I guess our unregistered guest has left us. However, it is such a shame that he/she can not see the Grace of God for what it is - Grace. Deserving the wrath of God in judgment, we instead receive His grace. So underserved, so wonderful. To ever presume that a loving God can not be a judgeing God as well is the ultimate presumption.
The Scriptures from our loving, holy God are both a love letter from Him and a warning of coming judgment by Him on unrepentant man.
I doubt that this is the end of the matter in the life of the unregistered guest. Something and Someone drew this person into this forum and this discussion. God's grace is never finished because we as sinners (saved or not) get worked up and angry. Nor is it finished because Christian witnesses see no evidence of any good accomplished. I know that my unbelief and stubbornness has never yet shut God down in His plans for my life.
Just think of how many bold and angry opponents of Jesus Christ and the Scriptures have been turned around by God's kindness and overwhelming power? The history of the church is filled with such testimonies. Remember how Saul of Tarsus was on a mission to persecute the followers of Jesus? One day he is out terrorizing Christians and a short while later he was in the synagogues showing Jews how the Scriptures testify to Jesus as the Messiah. (Even the church found the whole thing a little hard to believe.) And his sudden and dramatic conversion is by no means the only such case. It is very possible that our visiting friend will also be on the other side of the fence in a few days or weeks, or maybe years later.
Just a week or so before Jesus grabbed hold of my life I was in a downtown area of Houston, Texas, snatching handfuls of gospel tracts from the hands of Christians on the street who were desperately trying to reach us "hell-bent" dope heads. I remember laughing and yelling something sarcastic as I tossed those tracts up in the air and went on my way. We were "wasted youth," hopeless cases with hardened hearts and no hunger at all for God. We must have looked like a big waste of time to most Christian people.
A week or two later, guess where I was? I was right back in the middle of that same downtown crowd, carrying my brand new Bible (a nice big one), and smiling at everyone with a joy that would not stop. My old friends saw me and started to approach when they saw the Bible and stopped in their tracks. I laughed when I saw the looks on their faces. They wanted to know just what in the world was going on. I told them the truth. I told them it was all Jesus. I told them that Jesus had saved my soul and that I was carrying that Bible around because I loved His Word, and that I just wanted to tell everyone what had happened to me.
Needless to say, I never saw most of my old "friends" again. But you know what? My new friend Jesus never left me. He is truly a friend that sticks closer than a brother. My new life was so filled with good things that I never even missed the old gang. I still care about them, and I still pray for them. I understand them because I was once one of them. But in a single heartbeat, in the twinkling of an eye, God's grace brought me right over into the kingdom of His own dear Son.
One day I was walking in darkness, feeling no need for God. And before that day was finished, I was laying everything down before the feet of Jesus, asking Him to take my whole life and make it right. When God says "let there be light," then suddenly there is light, and all the powers and forces of darkness in hell can do nothing but stand in awe.
A passage in Ecclesiastes means a lot to me, when it comes to sowing good seed:
He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who regards the clouds will not reap. As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. (Ecclesiastes 11:4-6, RSV)
The immediate response of unbelievers to the message of Jesus Christ is never the important thing. (Unbelievers, after all, are not supposed to believe.) What matters is the sowing of good seed into the heart and soul of a fellow human being. God does the miracle part of changing unbelievers into believers.
God's grace is never finished until He is satisfied that the work is done. (Ever wonder what happened to all those angry Pharisees, Sadducees and others who pushed so hard for the murder of Jesus? Take a closer look at the early church in the book of Acts, at all the Jewish converts — and all the priests and even Pharisees who ended up in the Jerusalem church!)
Jim