Why I hand out Bibles

First of all, I'm not depressed. Other than smelling bananas in my stockroom today (a brief olfactory hallucination), I haven't had any mood wierdness.

I grew up Presbyterian, in fact I am a confirmed Presbyterian (ooooh!). My Dad's family is Presbyterian going back generations. I currently don't attend church for simple reasons: I have yet to find a good New Testament Church on a bus line.

When I was about 10, I went to visit my Grandmother. She mentioned the Rapture in passing. "The what?" "You know, honey, when Jesus comes back to take His believers off the Earth." I didn't; she explained. It sounded "solid" to me and became a feature of my faith "Jesus is coming back for us". Here's some more information. Technically, my beliefs are termed as "Pretribulation" Rapture, anyway, this site describes it pretty well: http://www.raptureready.net/rr-pretribulation-rapture.html

Ever since I nearly ended my own life, I have tried to live my life without regrets. I try to treat every day as though it could be my last. What would I do? Say? How would I act? I feel that's how God wants me to act.

Current events are depressing, and likely to become even more so in the future. The worse things are, the happier I get. He SAID it would get lousy before he came back. He said many would fall away from the faith, wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes, plagues, etc. Paul said many would fall away from the true faith, and follow a false faith that made them feel good, but had no real substance. I see a lot of that today.

I see TV show marathons, every Monday night, about a Medium. I see shows about finding departed spirits on Wednesday night. I see plenty of shows glorifying witchcraft all over. The Old Testament is really clear on these issues; RUN LIKE HELL.

I want to live my life, so if I die tomorrow, I have no regrets. I wrote a poem about it; here goes.
IF I DIE TOMORROW
If I die tomorrow,
I'd like to think I knew,
I lived my life in balance,
Regrets would be quite few.

And if I die at 80,
I know that I will say,
I had some fun in yesteryear;
And yes, I did, today.

And if I die tomorrow,
It's nice for me, to know;
I handed out my Bibles,
Everywhere I'd go.

I made my list, some years ago,
Of things I'd like to do.
And if I die tomorrow,
I'll know I got a few.

(I wrote the original in 1998, edited it this year).

I want to live my life, if I get raptured tomorrow, I won't be ashamed of how I spent my last day on Earth. THAT's why I hand out Bibles. God has put a hunger for Himself into people; I see that in the joyful reactions when I get as I hand out the Bibles. How can I let them STARVE? I can't. God's put a hunger to do this, into me. I have to do it; I hurt for them.

I don't care if it kills me one day, I'm going to be handing out the Bibles. You'll find me, tipping over to one side, with a bulging tote bag full of Bibles, everywhere I go.