From Wendy DePinto:

I passed out some million dollar bills on Valentine’s day to my co-workers and at the school V-day dance for the kids. I gave one to the DJ and he made an announcement over the microphone, “Hey, someone just gave me a million dollars!” Soon kids and staff were asking me for them.

Yesterday, a fellow colleague Linda, who is saved, came to me with tears in her eyes. She said that after giving her teenage daughter the million dollar bill
her daughter approached her days later asking, “Mom,
how do I know for sure that I am going to heaven?”
This led into a big discussion amongst Linda and her
daughter. Linda said that it was so awesome to be able
to connect with her daughter like that because they
hardly get to talk anymore. Linda said that she was so
blessed to see her daughter’s faith and concern. Linda
also was surprised that it came from this million
dollar bill which she thought was “a really harsh
message.” Linda and her 2 children are saved but her
husband is Jewish. Pray for him to come to his knees
and accept Jesus as his Messiah.

I told Linda that our church has been emphasizing this
‘harsh’ message lately, because that is the reality of
it. We always say, “Jesus loves you, He died for you,
He died for the sins of the world.” We need to put
that in full context- Jesus saved us from our sinful
consequence-eternal hell. It is part of our
well-rounded knowledge of our identity in
Christ/God/Holy Spirit to have that fresh in our
minds-where we were going, where those outside the
body are going if they do not repent. There does need
to be a ‘fear’ of the Lord within us, a respect from
what He’s saved us from. Perhaps many believers keep
on sinning and don’t tell others about God because
they don’t have a healthy fear of the Lord.

People are perishing around us while we sit content in
ignorance, settled into our comfort zones and afraid
to make waves. Being raised as a pseudo-Catholic I was
brought up with so much ‘fear’ teaching that I had
little knowledge of God’s love. Once I became a
Christian I didn’t want to think about hell- it just
reminded me of the Catholic baggage I had. However
your sermon and the mini-church that followed your
sermon brought it to the surface that I need to be
fully conscious of the fact that hell is the
consequence of a sinful, unrepentant life. There does
need to be a balanced teaching of who God/JC really
are and what they’ve done for us.

I’ve ‘ignored/set aside’ the great commission for
awhile now. I can no longer or I cannot keep growing
as a Christian. I’m praying about it and I’m trying to
hand out the tracts here and there. Most importantly
I’m trying to show love to everyone- (it’s hard to
do)-so that I can shine for His glory. I also joined a
discipleship group a couple of weeks ago. It’s a
process but the Lord is convicting me and calling me
to press forward, taking His hand on this life
journey.