell our friends what you just told us." I was floored and so excited at the same time. John 4:29 immediately popped into my head. It...