{"id":467,"date":"2016-09-07T08:33:59","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T13:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/?p=467"},"modified":"2016-09-07T08:33:59","modified_gmt":"2016-09-07T13:33:59","slug":"personal-work-prepares-the-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/?p=467","title":{"rendered":"Personal Work Prepares the Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><div class=\"su-heading su-heading-style-default su-heading-align-center\" id=\"\" style=\"font-size:35px;margin-bottom:10px\"><div class=\"su-heading-inner\">\u201cAfter This\u201d<\/div><\/div><\/h1>\n<span class=\"su-dropcap su-dropcap-style-flat\" style=\"font-size:1.5em\">\u201cH<\/span>ow silly to put a thing like that up there! Some of that tent preacher\u2019s work, I guess, and just like him. I wonder if he thinks that will do anyone any good. Come on, Beth; I wouldn\u2019t stand and read any such rubbish.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The two girls had been walking together when they noticed a small white board fastened to the trunk of a tree. On it were printed the words: <strong>\u201cAFTER THIS THE JUDGMENT.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The other girl stood reading the short phrase over and over again. Her friend, losing patience, called out again, \u201cCome on, Beth! If you stand there much longer you\u2019ll be converted!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish I were, Nancy,\u201d said the girl wistfully as she rejoined her companion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat makes you say that, Beth? I\u2019m sure you don\u2019t believe in tent meetings and singing at street corners. You enjoy having fun too much to join with that kind of thing.\u201d<div class=\"su-pullquote su-pullquote-align-right\"><em>She said she didn\u2019t need to go to parties and entertainment events to make her happy; she had Christ.<\/em><\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re right, Nancy. Still, I\u2019m not always happy. I do stay awake many nights thinking about the hereafter, and I can\u2019t help it. In spite of having fun all evening, my conscience troubles me when I go to bed. I can\u2019t help thinking of the eternal future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nancy was amazed at the turn the conversation had taken, and listened silently as her companion went on: \u201cI once worked in the same room with a girl who was a Christian. I can never forget her\u2015nor some of the things she said to me. She said she didn\u2019t need to go to parties and entertainment events to make her happy; she had Christ.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can\u2019t imagine, Nancy, what a sweet girl she was. She said those same words to me that are on the tree: After this the judgment. It made me think of her when I read them, and I wish I could be as sure as she was of being ready for eternity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Separate Ways<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The girls came to the corner where they had to separate. With a relieved and hurried \u201cgood night,\u201d Nancy went one way and Beth the other.<\/p>\n<p>Beth knew full well that she had to meet God, and that she was unprepared. She lay awake for a long time that night; sleep just would not come. In time with the slow ticking of the clock, the dreadful words throbbed through her mind: <strong>\u201cAfter this the judgment.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How she longed for the next night to come! She made up her mind to go to the tent in spite of Nancy\u2019s ridicule. But that was a long time to wait. What if death came before? Just then a verse of a hymn she had heard came to mind:<\/p>\n<p>Just as I am, without one plea,<\/p>\n<p>But that Thy blood was shed for me,<\/p>\n<p>And that Thou bidst me come to Thee;<\/p>\n<p>O Lamb of God, I come.<\/p>\n<p>Beth repeated it aloud and the Lord listened and heard. He knew the longing heart that would trust herself wholly to Him, and in His love and mercy He banished her fears and doubts. Peace came to her troubled spirit.<\/p>\n<p>The following night she went to the tent meeting and heard the words: <strong>\u201cHe that believeth on the Son [Jesus] hath everlasting life.\u201d <\/strong>This gave her intelligent assurance of her salvation, and with confidence in God\u2019s saving grace she gave witness by her life that she now belonged to the Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/?p=467&amp;wp_email=1\" title=\"Email This Post\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"WP-EmailIcon\" src=\"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-email\/images\/email_famfamfam.png\" alt=\"Email This Post\" title=\"Email This Post\" style=\"border: 0px;\" \/><\/a>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/?p=467&amp;wp_email=1\" title=\"Email This Post\" rel=\"nofollow\">Email This Post<\/a>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Adapted from\u00a0<a title=\"His Riches\" href=\"http:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/his-riches\/echoes-of-grace\/lpv23400-23411\" target=\"_blank\">His Riches<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ow silly to put a thing like that up there! Some of that tent preacher\u2019s work, I guess, and just like him. I wonder if he thinks that will do anyone any good. Come on, Beth; I wouldn\u2019t stand and read any such rubbish.\u201d The two girls had been walking together when they noticed a &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/?p=467\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Personal Work Prepares the Ground&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-personal-witness","category-powerful-word"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=467"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":469,"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467\/revisions\/469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bibletruthpublishers.com\/evangelism\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}